Law and Order: PSI Unit (Paranormal and Supernatural Investigations?) ...Sorry, I couldn’t think of something particularly witty. The Boys obviously didn’t watch crime shows growing up, and it’s caught up to them.
9.4
First I must admit that I’m very surprised at the number of perfect 10’s I saw when scanning the previously-written reviews. Is there some crooked figure skating judging going on or something? Hehe. Just kidding. I wasn’t disappointed in this episode at all, I quite enjoyed it; I just found it to be more towards average and less towards exemplary. But – to each his own.
I do have to say that the introduction was quite refreshing. The entire concept, come to think of it, of this episode was deviant from the formulaic norm, which was nice. Although not too complex, especially compared to some things that other television shows do (which I think are primarily just to try to BE complex, rather than out of any aesthetic purpose), I was excited that the teaser wasn’t the first incident, then the boys’ discussion as to whether the case would be paranormal, then a second incident, exposition, etc. I think this is sounding crankier than I mean it to be; obviously I adore this show, especially in the sense that I basically get a mini-horror movie every week, but change can be good. I have lots of thoughts on change herein, but more on that later. Another major aspect of this episode that I realized differed from the norm was that the Boys didn’t fight directly against the Things that Go Bump. There are few in which this is the case – “The Benders” and “Bloodlust” are the only two that are coming to mind right now, and only the latter is another example of the Thing that Goes actually helping out.
One minor complaint that I did have against this episode is that as it did break out of its comfort zone and came closer to the standard “cop drama,” I couldn’t help thinking of parallels. (I just thought of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which I thought basically played out like a spooky Law & Order episode, but anyway...) This parallelism really only came into play during the scenes in which Linda Blair’s character was questioning Sam. My mind, quite subconsciously, mind you, was analyzing the script/direction/atmosphere/mise en scène/what have you of the interrogations and comparing it to The Closer and all the trappings thereof, against which the interrogation just seemed to fall a little flat. However, I’ll let that slide because I liked Linda Blair’s performance, especially within the Ashland flat.
So I mentioned change earlier. I’ve been thinking about this for a while (I wrote a blog on it a little while back, actually) and I am currently of two minds on this issue. The issue is, of course, how The Boys portray themselves (according to the endlessly witty reviewer at twop, as “Lying Liars who Lie”) and their complete disregard for any type of common sense while dealing with a crime scene, which seems to be a result from never seeing any cop dramas as children and Sam completely forgetting anything about criminal investigation he learned in pre-law.
The first side of this vaguely reflects what I wrote in my review of “No Exit,” talking about how in a drama, the characters have to have those illogical flaws in order to make the story move. Because The Boys forget about any type of common sense in trespassing through crime scenes, covering their tracks, etc. (I can’t really comprehend why it would be too hard to put on a pair of latex gloves, myself), the writers have the possibility of including episodes such as “The Usual Suspects,” and showing an overarching evolution of how The Boys have to deal with real life problems. This should be good, no?
The opposing side is due to my personal reaction to this. While change is obviously necessary, there is that part of me that desires for the series to remain episodic, user-friendly, and on the air (I’m just thinking about Farscape right now...). It’s obviously possible to have over-arching stories, even with this – if I use Farscape as an example of the former, then Stargate SG-1 seems like a good example of the latter. I fear that if there is too much talk of these ramifications of previous choices the Brothers have made, then the series as a whole could quickly get to a point of being too “top heavy” for its own good.
Completely arguing against that last paragraph, though – why shouldn’t Supernatural become top heavy? I myself have complained about the apparent “dumbing-down” of television to the public, most likely for the reason that I just wrote. “Audiences don’t want to let go of the characters they love.” That is true for me, but thankfully I also have the little English major part of me who revels in the Shakespearean “and then everyone dies” philosophy of storytelling, so I can get past that fear of change.
The other reason that I am leery of these episodes in which we see how The Boys have to deal with ramifications is that it is too reminiscent of real life, in which we obviously have to deal with the consequences of our actions. To me, it comes close to almost breaking the fourth wall (the double expression of the attempt was on purpose, for the record). It removes me from enjoying the drama because I start thinking – how long will they be able to run from the law? How could this drama possibly be resolved? The only possibility I constructed would be if they were able to involve themselves in a Supernatural occurrence at the presidential level, thus securing themselves a full pardon. Again, I think this is a result of the intelligence of Supernatural as a whole; it’s not constraining itself to just the creepy-horror genre, branching into cop drama and the “heist” drama, if you will – and just because those are not the modus operandi, the change in storytelling are jarring enough that they interrupt the suspension of disbelief.
