A Man. And His Blog.

Hilarious episode. I never thought a dramatic hostage situation like this could be so funny. I loved the conflict between Tina (Aimee Garcia) and Reggie (Henri Lubatti), and how Craig Silverstein always tried not to lose the humor in this story, even when he is really mad and gets to shoot Scarface’s gun.

Well, maybe the failing relationship was kinda over the top here, but I loved it. Maybe when Mike (Gonzalo Menendez) and Sofia (Camille Saviola) came into the rumble to be taken as hostages was over the top as well, but I loved it. With Reggie and Mike, it was somewhat a real story, because the former can’t stand the failing marriage, probably doesn’t even realize he’s about to be dumped, while the latter is rather a hilarious HT, paired up with a hilarious hostage, who even fakes her heart attack, after everybody didn’t know if she fakes it or has a real one. I just loved it, and I was smiling, when Matt (Ron Livingston) and Emily (Rosemarie DeWitt) were negotiating together, while Tina and Reggie were not talking to each other. Like the back and forth of what Tina wants to have: 50 percent of the company, he is willing to give her even 75 percent, but she just wants 50. Same thing goes with the dolls, where I thought at first it would be the cracking point of the episode. She cried while saying “No” to the dolls, he was confused, but then he blew them all up. It was raining dolls for a scene, and it was funny. Sue me.

Yeah, there wasn’t much of a story. It was all a fight between Reggie and Tina, with Sofia and Mike involved, but the episode didn’t even go far into the Matt/Emily relationship. Instead it was all cliché, starting with their colleagues secretly laughing about it, maybe wondering what went wrong, going over to the discussion about seeing somebody else, going over to Emily’s boring date with Alex (John Livingston, Ron’s brother, or what?), but at the end she and Matt are back in their job and do what they can do best. I was happy that their relationship ended open-ended in this season. There is surely a lot that they will get back together, but they weren’t back together at the end. So, an eventual second season could have delivered a complete different story. But I just laughed about Cheryl (Gina Torres), when the two were arguing about the tactical at the end. As if the tactical approach was just Cheryl’s way of bringing Matt and Emily back together. Hilarious.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t much for a season finale, yet a series finale. It just felt like a normal episode, but with a slight open-ended happy end for the two love birds. 8/10

When she threatens his mother...

... he gets really mad!

It was a good episode with some surprising scenes, but a clichéd antagonist. Furthermore, the ending is again crapped and unlikable. I think it’s too late to hope for a good ending in this show for once, especially since this episode is the penultimate to the series.

So, Nathan (Aldis Hodge) was it all doing to keep the prison running. A kinda interesting story, figuring that this episode went a different way from all the other prison riot stories. With Nate the episode had a charming antagonist during the first half, and an actual threat with Rome (Will Rothhaar) as well, which could have led to an interesting story of good versus bad within the fence, while the FBI is trying to calm the situation from outside the fence. Especially when Espinosa (Benito Martinez) was introduced to be the real antagonist of the episode. Only it didn’t work, and he was antagonized too much and way too brutal that it didn’t look good. I really wanted to see a standoff situation within the fence, for the FBI having to change their approach. The writers always managed to change the situation during a crisis, so why wasn’t it possible here?

Furthermore, I didn’t like the troubles between Matt (Ron Livingston) and Emily (Rosemarie DeWitt) this time. Of course their (temporary) break-up had to come some time in the series, and of course they would be in a disagreement, after the beginning of the episode showed them evaluating themselves, and Matt could completely trust Emily and would never have an argument with his partner on the job. So, count me in on the prepared ones, when Matt wanted to have a break, because he went in over his head during the job, went over the line, went too far, and actually was on Nathan’s side.

Which brings me to the next thing: I couldn’t believe that Matt was on Nathan’s side so fast. It had something to do with Espinosa as well, since Matt was hating his guts from the beginning. A few more logical character decisions would have been great, because what I got here wasn’t really buyable. But it brought me the nice conflict between Matt and Nathan, as well as the twist of Nathan being the good guy. There aren’t much TV shows or movies out there, where the bad guy turns out to be the good guy, and it’s always refreshing to see something like it. It gets the story to the viewers with a message.

And finally: Lia (Raquel Alessi) is part of the story! I never talk about her character, because she always only has 20 seconds of screentime, but I just liked how Matt pulled her into his schemes, and made her break some laws. Unfortunately, Lia is still a forgettable character, which didn’t bring the writers to invest more time in that part of the story. 7/10

Average episode. I had the feeling the writers wanted to explore an exceptional story for once in the show, but I think they didn’t manage to put something interesting in it. But at least it worked, when the focus was shifted from Matt/Emily to Cheryl (Gina Torres) and Sam (Jeffrey D. Sams).

I don’t know, but the first minutes of the episode were more interesting than the rest. The viewers were presumably told that the kidnapping had something to do with the money laundering case against Burke (Curtis Armstrong), but then it was just about the money. So, the first minutes were literally just there to introduce us to the characters of the episode, without introducing the actual story. It was intriguing that Dennis (John Billingsley) seemed to be part of a bigger story, since his identity had to be kept a secret in court, and it was intriguing that both Burke and Sam were introduced, which brought me to think that there was a larger issue in this episode. But no, it was all about the money, and the money laundering case was pretty much over after 15, 20 minutes.

Even more, the second half of the episode wasn’t really thrilling. I didn’t care about the past between Cheryl and Sam, because I knew it would only be a topic for this episode, and be forgotten in the next one. I didn’t care that Sam was involved in the kidnapping, which was pretty much obvious from the second act on (like Emily [Rosemarie DeWitt] said). And I didn’t care how Cheryl treated her ex, when she found out. Though it was a nice moment, when she put her fist in his face and even drew the gun. But the story didn’t turn out to be better from that point on, since Matt and Emily were absolutely not part of the episode. They could have had a break here, and no one would have noticed. That the writers tried to connect Cheryl’s past with Matt and Emily’s current relationship in the bureau was nice, but nothing came out of it. The two weren’t even talking about it, instead the episode continued to focus on Cheryl and Sam.

All in all, not an episode I liked. It’s nice when the writers try different kinds of stories, but they all have to be interesting to get me hooked. Otherwise, a conspiracy-like episode with dirty agents like this is actually more boring than it sounds here. 5.5/10

The show and its torture elements...

Cheryl can be kick-ass too

Another “just alright” episode. The story was interesting, it brought a lot of background story for Emily (Rosemarie DeWitt), but again, the conclusion was completely boring and totally blew. When the writers establish the villain of the episode to be an intelligent bastard, who doesn’t have any lines, the ending made Tobin (John M. Jackson) pretty much just a lunatic, who wanted to die for four years, but didn’t have the balls to kill himself just then.

The only good thing about the episode was how the story developed the relationship between Matt (Ron Livingston) and Emily. They are a couple, but STANDOFF had very few scenes, where they were on a date, had a discussion about their relationship, or were in love in front of the camera. So, it is always refreshing, when the off-screen romance carries over into the fictional world, making the episode mostly about how the couple treats a personal case than having just a thrilling case with lots of talking. That’s why I loved the introduction of Emily’s sister Allison (Susan Gibney), and why she never talked about her sister. It would have been interesting to see how this part of Emily’s back story would have had developed in a second season. Because their final talk at the end of the episode was quite nice – though a cliché, after the two didn’t have the perfect sistership in the past.

Now to the story. There wasn’t much of a standoff this time. Instead, thanks to it all being about Emily, it was more an investigation of Whodoesit, instead of talking somebody down. There were a few short moments, when the episode became just like another STANDOFF episode, but at the end it was unlikely most of the series – which is good, since the short and only season actually delivers different plots, but this time the difference wasn’t really doing it. The kidnapping was just a ploy to get Emily involved, and the actual thrilling story of blaming Emily for everything in the press only had a couple of episodes. I loved the moment, when the press got the sex tape, but it was only a tiny story for one minute, and that’s it. How Oliver’s (Sterling K. Brown, Tanya Wright) parents were about to blame Emily was great too, but that was just part of the first act, so that the story had a beginning. At the end, the writers haven’t used much of the interesting story, and instead chose to have Allison in the focus during the second half.

Back then, when STANDOFF was in first viewing, I would have hoped for some development to come out of this story (now that both Emily and Matt know something about each other’s past). But I don’t believe it will ever happen – and wouldn’t have, when STANDOFF would have been renewed. 6/10

Emily is meeting her past

Matt is meeting family

The episode was alright, the story was kinda crappy, the conclusion was kinda lame, but the beginning was cool. Sometimes I really see how a good idea turns out to be a rather average episode, and the idea turns to shit during the 45 minutes.

So, Warren (William Russ) has four wives, reminds be of BIG LOVE, wants to go to heaven, but not without creating the apocalypse first. Fine with me, but somehow the first half of the episode had a major plot hole legal-wise. Ruth (Saxon Trainor) was saying it in a moment, when she was talking to Emily (Rosemarie DeWitt): They have done nothing, and they want to be left alone. Legally, they really have done nothing at all, and the fact of Warren planning something big was just after hearsay from Natalie (Bree Turner). So, the FBI didn’t even have proportional cause to actually follow or pursue this “family”, despite Warren’s head on the FBI most wanted list. Okay, maybe that’s just nitpicking from my side, but the only reason the FBI was pursuing the RV was Warren, not the wives. Yet the writers tried to let the FBI stop Warren with the help of his wife, while the rest of the situation wasn’t even clear in that moment.

Other than that, the rest of the episode was completely okay. I liked how difficult it was for Emily to get through Warren and his “beliefs”, and I liked how difficult it was for Natalie to talk to her mother after all what happened. I felt just a bit uneasy with this whole wives crap, and how one part was scared as hell – Hahna (Shanna Collins), who turned from loving wife to the little girl with angst and doubts about everything, and all within a couple of hours – while the other one was ready to be killed for the cause. I wasn’t believing much in it, since it was just part of the episode, and the back story was missing. At the end, I didn’t even know why Warren was on the most wanted list.

The thing with the rigged RV… well, I don’t know about that. Figuring that Warren was somebody, whom God speaks through, he surely didn’t behave like a prophet. No one knew about his apocalypse plan (I surely would have expected for his wives to know), and the whole thing looked like revenge to me. So, Warren wasn’t even the prophet the writers wanted me to believe. 5.5/10

Well, she's dead now

The criminal activities of three women

Interesting episode. Again the writers try to reinvent the series, and again they kinda managed to do it. Two hostage situations in the episode, and both were interesting. A tiny back story for Matt (Ron Livingston), which could have brought him a bit closer to Emily (Rosemarie DeWitt), if the writers would have used the new information Emily got for her character. And finally there was something big in the stories, which could have been even bigger, if it would have been part of a serialized story within the season. Who knows, maybe it is, but I don’t believe it.

So, first the bank robbers. I was disappointed that the story was over so soon, and that the writers have chosen the easiest way out of the story. Though I found some of the twists interesting, the ending was just a silly cop-out, because the writers wanted to focus on Neal (Wayne Pére). I was liking the episode, when Matt was out to rescue his regular, while Emily had to try to get through the bank robbers, who are not just pros, but definitely a hard nut to crack. I really wanted to see how Emily tried it, and how she would eventually succeed. But no, the bank robbers tricked the FBI, but didn’t trick them enough to make them stupid. Like I said, the twist of the number of hostage upped from 24 to 26 was nice, and it somehow saved the story. That Emily would make a deal with the bank robbers, and they actually spoke up was ridiculous though. The story needed an ending, so the writers took the easy way out.

At the end, lucky they did, because Neal’s delusions were interesting. I loved his back story with Matt, and how Matt eventually failed to talk down Neal, after he killed Bruce (Christopher Bradley). It was a little interesting, though predictable, twist, and it brought the story into a new direction, which I liked as well. When it was clear that Meredith (Christina Chang) would use her talents to make Neal shoot himself, the hostage taker/hostage situation was turning again (it somehow seemed to turn around often in this show), and Matt and Emily were asking themselves who is actually the HT and the hostage. I love those tiny twists, and I wouldn’t mind, when the writers use them a bit more often.

I just would have wished to see a bit more conflict between Jeff (Scott Lawrence) and Matt, or the LAPD versus the FBI. There was something in there, which I missed in the second half. Likewise with the Golden case. It could be an interesting ongoing plot for Matt, who is now involved in all of it, because of the events in this episode. And who knew that a woman like Meredith uses such a scheme to kill her husband? Especially since the back story was missing here…

By the way: I was loving the TERMINATOR reference in the middle of the episode. So, Neal was a mental patient in Pescadero, and at the same time the information was given, you had a little part of the TERMINATOR theme running. I don’t know if it was on purpose though… 7.5/10

Matt is multiphoning

When the crazy guy gets crazied by a crazy bitch

A surprisingly good episode, even though the episode had a few holes in the middle after the twist. But it was great to see that the writers use some twists for the hostage storylines, and are not tired to take stories from classic movies. Okay, I noticed it here for the first time, but I now know the writers have watched PHONE BOOTH.

The twist was great, but it didn’t bring much of a different story. Though I liked that Paul was just another hostage and not the hostage taker, the writers could have done far more with the smuggler ring in Paul’s ear, or with Paul being the hostage in the situation. Instead Paul was pretty much out of the episode, as soon as the twist was revealed,and the thrill went completely by, focusing on the aspect of the real villain without focusing on Paul again. Because I didn’t really buy that Paul was out of the game, just because he was wounded. And I don’t think that a terrorist cell, who smuggles people, is smuggling Asian people into the US -where was the back story in that? Especially with the woman, who wanted her son with her. Somehow I didn’t get why the smuggling should have been considered a terrorist attack with the characters.

Paul shooting Lana was somewhat unnecessary. I could imagine he got the order in his ear, but there was absolutely no sense in shooting Lana. There was no reason why Paul should shoot her, and there was no reason why the woman wanted Paul to shoot her. So I reallt don’t know why Lana was shot, which is why that scene was mostly for the shock, but bears no logic within the story. Furthermore, the “listen what I have to say” from Paul comes a bit iollogical too. The woman, as clever as she might be as a low-profile terrorist, wasn’t she noticing at this point that Paul might give some information about the people behind the situation? I as a big bad in Paul’s ear would have grown completely suspicious, when Paul said something like “listen what I have to say”. So, there’s no logic as well. Or there’s just a story missing.

But when Paul came with his mother, and Emily and Matt realized the whole thing, I was reminded by PHONE BOOTH. There, Forest Whitaker’s character learned/figured out the sniper, and wanted Colin Farrell’s character to know that his “lawyer is on it’s way” – meaning Farrell’s character knew that the police knows about the sniper now. Same thing here: Paul finally got his hope back, when the FBI “talked to his mother”, meaning they know about the people behind the situation. A nice little twist, which was fun to see. But it didn’t help to let me forget the predictability of the first third. After the teaser, I knew that either smuggled people or drugs would be in the container. So, the whole discussion about WMD went by me in a freight train.

The little Quantico plot was okay. It didn’t take much time, and it didn’t really develop Matt’s and Emily’s relationship. But I liked his “don’t go”s at the end, and that he said he loves her. A bit touching, and as long as the writers still rely on the romance in the series, I don’t care how “okay” those little plots are. 7.5/10

I don’t really know. It was a different kind of standoff this time, with a different kind of story, and with a different approach to things. It didn’t feel like STANDOFF, but I liked the episode because of it. Even though some logic was thrown out of the window for this hour.

I wondered when Emily (Rosemarie DeWitt) and Matt (Ron Livingston) would be hostages, and had to talk themselves out of the situation from within. But it would have been a better story, when the writers would have decided to let them talk themselves out – because they didn’t do much to save their lives. Instead more than half of the episode was a standoff between the FBI and the DEA against some evil-looking Mexicans with guns, ready to kill everybody. Not much of a story here, not even a back story to explain the actions of the characters. It already begins with the question what Felix’s (Lombardo Boyar) back story was, why the DEA wanted him dead, and what Matt and Emily had to do in Arizona, despite being California-based agents. I know that the FBI can investigate through the state borders, but the episode didn’t even give something of an explanation of why the two were trying to handle the hostage situation in the beginning. In addition, I don’t even know what Felix did prior to this episode. Absolutely no information – information about a cartel was the only thing the writers gave us. Which was basically nothing.

Second, most of the events were out of character. Emily decides to cross border, deciding to act against all kinds of laws. Emily just shoots Felix, so she can have some leverage. Emily is completely into killing Felix in a few moments, just because he beat her with her own playbook. I think that was clearly out of character, or there were a few episodes missing between this and the last one. At least I could understand Matt’s actions in the situation – after all, he seemed to have been the only one with wits in the house and with a plan to get out of the situation alive.

Third, there was a plot missing: The brutality of the ATF agents against Felix was interesting – so interesting that I was thinking the episode would transform into Felix being taken hostage by the ATF, and Matt and Emily were in the middle of it. But that story never came, instead the Mexicans did…

Fourth, the conclusion. So, Felix slept with Ramon’s (Reynaldo Gallegos) wife, which is why Ramon suddenly decided to let Felix go back to jail, and free the FBI agents. I don’t know, but that kinda seemed out of character as well. It was a really shitty ending, which came too fast. As if the writers needed a way out of this standoff, because the episode was already 40 minutes in, and they didn’t want to handle the story even more in an illogical way, with Mat and Emily somehow finding a way to talk themselves out. Sorry, but I didn’t like that last bit.

But the episode was still … well, good. STANDOFF wants to be an action show now. It could work, when the characters don’t act completely false. 7/10

Matt is pissed about the events

And even Emily is not happy about the situation

Okay, over is the streak of good STANDOFF episodes. This was just an average one, which turned out to be annoying at some time. While the last episode was a good example of how you connect the drama of a situation within two separate storylines, this episode showed perfectly, how you can write a complete character to death within 40 minutes.

The idea of having an average citizen being the negotiator was neat. Having Angela (Kym Whitley) as the hostage negotiator was neat as well, especially since she seemed completely overloaded with emotions, as well as her bossy and cocky behavior. So, I was pretty much hooked during he first two acts, when Angela was secretly ruling the hostage situation, and both Matt (Ron Livingston) and Emily (Rosemarie DeWitt) had to stay out of this one. But then the unfortunate thing came: The writers suggested that Angela might be involved in the hostage situation, then Angela became bossy and cocky, didn’t care about the hostages and instead only about herself, and at the end she did another 180 and did everything what the FBI wanted her to do. All of a sudden, she lied to Barry, even though she didn’t want to, and she accepted that Baron (Joel Bissonnette) is a dead soul after killing Tim (Jack Impellizzeri). There were so many turns with her character, I couldn’t count them all. It made her character annoying, and it made the episode in the middle part unbearable.

While I didn’t like Angela as a character, I liked how the story connected her emotions with Baron’s as the bad guy. There were moments in the episode, when even I had hopes left for a happy end in the hostage situation, but since the episode was all about Angela and not the hostage situation, hopes were lost from the beginning. During the last scene, I was believing that she cared about Baron and the whole situation, which was the first and only time I did that in the episode.

The rest of the episode was lame though. I didn’t care much about Matt and Emily’s relationship stuff, and if I didn’t know that this episode was originally one of the earlier ones, I would have wondered why suddenly everybody in the unit is talking about the two, after the writers didn’t go into the relationship at all. But it showed that the agents are still somewhat talking to each other, and that they might be friends outside of the office. Was it actually the first time in the series, that Leah (Raquel Alessi) talked to somebody about something else than the hostage situation of the episode? 5.5/10

Angela is about to get bossy to a hostage taker

A little action scene for Cheryl

Holy cow! Don’t tell me the series is actually improving. Second good episode in a row, and I loved this one even more than the last one. Maybe it’s because of the story, which is a mixture of me relating to it and extremely current, when it comes to mirroring real-world events.

Hostage taking based on bullying in school is always a great storyline used in entertainment, and I mostly go into those topics with decency, respect and the sense of meeting and understanding the actions and choices of the characters. Because not so long ago, I left school, and there were days, when I was bullied – not that heavy, like it was depicted here, but I could understand and relate. Which makes the episode in all more relatable and therefore better. And the other good thing about it was that the dramatization of the situation worked well this time. It seemed to be the first time in STANDOFF, that it worked well.

So, it all began with Cary (Josh Zuckerman) and his plan of getting revenge from his bullies, and I must say that the first two acts were really thrilling because of it. You know it was just the first part of the episode and that something had to happen to keep the viewers glued to the television; and you could have known that the mystery surrounding the fourth hostage taker would probably lead to the twist in the middle or at the end of the episode. But until that moment came, the episode really was entertaining and thrilling. When Owen (Noel Fisher) was revealed to be the mastermind behind it, and when it was all about him and how he wanted to be punished for his mother’s death, the writers gave us a second storyline. The first (revenge for bullying) was ended, when Cary wanted to give up, leading to the second storyline (Owen and his mother), when Owen was taking charge of the hostage situation. Yes, both storylines only fit together, because Owen was one of the hostage taker, and even though it seems a bit illogical that Owen would take those kind of drastic measures to get his punishment, the episode was working, because it worked two completely unrelated storylines during the same event. And despite them being unrelated, they worked because they were thrilling and dramatic.

Needless to say that I liked Emily’s (Rosemarie DeWitt) connection with the case, and how she was understanding Owen (and Cary in the first half of the episode). Even more, I loved how Matt (Ron Livingston) went into the negotiation part at the end, when he transformed into a bully. Like in the last episode, when Emily was talking down Anya with the rape story, Matt took the worst part of the HT’s life to break him emotionally down, to give up. That kinda shows the writers don’t really know how to end the hostage situations, before the episode is over (instead relying on the same method over and over), but as long as the emotional part of it is still working, I don’t mind. And the scene with Matt and Owen really was great.

Now I’m kinda hoping that STANDOFF will hold on to this quality. Best episode so far? Hell yes. Thank the drama for it! 8/10

Welcome to the live feed of killing students!

Owen is getting all cracked up