A Man. And His Blog.

I do not like this show. I cannot. The writers are making it themselves way too easy and they are not risking anything to make the stories or the characters more compelling. No, it all has to be about the investigation and the past relationship between Carrie (Poppy Montgomery) and Al (Dylan Walsh). But other than that, there’s obviously no time left for anything else.

So, this time it was all about dirty and dead cops. As soon as Kelly (Malachy Cleary) was killed, and Al was hot to pursue the investigation and the killer, I knew Internal Affairs could come into play. But that it was such a clichéd and generic plot, that was not even in my playbook. Seriously, since when are IA officers such greasy guys, who can’t smile a single time, and who can’t think of any reason why a cop cannot be a clean one. It’s always the same in crime shows feat. Internal Affairs: Is a cop killed, it must be about a case he was working on, and there must always be a question if he stole money or whatever. Not the cops are dirty, but the story is. It’s time to let the IA twist rest in peace and never use it again.

That Kelly would not be a dirty cop was predictable as hell too. When the writers start so early with the IA plot, it was a question of time, when either AL or Carrie find the clue, which leads them to the real perps and killers. But when it came to that, I lost all interest in the show, I was getting annoyed, and I couldn’t believe what I saw: one clichéd moment after another, one overacted scene after another. It’s like Dylan and Poppy are so bored with the scripts that they overact their scenes on purpose. Especially Poppy and her tragic moment, when she saw Al with Elaine (Annie Parisse) in the hospital. Or Al with the Willard (Gary Basaraba) in front of Kelly’s house – moments which make the show bitter.

A few words to the flashbacks: Why are they still in the show? Besides back story of the couple that never will be they don’t bring anything. They don’t bring information to the current story, and they don’t develop the relationship Al and Carrie had in the past. I already know they were lovers. I don’t need that information in every goddamn episode!

Now, if you can answer me the most important question: Why am I still watching this show? Am I so obsessed with its badness that I have to continue to watch it, just to know that there are bad shows on television? 4.5/10

Evil IA officer is evil

Let's go cellphone shopping. Because this show has nothing else to offer

Damn, the writers don’t make it any easier for me. This show is so goddamn slow-burned, I’m dying while watching the episode. I don’t even know why I’m still watching. Does Poppy Montgomery have such a big appeal to me, or what is going on?

This show is super boring. Most of the time I have forgotten all about the case, when the conclusion comes, and all the connections established during the first 20 minutes are forgotten. The writers try too hard to be in the story that they forget to tell an actual story. Everything must be about the crime, about twisting it around like no one has done before. The writers don’t have time for any private moments within the investigation, and instead focus on delivering one twist after another, which don’t even make sense. Or don’t have anything to do with the episode. The scripts are just not thought through. Which is a shame. And an absolute no-go for TV writers. Except those who work for CBS Paramount (it seems).

The case? Boring. I knew which moments of Carrie’s moments in this episode would be important for the later stage (the people exiting the building, Halsey [Chris Bauer] phoning while Carrie and Al [Dylan Walsh] get their guns back in prison), and I knew that the initials “HH” would be incomplete. Seriously, even a blind man saw that there had to be something between the two Hs, and I wondered why I was thinking about it and not the writers. That’s just goddamn ridiculous and doesn’t make fun, is not entertaining. In addition, I knew that Halsey would be involved in the first moment I saw him behind the gate, but only because his dialog on the phone was audible, and because I know Chris Bauer’s face. You shouldn’t cast well-known TV faces for roles like this in crime procedurals, but that’s a thing I always mention (and no one listens to me). That Ramon (Eden Marryshow) was the killer was just another eyesrolling thing. Why not buying an assassin? Why kidnapping the daughter of a corrections officer to bust him out, so he can kill somebody? Completely implausible…

The introduction of DA Gilroy (Omar Metwally) was interesting though. Here we have somebody, who doubts that Carrie’s talents will help in court, when cases should get to court, and he was a character, who can be seen as a non-believer to her, even though he has seen that she closes cases, and because Al pulled a lot of strings to get her here. Now I wonder if Gilroy is becoming a recurring character, or if this was just a one-time thing. Other than that, the other characters need more time. I was surprised that Nina’s (Daya Vaidya) relationship troubles were mentioned (forced way of including some personal stuff from the characters). And that Carrie sees somewhat a friend in her. 4/10

What the episode title said

And she is hot too ... for her age

Dammit. I want to give this show a chance, and I really wanna like it. Not all crime procedurals are as bad as the bad ones, and I really hope that UNFORGETTABLE won’t be just another generic show, but after three episodes I think this show is not watchable. Well, it is, but not for five years. For a crime procedural, it tries to make its stories so complex, even though they should be simple. Why I say that? Because I haven’t understood anything regarding the murder case here.

What did I actually get? Langley (Stephen Mailer) being murdered, because of his own son, because his son was adopted to another family, and because hotel maid Maria (Victoria Cartagena) was connected to that family. And what had Tom Martin (Ryan O’Nan) to do with all of this, as well as the pharmaceutical company Langley was investigating against? Somehow I was believing that the writers take so many twists and put them into the episode, just to keep the episode going. But that’s just a mistake the writers don’t want to realize. I actually liked how the episode started and that Carrie (Poppy Montgomery) and Al (Dylan Walsh) were investigating against Maria’s lawyer Debi Moser (Linda Emond, recurring?), and how the episode was basically a fight against time or something – for Carrie and Al to uncover the truth behind Maria’s lie and what her son, and what the adoptive parents had to do with the case. But somehow this episode went another direction again and again and again, and didn’t even stop there. Sorry, but I did not like that at all, and I’d wish for the writers to focus on the story, and not the twist. Otherwise I can watch the second half of the episode and totally forget the first half. Because nothing, which was shown in the first half, was necessary for the second half and the conclusion to the murder case. I could have saved at least 25 minutes here, and no one would have given a damn.

In addition, I’m getting annoyed with all that Rachel thing. It’s the third episode of the series, and in the third episode Carrie has to have “nightmare”-ish day dreams about the day her sister got killed and how she saw the face of the killer in the dark. Again it was mentioned that the killer was never found and that Carrie is still looking. Again the writers remind us that this case is still open, and that this story will be hot in the 13th episode, or in the 22th episode, or in both. Damn, how I hate that predictability…

The characters are still not very much likable. Unfortunately, I missed Roe’s (Kevin Rankin) sunglasses this time. It could have been a running gag, but obviously the writers and producers take this show so damn seriously. Now I’m asking myself: Why am I still interested in this show, and why can’t I stop watching? Even after three episodes of complete boredom, I still wanna watch the next episode. What is the reason for my persistence? It can’t be Poppy alone, because she isn’t even a strong actress here… 4/10

See, even the screencaps are boring. This show can't be saved

Sun glasses #3 - this time not on the nose, thus killing the unintended gag

Not an episode, which entertained me very much. In the first quarter, I was annoyed about the fact that Carrie (Poppy Montgomery) was already back to being a detective (and all my hopes of a little ongoing storyline of her becoming a cop again went *boom*), then she was missing a jacket and was instead just wearing a top (her right arm… it looked like she just left the gym and had to pump down). The second quarter didn’t do much for the story, and the second half of the episode was expectedly riddled with stupid twists, so that the story moves forward, as well as bad acting. I don’t know if I should wait for UNFORGETTABLE to become a great show like THE MENTALIST. After all, latter show had some difficulties during the start too.

The most annoying thing about the episode was its inconsistency with the story though. Max (Kyle Catlett) witnessed the murder, and the killer didn’t notice that he dropped the phone at the stairs. I mean, I would hear that from the kitchen… Next: The existence of Max as a witness to the murder was kept low, so the press could not leak it, making the killer know there was a witness. Midway through the episode Cassie mentioned that the news was leaked, and the killer did nothing to keep the child from not talking? I mean, I would either kill the child or leave town or the country, when I hear that somebody witnessed the murder I’ve done. No, don’t call it inconsistencies, call them plot holes! Ridiculous. There weren’t any thoughts wasted of how to make the show more believable, and therefore more thrilling. Of course the actual story was not good enough to be actually interesting. Another thing, which was annoying and which I didn’t like.

The characters haven’t gotten any work either. Even though Carrie meets Al’s current girlfriend Elaine (Annie Parisse), the two are nothing but “colleagues”, who have nothing in common but a guy, and the other detectives are no-names as well. I really don’t know their names so far, and the little plot of Mike (Michael Gaston) shooting somebody and Al mentioning the therapist, was gone even faster than Al was putting those words out of his mouth – another wasted chance of telling a better story in this show. It’s like the writers wanted to be realistic and emotional with that plot, but didn’t know how to actually bring it into the story. At least they are trying. They could try harder though and make their ideas to stories. Or this series becomes even more boring than it already is.

And the acting chops? I just had to see how Nina (Daya Vaidya) was raising her gun in the operating room, and how Carrie was talking to Al (Dylan Walsh) in the office about her first encounter with his new girlfriend. Not convincing, rather cheesy. Not good. That’s how this show currently looks like. 4.5/10

Sun glasses #2 - and it could have been such a great running gag

Guns in the OR: oh my!

Well, figuring that this show defines the CBS network, it was pretty unusual for CBS, because it was nothing new and nothing special. There was nothing interesting in it, I didn’t care much about the characters, the murder of the week was mixed with lame twists and a completely boring conclusion. And the fact that UNFORGETTABLE is not interesting at all is another problem.

But THE MENTALIST started the same way, though Bruno Heller did deliver the Red John story in the pilot. Here, we have only the murder of Rachel (Haley Murphy), and the fact that Carrie (Poppy Montgomery) kinda saw the face of the killer. But other than that we only know that Rachel’s death haunts Carrie until today, and that the case is still open. Of course this murder becomes the ongoing storyline for Carrie and the series, and of course Rachel’s murder will probably be the reason why either Carrie continues to work for the police as a consultant (making the series more a THE MENTALIST than a usual crime series), or becoming a cop again. For the sake of an easygoing storyline, I believe it’s going to be the first one, but when the writers want to tell a story, they should follow Carrie as how she tries to get back to the police force. Because I can’t imagine it’s so easy for her to get back into the force, after she was absent for a long time. I wouldn’t mind, when Carrie wants to get back to work, and has to proof herself, because the job requires it. But since the pilot was already low-cost material in storytelling, why should the writers actually think about going further?

Okay, the murder plot started interesting. At the beginning of the pilot I didn’t expect that Carrie was not a detective, and just a nurse caring for her senile mother. That’s why it was nice to see that Carrie started off as a witness to the murder, and it took a couple of minutes to get her investigating the murder. In addition, it was nice that she wasn’t doing “much” as the star. Just looking back in her past, investigating the crime scene, and finding the knife. Normally, that would have been it for it, so the thing with the picture taken from the wall wasn’t really a twist for me. Especially, when the whole picture thing had nothing to do with the murder. I could have imagined that Wendy (Roxanna Hope) took the picture off the wall, because she was either the killer or romantically involved with the victim (Carrie’s flashback to her time in the victim’s apartment suggested that she might have been gay), but at the end that had nothing to do with the conclusion. Ken (Tom Guiry) didn’t have any reasons why he should have taken the picture, and there was no mention why the picture was gone. Or I missed something, but I don’t think so.

The characters… oh well. I hope the writers weren’t all into showing how Carrie ticks, and completely forget the other characters, because Poppy is the one who carries the show. Because that would be boring after a short while. Even though the introduction of Carrie worked so far, I hope the other ones are getting some development too, or UNFORGETTABLE becomes one of the TV shows, which wants to do great with its characters, but can’t because there is absolutely no development with anybody else than our main heroine and her lover/boyfriend/love interest, who is also our male main character. And I found Al (Dylan Walsh) not even one bit interesting. At least Carrie is interesting enough to follow the show for a couple of episodes more, and Poppy is not that bad of an actress to not follow her career after WITHOUT A TRACE. So, let’s see what UNFORGETTABLE can become after this mediocre pilot. 5.5/10

Carrie has a knife in her hands. When she'd only start to kill with it...

Sun glasses #1