Since I’m all snowed in this evening, I thought I’d switch gears for a moment. Normally, I’m a bit of a curmudgeon, sad but true. I rant and rave and find fault with movies, television, books, games… pretty much anything and everything. But I figure that nows a good time to shed a bit of light on some of the television shows that I do enjoy. Heck, seeing as it is the season of top 10 lists, I’ll even thrown my own into the seasonal slew. So here they are… Counting down from 10 to the number 1 television show of the fall (at least as far as my house is concerned).

10: Numb3rs (CBS)

While I don’t particularly like where the show is heading at the moment, the individual episodes are really well done. I expect this to fall off significantly once shows like Burn Notice, Monk, and Psych are back in the mix. I particularly like the relationship between the brothers, and up until recently it was a great source for tension. Now, however, it seems like each of the primary characters have very self-focused storylines and it has lost much of the appeal it had early on.

9: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox)

Barely holding on to its top 10 status. This is a rare case for me where I find the over-arching storyline far more interesting than individual episodes, and for that reason alone I am hanging on. The question is, will the increasingly evident contradictions make me let go before they reach the end of the arc?

8: Leverage (TNT)

Just a couple shows old, but has a great deal of promise. Kind of a reprisal of the old A-Team theory of television. It isn’t really anything new, but man is the dialogue well written. That alone will keep me tuning in for now. Hopefully it won’t become too formulaic in it’s execution.

7: Eleventh Hour (CBS)

I wasn’t expecting to like this as much as I do, although I really want Jacob Hood to look at a bad guy and say “In what world did you think you could ever beat me?” I think the writing is smart and the humor terrifically dry, but I wonder how long that appeal will last. Thankfully, they are starting to let Hood explore a little more and I like the direction they are taking his characterization.

6: Sons of Anarchy (FX)

This  is the surprise of the season for me. Being an avid motorcycler, I was more than ready to not like this at all, but I found myself looking forward to each episode. I think they went a little overboard towards the end of the season, but for the most part everything about this was strong. The acting, in particular, was outstanding, and really I should not have been suprised with as strong a cast as they have (Katay Sagal, Ron Perlman, Jay Karnes, Kim Coates, etc.) Here’s hoping they keep the fires buring!

5: Fringe (Fox)

I am happy to report that I was oh-so-very-wrong about this show. All the same, I watch Fringe for one reason and one reason only… John Noble. His characterization of Dr. Walter Bishop is fantastic, and overcomes the other shortcomings. Honestly, conspiracy based shows are starting to wear me out but the episodes are of Fringe are really strong on their own. Add in the good Doctor and the relationship he struggles to build/maintain with other characters (and even himself), and I’ll keep tuning in  to see where those characters take me.

4: Life (NBC)

I have been a fan of Damian Lewis since I first saw him in Band of Brothers. There is something quirky and puzzling and fun about the character he created for this show, and he is supported by some wonderful writing. It doesn’t just stop there, though, as the relationships that surround him are just a joy to watch. There has been a bit of a tendancy for Damians character to be a bit myopic when it comes to the over-arching storyline, and while I think it is justified, I also think it has, at points, detracted from certain episodes. For the most part, however, the arc is more of a backdrop for the episodes, tying them together, but keeping the focus squarly on the episodic. Really nice working being done all around.

3: The Shield (FX)

I need to come clean and state that I have yet to watch the final two epidodes, and have heard through the grapevine that I am going to be severely disappointed. Ahhh well. That still doesn’t take away that this has been one of the strongest shows on television for, what, 5 years now? Something like that. I love the anti-hero aspect of it, and wish we would see more seriously flawed protagonists regardless of genre (something it shares with the other FX offering, Sons of Anarchy). It’s the final season of the show, and I’ll be sad to see it go. I just hope I wont be too sad after watching the last 2 episodes (please don’t outright spoil them for me )

2: NCIS (CBS)

Something has to be said for a show that has lasted as long as this one. I can’t think of another television show that has had such consistency. USA network, much to my enjoyment, has been running 3 episodes (reruns of course) in a row right over my dinner schedule, and I gladly will watch an old NCIS than any new episode of numbers 3 through 10. The writing is smart and funny, and the relationships that have been built up over the years simply cannot be touched by anything else on television, including the #1 show.

And finally…

1: Pushing Daisies (ABC)

I cannot begin to say how disappointing it is that ABC is pulling the plug on this wonderful show. Everything about PD is top notch. It has an absolute brilliant blend of comedy, drama, and fantasy that is well maintained from episode to episode at all levels of the production. The one thing that sets it apart from everything else, however, is how well the players work with and off each other. Their dialogue and timing are absolutely impeccable. PD is truly an ensemble cast that has become so much more than any one of the individual actors. In many ways it’s a throw back to how the 30 minute sit-coms used to be, with the focus not on on a single actor, but on the show itself. Everything from the art direction, set construction, acting, writing… everything is focused on the world of The Pie Hole, and it just flat out works in more ways I can hope to count.

Notable Omissions

Here are some notable omissions… some surprised me, some didn’t. Some I saw coming last year.

Eli Stone (ABC): Dropped like a rock this season. Turned its back on what made it unique and became just another lawyer show.
The Cleaner (A&E): I kind of expected this to be higher. It’s a solid show, but it started to feel really repetitive.
House (Fox): Saw this coming… started to bore me last season… there’s only so many miraculous last-minute saves I can handle.
CSI:Whatever (CBS): I think there is a CSI on every night of the week now, yes?

Any others I miss?

It appears that Tim Kring has sent out an email to select bloggers (not me, and no, I wouldn’t expect him to send me one… small fish syndrome, and all) apologizing for the comments he made in the article I linked to in this post. You can read his note in full here (among other places, no doubt). I’ll let you go there and read it and make up your own mind about it before I comment.

Read it? Yes? ok…

I think the first commenter (Anna) to that linked post has it pretty much right… It’s damage control, and it just reeks of insincerity. I’d actually lay odds that the studio called him on his cell, asked him if he was out of his mind, and demanded that he apologize. I mean, he says his quote was mangled, but it’s pretty damn tough to mangle:

So [watching it] on air is related to the saps and the dips**ts who can’t figure out how to watch it in a superior way.

But in the end, I really don’t care much. It’s frustrating that a TV show that was so good has turned so sour. I’m sure he’s frustrated about it as well, and that his comments were born out of that frustration. But the simple fact of the matter is that Kring has demonstrated that he doesn’t really care about his fans, regardless of what he says in his apology. I’d actually wager that the concern he has for the show itself is somewhat feigned, but the artist in me finds that difficult to believe so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on that one.

Whether he cares about it or not, though, the bottom line is that ‘Heroes has gone downhill for over 20 episodes now. That much is an undeniable given. Is it still good television? I’d call it borderline, at best. Winter is perhaps the one thing that will save it as the northern climes retreat indoors to escape the colder weather. Assuming I don’t run out of DVR space, I’ll probably still record it, but I likely wont get around to watching it again until next summer, and it will be the first thing to go if Lost , Monk, and Burn Notice episodes start stacking up come January.

On the other side of the fence from the Cut List, 2 of my favorite shows have been canned, along with 1 I was rather ambivalent about. (info taken from E!Online and CinemaBlend).

Eli Stone, which I admittedly find less interesting this year than I did last year, is still solid television. But really, I kind of saw this coming when the show finally defined the weird, utterly WHAM!tastic visions that Eli was experiencing as part of a brain aneurysm. And now that it is on a (comparatively) realistic drama track, the “been there, seen that” factor has risen exponentially. Gone are the laugh-out-loud moments of uncomfortable commiseration with Eli. Instead, the uncomfortable moments revolve around unresolved emotions and potential love triangles. Ahh well.

Pushing Daisies, however, was about nine different kind of genius that I will absolutely miss. It’s quirkiness survived a relatively weak season-ending cliffhanger, and this season’s storyline is extremely strong. The only plus is that it won’t be a mid-season cancellation. This was easily my favorite show not only of this season, but of last season as well.

My Own Worst Enemy got the axe as well, but I hadn’t really made up my mind about it. I liked the premise, sort of enjoyed the execution, but ultimately thought that it could have, should have been better than it was. I could never really figure out what it was that turned me off about it, but something just never really clicked with me. I would have likely watched the whole season just to see where they went with the storyline, but it would have been on the fence the entire time.

1. Knight Rider
2. Sanctuary
3. Heroes

After a brilliant first season, this series has been a steaming pile of convoluted suckage. This alone is reason enough to stop watching, and I have been on the brink of canceling the scheduled recording after each new episode. But then the producers got axed a couple wees back, so I thought I’d hang in there and see if, miracle of miracle, they somehow managed to do something interesting with the change. And then I stumble across an IGN interview with Tim Kring, the series creator, where he says:

“What was I thinking?” noting that a serialized show is “an absolute bear to do.” Kring said he’s also finding, “It’s a very flawed way of telling stories on network television right now, because of the advent of the DVR and online streaming. The engine that drove [serialized TV] was you had to be in front of the TV [when it aired]. Now you can watch it when you want, where you want, how you want to watch it, and almost all of those ways are superior to watching it on air. So [watching it] on air is related to the saps and the dips**s who can’t figure out how to watch it in a superior way.”

Ermmm… did you just call your loyal viewers dipshits and saps? You did, didn’t you? Even though I am one of the viewers who watches on DVR, I find myself rather offended at this. Well, Mr. Kring, let me tell you why I am one of the viewers who watches via DVR… Your show has sucked for 2 years! If it was any good, I wouldn’t mind giving you an hour of my time once a week, but, quite frankly, you haven’t earned it. You have been more focused on turning Heroes into a branding opportunity with merchandising and comic book spinoffs and an active online presence than creating quality entertainment.

I knew the story was in trouble when the audience was tasked with creating the next big hero. What I didn’t know was that, really, there is no story:

Kring said no final ending for Heroes has been conceived, noting, “We didn’t have an island to get off of.” On top of that, Kring noted that “My original idea was more of an anthological vibe to it, where you regenerate the characters.”

Kring explained he had thought they could almost completely replace the characters each season, remarking, “I was primarily fascinated by the origin story. Once the original story is over, and the character has no more questions about what’s happening or existential drama, then the questions become just about plot, and then it becomes harder for me personally to connect to.”

Someone pass poor Mr. Kring a hanky. He has a hard job. Not like those schmucks over at Lost. Their job is easy! They don’t have dipshits and saps watching their show! They actually have a story behind their story!

No wonder your show sucks, Kring. Grow up a little and take some responsibility for what you created, or get out of the driver’s seat and let someone who is actually interested in telling a story steer for a while.

1. Knight Rider
2. Sanctuary

After the 2 hour special last spring, I had high hopes for Knight Rider. I thought the special was quite well done and showed alot of promise.

After just two episodes, however, I have removed the new series from the DVR queue. It is, quite simply, the most horribly written show I have seen in… well… in a long damn time. The dialogue is awful, the pacing horrendous, and the 2 plots I watched insanely predictable. Oh, and the super-car capabilities they have instilled in Kit are utterly asinine. I’m not even going to give the show a graphical rating because I neglected to make an icon representing the shards of a shattered coffee cup scattering across the floor. (Hmm… that actually sounds like a neat idea for an animated icon. I have a Must Read category… perhaps I’ll do that for a Must Avoid category).

And there you have it. My shortest review ever.

No time for a review yet (and besides… I haven’t really made up my mind about it) but I did want to comment on one thing…

What the hell is up with the chromed 3-d block letters announcing the general setting when the scene shifts?

Dumb.

It’s a little game I play about every 4 months. Usually it’s spurred by me scheduling to record something and being forced to choose, as I already have two other things being recorded at that particular time slot. I make the choice, then decide to flip through the “To Record” list and start deleting stuff.

This time, though, I started writing down everything I was keeping. What’s more, as a complete afterthought, I decided to rank them and try and figure out what my favorite show on the list is. And there’s a bunch of them. Some of them I think have been canceled or have run their course and disappeared. I left the ones I wasn’t sure of on the list only because I am too busy (aka lazy) to Google them and find out if they have actually been dropped. A couple are obscure things I don’t even remember setting to record but wound up really liking the show. How many of them will I actively watch? Maybe the top 10 or so, although I’m sure I’ll be 2-3 episodes behind everything except for the top 3 by the end of October.

So, without further ado, I give you my list of the best shows on TV, and a quick explanation of why I like them. Or not… some shows I like for no reasonable explanation. Oh… and I find it interesting to see where the big four networks fall on my list. No real surprise there, but I think it’s significant. Perhaps the powers that be over there should take a gander outside their own little world of recycled Reality Shows and Cop Shows, and Lawyer dramas. Feel free to chime in with your own additions or disagreements.

The Cleaner (A&E) and The First 48 (A&E)
These are the only two on the list I haven’t made time to check out yet. Honestly, I can’t even remember what intrigued me about them, but I have at least three or four episodes of each already recorded and waiting me to get down to the T’s.

1. Burn Notice (USA)
This show is just plain fun. It is, I think, the best and most consistent writing on TV at the moment, and has remained so from season one into season two. I think they are getting a bit off-track with the increased dramatic focus on Michael’s mother, but it is still a tertiary storyline at best so everything is currently on track in sunny Miami.

2. Doctor Who (SciFi)
Once a fan of the Doctor, always a fan. I could have put this up at number one, but the switch in sidekicks has felt a bit flat for me this season. There are, however, major developments brewing with that ongoing storyline, and I am really anxious to see where they lead.

3. Monk (USA)
Tony Shalhoub has created the single greatest character on TV today. I suppose it’s the actor in me that loves to watch him work more than anything else. The quality of the writing seems to be getting a little inconsistent, but overall it’s smart, funny television. (RIP Stanley Kamel).

4. Saving Grace (TNT)
Holly Hunter. I think that says enough, really. She is simply phenomenal as Grace Hanadarko and Leon Rippy as her Last Chance Angel named Earl is just wonderful. The writers have worked a wonderful blend of humor, sexual tension, and drama throughout each episode. I think what I like most about it is that Holly really is an “everywoman” kind of character and can be simultaneously endearing, pathetic, charming, and frightening. It is the best straight drama on TV, and easily the best “cop show” to hit the tube in the last 10 years.

5. Eureka (SciFi)

Fun show. Wonderful concept, wonderful writing, wonderful characters. The only time it starts to drag is when they get a bit heavy handed with the drama, especially the love triangle. It worked much better when it was left as unspoken sexual tension. This is one step above situational comedy. Insert too much drama and it seems to fight with itself.

6. Pushing Daisies (ABC)
I loved this show last season. It took me completely by surprise, and am looking forward to its return more than any other show.

7. Eli Stone (ABC) ~reviewed here~

Perhaps the best thing to come out of the writer’s strike. This was mid-season filler, and turned out to be a great show. See my review back in March for more details.

8. Charlie Jade (SciFi)
I have no idea how I found this show. Hell, I don’t even remember setting the DVR to record it. It airs at like 3:00 am, and actually I haven’t caught a new episode in about a month or so, but I miss it. It’s a little confusing, but only because it’s talking about some pretty heady stuff like worm holes to parallel dimensions and dystopic alternate-realities. I need to look into this show more and try and get caught up on anything/everything I may have missed. Hopefully it’ll be back soon.

9. Battlestar Galactica (SciFi)
This is in the top ten more because of what the show was than what it has become. Even though last season picked up a bit, it still fell far short of the promise that season one showed. Personally, I think SciFi has milked their first season dry and have spent the last two seasons bogging the show down and more sub-plots and storylines. I am almost to the point where I just want them to find Earth and STFU. I still have hope, though, that they can resurrect their story in this final season.

10. The Closer (TNT)
The second-best cop show on TV. Kyra Sedgwick is charming and tough in this superbly-written drama. I can see the distinct possibility of this show starting to drag a bit, but for now it’s one that I am always sure to keep my eye on.

11. Psych (USA)
This show is just all kinds of silly, and the world needs more silliness. Really, that’s all I can say about it. It’s silly.

12. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX)

Surprisingly, this didn’t suck. That alone makes me want to tune in next season, if only to see when exactly FOX screws the whole thing up.

13. Traveler (ABC)
I think this show is canceled as I actually caught it on the CW last summer. I was hoping it would return this summer, but I guess not. It wasn’t anything special, but it was one of those shows I couldn’t help liking. Not sure why, and it’s been too long for me to really remember anything other than vague plot details.

14. Lost (ABC)
I jumped on the Lost bandwagon late. This past season was the first full season I watched, and already my interest is waning a bit. I enjoy the story, but I find the way it’s told to be gimmicky. We’ll see if I last through the entire season next year.

15. House (FOX)
Slowly turning into just another hospital program. Even though Hugh Laurie has created a wonderfully cynical character, I am beginning to see the same plot lines repeated. There are only so many rare diseases, after all. They are bound to start looking the same after a while.

16. Numb3rs (CBS)
A show I enjoy catching when I have a free 50 minutes or so. I am always a fan of geeks that are heroes, and in his own number-crunching way, Charlie Epps is as bad an ass as they come. Besides, I don’t think I have ever not liked Judd Hirsch in anything he has done.

17. Flashpoint (CBS)
Ok, I admit it… I like this show because it’s fun to watch the Pink Power Ranger all grown up (I wonder if she remembers me from my years at SABAN… nahh I don’t think so either). And even though I don’t think it will last a full season, I am betting I lose interest in recording it long before the network gives up on it.

18. The Shield (FX)
99% positive this one is done and over with. It’s still on the record list for that last 1% of uncertainty as it was so damn good.

19. NCIS (CBS)
Good check-your-brain-at-the-door cop drama. The season ended in tremendously dramatic fashion with the entire team being split up, so it will be interesting to see where they go with it. One of the reasons I like the show is the chemistry that developed over the years with the regulars. To throw all that away dropped this show like a rock as far as my expectations go, but I’ll still check in to see if/how they pick up all the pieces.

20. Heroes (NBC)
I think that Heroes has been utterly FUBAR’d and is well beyond salvaging at this point. It used to be at #1 on my list, and it’s significant that it dropped this far over the course of a single season. It’s being recorded now not in any fruitless hope that it will return to being a quality show, but rather that same kind of morbid curiosity that makes me stare at roadkill along the highway – it’s dead, I know it’s dead, but I can kind of recognize it beneath all the blood and guts and stuff.

21. Prison Break (FOX)
This was a great show, but… damn, man…. how many times are these guys going to be arrested? FOX is milking this one for all it’s worth. More than it’s worth, really. I doubt I watch the full season.

22. CSI: NY (CBS)
My favorite of the turning-ever-more-stale CSI slate of shows. It’s been deleted and re-added to the record queue time and again. I wonder how long it will last this time?

23. The 4400 (USA) ~reviewed here~
I really disliked the direction the show went after my review last September. I’ll hang in there for a little while longer, though, to see if it turns around. It’s one of those shows that I really want to like more than I actually do.

24. CSI: Crime Scene (CBS)
(see #22)

25. New Amsterdam (FOX) ~reviewed here~
Pretty sure that this one bit the dust as well. Too bad, as even though it was a mid-season debut, I thought it was better than much of the stuff that the writer’s strike upended. See my review back in April for more details.

26. Knight Rider (NBC)
What happened to the series? Writer strike ate it maybe? The TV movie thing showed a bit of promise. Never was overly gung-ho about the original, but I thought this one looked ok.

27. & 28. Without a Trace (CBS) and Ghost Whisperer (CBS)
Yeah, I don’t know why either, I just kind of like them. GW may actually be canceled, as I think I saw that Jay Mohr has a new series coming out in the fall.

Program: In Plain Sight
Network: USA
Creator: David Maples
Cast: Mary McCormack, Fred Weller, Nichole Hiltz, Lesley Ann Warren, Paul Ben-Victor, Todd Warren, Christian de la Fuente

I eagerly anticipated the arrival of In Plain Sight form the first commercial I saw. USA has earned big props with me for their original programming. The Big Four could learn a lot from shows like Monk, Psych, and Burn Notice. Perhaps my expectations were raised a bit high from those three shows, but, after the first five episodes, I am torn about In Plain Sight. I want to like it, but I think, in general, it suffers a bit with an identity crisis.

The concept is fairly straight forward. Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack) and Marshall Mann (Fred Weller) are US Marshals assigned to the Witness Protection Program. They handle the lives of the guilty and the innocent alike who have agreed to work with the US Government in exchange for protection from whoever it is that wants them dead. As a matter of course, this means changing identities for the subjects, and the inability of the Marshals to reveal what it is they do to anyone, even their own families.

On the surface, the concept seems to lend itself quite well to episodic television, and there would seem to be a great fit for the comedy-drama angle that USA has become so very good at. Unlike Burn Notice, however, In Plain Sight seems to be really struggling with itself as it hunts for just the right blend of comedy and drama. Where Burn Notice flows from moment to moment seamlessly, In Plain Sight seems to arm wrestle with itself to see which form will have dominance on a scene by scene basis, and the outcome is usually determined by which actor takes the lead in the scene.

McCormack seems to really struggle with the deeper moments her character faces. She (she being her character, Mary Shannon) has some intimacy issues that drive the people around her nuts, yet McCormack doesn’t seem to be able to really hook into the more serious moments with her family and boyfriend. About the only emotions she plays consistently well are anger and bitterness, and she seems to be embroiled in one or the other about 70% of the time. It makes for some painfully slow television in between the action scenes.

Weller on the other hand plays the transitions from comedy to drama extremely well. When he takes the lead in a scene, which isn’t nearly often enough, the scene almost always succeeds behind his characterization. He is, without a doubt, carrying the show on his shoulders at the moment, and the writers seem to have rewarded him already by increasing not only his presence on camera, but his importance to the lead character, Mary Shannon.

If In Plain Sight can find its groove, it could easily be another Burn Notice (which is, perhaps, the best TV had to offer on any station in the past year, and why I compare to it so readily). As it stands, it’s average fare at best, and certainly not up to the standards that USA has come to be known for. For now, though, I’ll keep watching, as the episodes have grown progressively stronger since the pilot. It’s the potential I am tuning in for more than anything else, and as long as that potential appears to be slowly materializing, I think the production team is on the right track.

Program: New Amsterdam

Network: Fox

Creators: Christian Taylor and Allan Loeb

Primary Cast: Nikolaj Coster Waldau, Zuleikha Robinson, Alexie Gilmore, Stephen Henderson, Susan Misner

A mid-season debut that has a bit of promise. That assumes, of course, that you can ignore the fact that it is yet another cop show in a sea of cop shows. That fact alone will likely doom it to be cancelled, as the competition in the cop show field is dominated by the various CSI’s and Law and Orders, although Fox has not yet given any indication one way or the other about its future (that I have seen, anyway. They may well have announced its cancellation by now and I just missed it. I don’t pay much attention to that kind of thing). The final scheduled episode is Monday the 14^th (tomorrow).

What makes this show different than the other cop shows is that it blends a bit of genre into the realistic cop-drama with an immortal lead detective. Sounds rather Highlander-ish, but it goes a bit further in that. See, John Amsterdam (Waldau), brilliant NYC detective, was born back in the 1600s in Holland. After traveling to the New World, he saves the life of a young native girl and is stabbed through the heart doing so. The girl and her mother, a kind of mystic or shaman, bring him back to life. A life that will not end until he finds his one true soul mate (annoyingly referred to as “the one” – /blanch). Adding in another twist is John’s desire to throw in the towel. At times the only reason he seems interested in finding “the one” (/belch) is so he can finally die. 350-something years is quite enough, thank you very much.

Unsurprising, each episode uses a flashback of something in John’s past. Not the most original idea, and one that will grow very old, very quickly. See, if you are continually telling me what happened rather than what is happening, then you are telling me the wrong story. The writers mix it up well though, and rather than making the past the focus of each story, they limit it, attempting to account for the influences that still affect John’s thinking. What is most enjoyable is that they don’t use the obvious “big moments” of the last 350 years. They are more personal than that for John, and very, very well done. As a matter of fact, I think the flashbacks are probably the best part of the show right now. They are certainly the most carefully developed and researched, and are tremendously interesting (I especially liked the appearance of Thoreau in the Civil War flashback – extremely well done).

What the show lacks is that kind of attention to the John’s present day. Instead, the focus on the cop-crap and the budding love interest of someone who may or may not be “the one” (/puke). They have a tremendous amount of potential to explore some really interesting stuff if they just let John lose a bit of the “in control” and “master detective” aspects of his character. Perhaps the single thing that stands out to me at the moment is memory. I have issues remembering what happened last week, and this guy remembers details from 300 years ago like he’s recalling a shopping list. How many memories can a 350 year old brain hold? How fragmented can those memories be? How difficult is it to recall them, especially with such accuracy? The cop stuff isn’t interesting. The fact that he’s 350 years old and wants to die… that’s where the story is.

So, all in all, it has potential, and I like it. I hope that Fox gives it another chance, and I hope that they slowly bend it away from the annoying cop-centric plot arc.