6/13
After a disappointing week previously in terms of overall quality across the shows, I'm hoping for much better this week. In The Night Shift, Topher's mum ends up at San Antonio Memorial, and we also have Hell on Wheels' penultimate episode, among more middle-of-the-season offerings from our already-released-online pairing Deadbeat and OITNB.
DEADBEAT - 3x06 "Hawk Smith"
"After failing to meet Danny Poker last time out, Pac and Clyde try again by taking a ghost job for a pharmacist, who can give them 1000 pills for Danny's party. However, the ghost wants Pac and Clyde to solve his murder, and the outcome is not what they expected."
Deadbeat returns to form with "Hawk Smith". A superhero parody, our characters spent much of the episode in the outfit, but the format and production of the show even latched onto superhero tropes such as the flashing words appearing on the screen surrounded by sharp thought bubbles. Only this time they read things such as "runny shit", as Clyde relieved himself in a dustbin.
Some real laugh-out-loud moments that the previous episode missed held up an interesting story that ended with the reveal that the pharmacist was backing the killer in order to sell pills on the black market - and when Pac killed him with a seven-year-old Jawbreaker they realised he had just enough of the pills they wanted on his person to get them into Danny Poker's party - which was the prompt cliffhanger ending.
VERDICT: Great episode, and if anything can be learned from the previous episode to this it's that when Deadbeat uses the edgy as tools for humour, it works plenty better than when they dial it down. 8.5/10
HELL ON WHEELS - 5x13 "Railroad Men" (penultimate episode)
"The race to see which railroad company can reach the finishing line of Ogden reaches its conclusion, and the bitter loser refuses to take that lying down."
Ah yes, the railroad which was built for 30 seconds 3 episodes a season has finally been built, after over 100 miles plus of track laid. Cullen and Huntington with the Central Pacific gets there before Durant of the Union Pacific, after setting an unheard-of record when he orchestrated the completion of 10 miles of track in a day (because in TV, heart wins out over any form of logic and plausibility). Five seasons had built to this one moment where, for all of his scheming and conniving, Durant fails to meet his goal and his reaction is priceless and extremely satisfying.
However, the writers then immediately undo that by having Durant whip out an amendment to the Railroad Bill that means an inspector must verify the safety of the CP's track before Huntington can be judged to have won the race. Oh, and then Cullen has a heart attack.
Perhaps in real life Durant won the race and the writing is trying to reflect that, but to me this feels like a false ending. Without Cullen's heart attack or Durant's ungentlemanly refusal to accept his defeat, this could have served as the series finale. Pretty much everyone's storylines are wrapped up and there's little more left to do now. But at least the race made for an episodic plot more intriguing than the usual guff season 5B has offered up, although there's no denying that by next week Hell on Wheels will have fallen limply off the diving board into the crater of cancelled and forgotten TV shows, rather than taking its chance to valiantly jump
VERDICT: As the railroads hurtle towards completion, Hell on Wheels paradoxically continues the slow crawl to its own conclusion. 6.5/10
THE NIGHT SHIFT - 3x08 "All In"
"Topher's mum comes in with a mystery illness. Scott remains angry with Jordan for interfering with his love life, but while they work together to treat a man with a rare illness the machine to treat him breaks down. Shannon and Drew connect with a child in care whose foster mother winds up in surgery after a car crash, and Kenny is weirded out by the regular congratulations he receives because he doesn't know why."
Today's episode was rather excellent, but it did have a few failings I want to address first. Namely the predictability of some of the plots: that Scott would end up realising he was being a dick to Jordan and apologising after they connected over a (wonderful and funny) patient was just painfully obvious, as was the fact that the foster child's foster mum would die - naturally because she was a really great foster mum. Also, Topher's mum's illness was greatly over-dramatised in the promos, as she was never in any real danger.
However, the humour that grew out of the revelation Topher's mum was having sex with the old guy from the casino episode was brilliant. Shannon showed some humanity with the foster kid and then, in true Shannon style, took it upon herself to make the first move with Paul, pushing him into his car in the hospital car park. Good for them both. And Kenny was nominated to be union rep as punishment for missing the election meeting - that's going to be quite interesting if he's forced into administrative meetings in the future.
Viewers: 6.32m - this is great! I was wondering if The Night Shift's mid-4m ratings in the first six episodes would be enough to get a season four at the end, but the last episode rose to 5.74m and now we're bouncing up to a figure that hasn't been reached since season 1! Brilliant!
VERDICT: An entertaining and heartbreaking episode overshadowed by some predictable resolutions. Still worth an 8/10
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK - 4x05 "We'll Always Have Baltimore"
* "Due to the recent economies, the prison starts to run thin on supplies including tampons, causing a black market to form around the prison. The guards meanwhile start targeting the ethnic prisoners and subjecting them to random searches. While Caputo attends a convention for prison employees with Linda, Taystee manages to guess the password to the computer in his office and gets access to the internet. At the convention, Caputo gets into an altercation with Danny Pearson who attempts to use the event to speak out against the system and is arrested however Linda finds this hot and the two have sex in a cupboard. In an effort to stop Maria from cutting into her panty business Piper requests and is given permission by Piscatella to form a security group. However, during their first meeting the volunteers (all white) begin to openly voice racist sentiments. Piper is horrified to realize she has accidentally created a white power group. Flashbacks show how Maritza began her life of crime."
The fifth episode of season four was a solid entry from the writers and the actors involved. After season three's focus on privatising the prison, the overpopulation and the further extremes to which MCC want to pennypinch was displayed through Caputo's trip to a conference with budget woman Linda. It also allowed for the cameo return of Danny Pearson, the bumbly ex-warden who had been one of the shining lights the previous season, in a protest against monetising prisons, and Caputo's attempts to fight him off led to him finally consummating a growing relationship with Linda, both of which are great to watch unfold. I do hope Danny appears again later on.
Piper's storyline hasn't improved: as she fights the Latinas for control of the used panty business, she ends up accidentally starting a revolt for white power, conveniently juxtaposed against the racial profiling of the ethnic prisoners by the new ex-veteran guards. Things are bound to ramp up soon with these all set to boil over, and I can't wait until it does.
Finally, Maritza is an interesting character who has been far underutilised, but unfortunately her flashbacks didn't do her any justice - although it was nice to learn she was a con artist. They're always fun characters.
VERDICT: Things are moving forward quickly now, and we can expect the drama to rise exponentially very soon. And the episode was just very watchable. 7.5/10
Final thoughts
Most of our shows returned to form this week with excellent episodes, but next week things will be shaken up. The Night Shift is taking a rest so we'll have a little more time to devote to the Hell on Wheels finale, either side of the next episodes in line for Deadbeat and OITNB.
Thank you for reading, and see you all next time!
Sam
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