the good, the bad, and the oh-so-fucking ugly

[kellinator]

The good: One of my Homicide fan lists informs me that tonight TNT will be broadcasting both parts of one of the Law and Order/Homicide crossovers. Yaay, Homicide back on TV, even if only for one night!

The bad: The crossover is the sixth-season "Baby It's You", IMNSHO one of the worst episodes of Homicide ever, in large part because of the overpresence and overacting of Det. Paul "You Dunno Janine" Falsone, as played by Jon Seda (who was frankly more sympathetic playing a dirtbag Mob killer on Oz). Last time I saw this episode, I sat down anticipating enjoying a nice glass of wine with my all-time favorite TV show and ended up swilling the entire bottle just to dull the pain.

The ugly: Falsone's greasy hair. Ugggggggghhh.

BTW, I am not alone in my distaste for Falsone. There's also the We Hate Paul Falsone webpage, an entire subgenre of Homicide fanfic dedicated to rewriting the infamous "peach" scene with various lovely painful results, and this gem.

Comments

[gmslegion.livejournal.com]

Well, my problem with Falsone has less to do with Seda's inexperience and delivery and more with the really bizarre decision by TPTB to put him at odds with Kellerman, Stivers and Lewis. All that "There's more to the Mahoney shooting than you're telling me" stuff which opened season six really got in the way of that great storyline with James Earl Jones. I remember thinking "Okay, the Mahoney shooting is none of Falsone's business, and this is wasting valuable time we could be spending watching Jones and Braugher circle each other like hawks."

Wasn't the L&O crossover just a couple of weeks after that? I really felt the network's greasy hand in that, as if saying "Hey, America, look at our moody dark-haired new teevee star. All the ladies think he's groovy; People magazine says so." For such a potentially important ratings episode as that, the spotlight should have been on Homicide's established cast, with Falsone and Ballard in the background until they'd earned a Big Story.

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of that. Most of the cast decisions in the final two seasons made no sense -- Falsone got no rookie hazing, and no one minded him poking around in the Mahoney business. Apparently a Baltimore cop was on one of the Homicide boards in its heyday and he was VERY miffed, explaining that a rookie would never get away with that in real life.

Ballard and Sheppard? Secretaries with a gun. Give me Kay Howard any day!!