'Grey's' Isn't Going Anywhere
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
Shark: LAPD Blue
(S01E02) This opens with a game of Texas Hold'em -- James Woods' character Sebastian Stark seems to enjoy playing poker as much as the actor himself does. Then it occurs to me, maybe a show about a poker-playing actor would have been a better idea (it's only been done a couple times) rather than what this is -- another legal drama. The case this time involves a murdered cop -- and a chance for new prosecutor Stark to enhance his reputation with the police department following his years as a high-profile defense attorney, which is a good idea for a story, so I've got high hopes starting out. However ...
Stark begins by barking orders, telling his associates to get it done " by any means necessary." I still can't tell any of the gaggle of young guns on his team -- who tramp up and down hallways in pairs spouting exposition at each other -- apart, but evidently the blonde one is nicknamed "Tinkerbell" by another associate who doesn't like her. Stark calls a second one "GQ" because he looks like a model -- not that the others don't. So don't feel bad if you don't know their names -- they don't even know each other's names.
Per usual, the prime suspect in the murder is an arrogant rich kid with a smarmy lawyer. The defense lawyer has (who'd have thought?) a grudge against Stark, who once fired him. Last week the defense attorney hated Stark because he had switched sides to the prosecution, which was supposed to be an insult to all defense lawyers, or something. Wonder why the opposing attorney will hate Stark next week?
In the building-a-relationship-with-his-daughter humanizing subplot, Shark tries teaching her to drive, muscles her driver's ed teacher, eavesdrops on his her private phone conversations, learns he can't make up for the past, etc. But, gotta love the way Stark bounces back between chewing scenery with his team, to skipping off do sensitive, soft-spoken family stuff. There's no reason for him to be involved in the investigation anyway -- every time he pops back in the office he's way ahead of whatever the junior lawyers have managed to dig up on the case in his absence.
Still not very much Jeri Ryan this week. What? Is she too expensive? So far she's been pretty much limited to one or two quick scenes in which she registers anger and a stern warning against whatever shenanigans Stark is pulling.
Long story short, Stark the shark cracks the case, smashing through the police code of silence. He breaks a key witness -- a police officer who blurts out the entire truth and confesses on the stand to planting evidence. All for the right reasons, of course, and Stark secures a conviction against the drug dealer anyway. Now he's two for two. Seems no one can stand up to Shark shouting "didn't you! didn't you!" and "admit it! admit!" at them over and over again.
Stark then offers this witness a job as an investigator for team. Huh? Yes. Incredibly, we're supposed to believe that the District Attorney's office would allow the hiring of a cop who had resigned for planting drugs as evidence. And furthermore that this cop would not be prosecuted for planting evidence -- which was revealed in open court, therefore impossible to cover up -- no matter the purity of his intentions. Such is the magic that is Shark.
10 Comments