The Unusuals (season 1) - Page 2

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

It's hard to second guess the programmers when they have data and targets I don't, but it seems like this one didn't really get much of a chance. Though it debuted in the spring, it feels like a summer replacement show. I guess if it couldn't do anything with a lead-in like Lost, there's not much they can do. But, I'll miss it.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Too bad. This is a pretty entertaining ensemble cop drama and it seemed to find it's 'sea legs' rather quickly. I honestly think if it had aired on a different network under a different name (I stand by my earlier post that "The Unusuals" is a dopey name and probably turned off lots of potential viewers) I think this program could have made it. I don't know how compatible The Unusuals is with Lost, but I can see it running alongside something like The Mentalist on CBS, Bones on Fox or even Medium on NBC and faring better than it did on ABC.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Not only was The Unusuals a dopey name, but they did a very bad job of promoting the show. The way over-sold the quirkiness in the initial ad campaign (that damned walking hot dog) and made it look like a Keystone Kops slapstick affair - Animal House with guns and badges. I tuned in out of curiosity, and because I've liked some of the actors in other things, and was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't the show to promos had led me to believe it was. I wonder how many potential viewers never got past the title and the promos and never gave the show a chance at all.

And I agree it might have fared better on another network - specifically NBC. They're so ratings-challenged at this point that numbers that get you cancelled on ABC can make you a hit on the peacock.

Regards,

Joe

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Four left. Damn.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Shucks. I have this set as a series recording, but it wasn't scheduled. So, I set a manual recording. Didn't record. I can watch it online, but still. My DVR isn't picking it up for next week, either.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

You know, I wonder if it is still scheduled to air next week. There was no "next week preview" over the closing credits. Maybe ABC doesn't want to commit further until they see numbers. I hope they don't decide to just pull the plug all together. They certainly have FAR WORSE programs on their schedule that continue to air with abysmal results...

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

I happened to tune in about 5 minutes after the start and I'm glad I did because I no longer had the show set to record. (I swapped out my dying SA DVR from Comcast for a new box last week and had to reprogram everything from scratch. I completely forgot about The Unusuals, which I thought had already been removed from the schedule after the cancellation.) Good episode, which figures. I also noted the lack of a "next week" promo and fear for the remaining shows. (Have to hope for a DVD release.)


Can't speak to this example, but often when TV shows (especially crime dramas) do similar plots it is because they are based on elements of the same real-life events. I've seen a number of L&O and CSI episodes from various series in the franchise that had plots that not only resembled one another, but also strongly resembled cases I'd read about in the news or seen on Forensics Files, Cold Case Files (the non-fiction show on A&E) or similar shows on truTV, A&E, Discovery, History Channel and other documentary networks.

Regards,

Joe

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Since production on these first seasons are short enough that all episodes were finished before their premieres aired, it has to be either coincidence or some link behind the scenes with the writers.

Castle's version was a bit more elaborate than this one.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

It's scheduled for next week for sure, but my DVR just doesn't know it. I've set a manual recording and will hope it picks it up this time.

Enjoyable episode, but I knew what was up from the start. The room probably wouldn't have looked that tossed in the short amount of time Walsh was gone. He shouldn't have backed up Shraeger, and Reed's plot would have collapsed. The old man and Eddie's desperate response to Walsh's simple human kindness were of more interest. I'm glad Eddie has started to show change already since there's not much time left. I hope we get some kind of answer on Delahoy's condition.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

When I said I couldn't speak to this example, I meant I didn't know if it and the similar Castle bit were taken from the same real-life incident. But I did know what the gimmick was in both cases. The biggest problem in any kidnapping or extortion plot is always the delivery of the money. The perp has to be at a particular place at a particular time (or provide electronic banking information that can be traced or trapped before the fund can be coverted into cash.) So the clever crooks quite rightly spend most of their time trying to work out ways to get away with the money. It is quite possible that somebody actually tried something like what was depicted on the two shows and both sets of writers read about it.

And yeah, there wasn't much mystery to the "A" story. I knew the rich guy was going to get kidnapped as soon as they heard the woman scream in the stairwell. (Obvious decoy to lure them away from the room, and there was no way the guy was going to get killed, the format pretty much requires that there's at least a semi-happy ending.) I thought the amount of time that would have been taken up by the stairwell chase, a quick search for the perp and a return to the 8th floor were more than enough for the room to be tossed, but I still figured out that he had faked the kidnapping long before the discovery of the burned body made it obvious.

The other story was much more interesting. (Although I have to admit that I thought the old man had decided to go an try to stop a crime in progress. I thought the guy in the holding cell was driving to meet accomplices who were going to carry out a bigger job.)

The argument between Walsh and his girlfriend really had me rolling though. I once worked with a woman who woke up angry at her husband because of something he had "done" in her dream! She was still mad when she got to work, slamming drawers and rattling cups in the break room and just generally being snippy. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me about the dream - and got mad all over again thinking about it. I tried to point out her husband hadn't actually done anything, but had just acted out a plot cooked up in her subconcious. She informed me that that wasn't the point. The point was that what he did in the dream was exactly what he would have done in real life under those same circumstances.

A couple of hours later my phone rang. It was her husband. He wanted to know what the hell he had done to piss her off! She hadn't told him, she was too mad to talk to him before he left for work. He often said that I was the only one who knew what he went through at home, because I worked with his wife side by side for 8 or 9 hours a day.

Regards,

Joe

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

I also noticed that as well. I couldn't remember where I had seen the multiple backpack scenario, but I knew it was something I had seen recently. The scam of taking a penny from each transaction was also something I had seen on a crime show, also.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Superman III had Richard Pryor's character steal bits of change from banking transactions because the character was a programming guru.

This show is like eating comfort food at times. Some good interpersonal stuff, but the cases aren't too interesting, except to reveal more character tidbits.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Office Space picked it up from there, but they mentioned Superman III when coming up with the scheme.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

That scam was reported as a factual event (but without supporting details) in a fairly early book on computer crime, 1978's Computer Capers. From there it seems to have entered the realm of urban legend, with variants spread by word-of-mouth, interoffice mimeo and copier joke sheets and computer bulletin boards before surfacing in Superman III. Since it was supposedly based on a real event, the producers of Office Space (and Hackers) probably didn't have any qualms about using it.

The Criminal Minds season finale recycled another real-life detail from a crime - disposing of bodies by feeding them to pigs. That had been used awhile back with a Nevada setting on CSI. (CM retained the Canandian setting and a few other details from the real case, although with the inevitable dramatic changes.)

Regards,

Joe

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Before that case was known, the movie Hannibal involved feeding people to pigs. I didn't see it, so I don't know the specifics. I have seen a TV show where it was done as well, but I don't remember what it was.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

More recycling - Wu was feeding blokes to pigs in the 19th century on Deadwood, also speaking of copiers, The Unusuals repurposed the Xerox as a lie detector bit from Homicide and The Wire.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Thanks. That was in the Deadwood pilot, right? That's all I've seen of the show, and I would never have placed where I'd seen it.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Come on! This wasn't really canceled, was it? That was a brilliant hour of television. I loved the look of Leo's apartment with that lit up furniture, and the whole Rear Window riff was great. The music set a spooky mood there. The A-story was cooking, too, with more forward motion on Eddie becoming a human being. The robber sticking up the cop restaurant made for a good sight gag.

I'm gutted over this one. I thought Journeyman being canceled was the worst, but this takes the cake. I've never responded this strongly to a TV show before.

Edit: two other things I enjoyed were the return of Marvin and the cow. That cow made me laugh, even though--and I hate to add to the stereotype--I'm no stranger to plastic cows in the great state of Texas. Our Fry's has a whole balcony of them and there was a pink and green one in the local Tom Thumb recently. But, the one in the show had a funny look about it.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Actually all of those shows used a technique that real cops have been using on stupid criminals for a very long time. They have technical advisors who are or were cops for a reason.

Another solid episode. Loved the apartment, the furniture, the fact that he almost got killed because his door was too secure, etc. I also like the fact that he went outside without his vest and took a chance when driven to it.

The "A" story was also good. (Loved the look on Eddie's face when that bra got tossed at him.) I was just a little annoyed that it took them so long to connect the bomb scare with the rogue marshall. Once they knew he wasn't legit, they should have immediately realized that the bomb threat was not a coincidence. (I knew that as soon as it happened, but I also knew the marshall had to be fake or crooked or something because it was so obvious that Eddie was going to something disasterously stupid from the minute he was put in charge.)

I wish more people had discovered this show in time to save it, and that ABC hadn't advertised it in a way that made people expect Ugly Betty with guns and badges.

Regards,

Joe

I got a kick out of the robbery because I once witnessed something very like that. There was a bar that was frequented by staff from the hospital where I worked, plus guards from the nearby county lock-up and cops from three different agencies (state, county and local) who all had stations in the area because it was a junction for several major roads. On the night the newest class of officers graduated from the sherrif's academy and were celebrating in the bar, some genius decides to rob the place.

The guards were all in the dining room and the bar area proper was about evenly divided between hospital staff and other cops when our criminal mastermind walked in and announced the roberry before pulling his pistol. Apparently it got caught inside his jacket because he was still struggling with it when he saw half the people in front of him stand up and draw their own weapons. He could also hear something odd coming from behind him and to his left, but he didn't dare take his eyes off all the guns pointing at him.

I was on a barstool at the far side of the u-shaped bar, directly facing the door. From where I was sitting I could see into the dining room, where what looked every old and new deputy was also on his or her feet and had a weapon drawn and ready and pointing at his back. (I could also see behind the bar, where the bartender had slipped his shotgun from its concealed rack, but kept it out of view and didn't ready it.) At that point I slipped off my barstool and into a booth out of the line of fire, just in case. But the guy wasn't that stupid, and he immediately surrendered.

It really did look like that scene from the show, though.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

As I continue to watch (and enjoy immensely) these final episodes of this program I'm reminded how flaky those in charge of making network programming decisions are. They let some great shows (in my opinion) slip through their fingers while continuing to offer some really shaky programming long term.

Go figure.

"Network" television has really gone into the dumpster in recent years. You can blame technology, society, a changing demographic and several other things for all of this but that still doesn't explain why a "small" network like USA can continue to turn out great shows in far greater proportion in modern times.

USA

ABC

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Yes. I thought maybe it had been played out of order, but Delahoy's storyline seemed to be a progression. Well, not a big deal. Walsh has become more sympathetic to Alvarez, but that doesn't mean he would lay off on the pranks. As Banks said--even though he was being manipulative at the time--pulling pranks and being the object of a prank is all a part of being one of the guys.

I guess there's only one to go.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

I really loved this show and thought it was brilliant television.
With this coming episode being the last one, I'm wondering if they've had time to plan for a sort of "finale" and give us something in the way of a finale.

Personally, I'd like them to give us an unusual ending.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Detective Eric Delahoy condition has something to do with the whole tv show and the way it's going to end.
I'm not saying a Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) type of ending.
But I just think since this show is a little unusual, give us an unusual ending.

I think one of my favorite episodes was two weeks ago, with Detective Leo Banks doing the Rear Window thing.

Re: The Unusuals (season 1)

Sadly I think production had halted on the "mini-sesaon" before the deicsion to cancel was made, so I seriously doubt we are going to see any sort of "conclusion". We'll probably get another (excellent) episode and maybe a little bit of a cliff-hanger.

I don't think things went backwards with Alvarez at all. On the escaped prisoner case, the gang halped save him from his own screw-up. Yes, he proved himself useful in the end, but he had caused the problem and up until then didn't contribute a hell of a lot. This week Walsh & Co. took the next step in integrating Alvarez into the squad by orchestrating the pranks. Because it is clear Alvarez himself hadn't learned all that much from recent events - he was still a humorless git about the mini-desk thing. He should have laughed it off, vowed revenge and moved on.

I loved Dellahoy and the doctor. That's a great relationship. And "manipulative bastard" is a whole new side of Banks - which I enjoyed. Wish the show were going to be around long enough for us to see more of it.

Later,

Joe