It's clear that up to this point, the writing for TCL relies on a lot of the soap opera tropes that network television is known for for easy viewership: gang violence, gun and drug trade, rogue cops enacting their own brand of justice, melodrama, contrived relationships and love triangle. It's standard par for the course for this genre.
But if there was any saving grace for TLC, it's that it has a particularly unique story to tell about immigrants and their struggles to pursue the American dream. This theme has been the focal point for the main character and the basis for her current dilemma. But finally in this episode, we get to see for the first time the writers acknowledging this theme heads on; and they absolutely stuck the landing. That Thony, an undocumented immigrant, is stuck in the same holding cell as her FBI agent, with the American flag hung in the background is a powerful image of the inequities that the show tries to explore. Their discourse on what makes a person good or bad, while contrived, also adds some weight in making this episode poignant.
If this is what the writers set out to do, then this is the best episode of Season 1.
But if there was any saving grace for TLC, it's that it has a particularly unique story to tell about immigrants and their struggles to pursue the American dream. This theme has been the focal point for the main character and the basis for her current dilemma. But finally in this episode, we get to see for the first time the writers acknowledging this theme heads on; and they absolutely stuck the landing. That Thony, an undocumented immigrant, is stuck in the same holding cell as her FBI agent, with the American flag hung in the background is a powerful image of the inequities that the show tries to explore. Their discourse on what makes a person good or bad, while contrived, also adds some weight in making this episode poignant.
If this is what the writers set out to do, then this is the best episode of Season 1.
