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Reviews
Dalziel and Pascoe: Dead Meat: Part 2 (2005)
Sad and boring
This episode has actually made me glad I'm nearing the bittersweet end of my binge. There's none of the magic from the earlier episodes and the main characters just seem to be old and tired emotionally; just phoning it in, so to speak. To add insult to injury, they've dredged up the terrible and even more annoying Ellie character from the past just to add unwonted drama to a stock footage padded episode.
If all this wasn't bad enough, they've out-sourced all the secondary cast to India and they're just there as walk on props with no character at all.
I guess they're suffering budget problems too. The entire supporting cast for the episode is terrible and were gleaned from community theater or from 'Anything For A Buck' casting agencies.
It was watchable, I guess. But that's the best I've been able to say for most episodes since around the 4th series.
ER: Freefall (2003)
Summation Of Quality Episode: Freefall
They've said, after five seasons you're only watching a series for the characters. I'm only just now, in 2024, getting around to watching ER and I'm wondering when that analogy was first trotted out. Most of the characters are terrible out of the gate, with the few good ones saddled with annoying baggage characters that made them unpleasant to watch. Two of the best character's actors: Anthony Edwards and Noah Wyle have fled the series by season 10 leaving the last, and best character, Robert Romano anchoring the show. The writers had tortured him with a loss of limb lazy story line using a helicopter, before finally killing him off in Freefall using, yet again, another helicopter. I'm hoping it was at Paul McCrane's request. He certainly deserved better from the writers.
ER: Supplies and Demands (2001)
Insufferable Susan
I know this is a chick show, but do women actually enjoy female characters being so unlikable. Of the handful of likable female characters (the male characters can be pretty bad too, but there's not that many compared), only a few don't make you want the segments they're in to just end. The few who are likable, are burdened with horrible baggage: Susan's sister, Abby's mother/x-husband which spoil their segments usually as well. Susan returns after several years in season 8. I liked her character, hated her sister. Evidently she was away at Insufferable Harpy training school. I can only assume she's been away training for a boss battle against the terrible Dr. Weaver.
Dalziel and Pascoe: The Unwanted (2002)
A further shift toward personal drama
Too much soap opera emotional drama, not enough crime. The show started drifting away from being a police story fairly early in the series, with the insufferable Ellie character nearly ruining the drive forward in series two. In fact, it's odd that they seemed to be trying to make this into a 'chick-show' from the start, but had no likable female characters at all; actually, mostly very unlikable. The only interesting and likable one they did introduce was Novello who we lost in series 7 with no explanation nor even a reason, replacing her with DC Carrie Harris with little background and no character growth.