Some belated thoughts on "You're Under a Rasta" and "A Box of Wendy," the 
January 6 & 13 episodes of NYPD Blue, respectively, after quick summaries 
of each:

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You're Under a Rasta: Home pregnancy test results color Bobby's judgement 
when Diane gets involved in a shooting; James' back puts him out of 
action for a while; Naomi gets some very bad news from INS

A Box of Wendy: Bobby's penchant for handing out soft drinks to suspects 
has surprising results with a weird murder suspect; Diane battles morning 
sickness while soloing on a child-abuse murder; a shooting at a car 
rental shop leads Greg and Jill to the victim's best friend

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Sorry it took me so long to get these reviews done, but I was in Los 
Angeles on business the last two weeks. On the plus side, I got to meet 
most of the castmembers I hadn't met before -- and discovered, much to my 
dismay, that I'm the same height as Jimmy Smits -- and got a tour of the 
set from professional extra/bit player/cappucino maker extraordinaire 
Billy "Officer Miller" Concha. 

Since I'm hitting two episodes at once here -- and since the two are sort 
of tied by the thread of Diane's pregnancy -- I'll probably be bouncing 
back and forth between the two. Try to keep up, okay? (I'll also probably 
be bringing up a lot of points that have been discussed to death already, 
but that can't be helped.)

When I read the episode description for "You're Under a Rasta," I 
cringed. "Hoo boy," I thought, "Bobby gets overprotective of Diane again. 
How innovative." Well, if they were going to play this card again, this 
was about as well as it could have been done, I suppose. 

It's not really fair to demand that the sometime saintly Simone be given 
flaws and then complain when he acts like a jerk, but in the past, the 
show's overprotectiveness vibe has made it seem like Bobby (or Kelly or 
Sipowicz, for that matter) were in the right, even if they were being 
insensitive about it. For the first time in a while, Bobby came across as 
definitively out of line, berating Diane without realizing that she 
desperately needed some emotional support then and there. It wasn't 
revolutionary -- and I would have liked to see a bit where the two of 
them shared their feelings on killing someone (Bobby's capped quite a few 
guys since he's come to the One-Five, after all) -- but it played out 
fairly well. 

As for Diane's child-abuse case in "A Box of Wendy," it reminded me of my 
reaction to the sex scene at the end of "It Takes a Village." In and of 
itself, it was very finely crafted, served as a good emotional barometer 
of Diane's mindset about parenthood, but since the only time we ever seem 
to see Diane lead an investigation it's children-related, the impact 
wasn't nearly as strong as it could have been. Kim Delaney was good, as 
was guest star Mary Mara as the disinterested mother, but it's another 
note that the series has played too often for it to resonate as well now. 

Getting back to "Under a Rasta" for a minute, Greg and James' case seemed 
pretty paint-by-numbers until the "paralysis" scene -- designed, 
obviously, to write Nick Turturro out of the show long enough for him to 
play Sammy "The Bull" Gravano in that NBC miniseries. Still, James' 
hostility towards the deputy commissioner and the way it was tied to his 
brother's death made it one of the better scenes Turturro's had to play 
in a while. 

And as for Ellie Mae Reynolds, I still find her illegal immigrant story 
implausible and uninteresting, but her conversation with Bobby at the end 
of the show was a much richer spin on things than the silliness of 
"Remembrance of Humps Past" -- not to mention a nice piece of writing, in 
that everything Naomi was saying could just as easily be interpreted as 
Bobby's own feelings about Diane. 

"A Box of Wendy," for those who don't know, was the 100th episode of NYPD 
Blue, and keeping with David Milch's usual pattern of ignoring sweeps 
months and other momentous occasions entirely, it was largely business as 
usual. But parts of it were also damn funny -- particularly the tale of 
Coca-Cola-lovin' killer Willie (played with memorable stupidity by Sam 
Whipple). Whether or not this was somebody writing an in-jokey love 
letter to all the fans who make fun of Bobby's soft drink dispensing 
skills, it was a fine piece of black comedy, directed with a deft hand by 
exec. producer Mark Tinker (who got lots of training for this kind of 
bizarreness in his St. Elsewhere days). This story could have easily 
become silly or obnoxious, but it played out as funny yet strangely 
realistic. (Fortunately, since I don't drink soda of any kind, I'd be 
immune to Bobby's wiles if he ever got me in interrogation. :))

As for Greg and Jill's auto shop shooting investigation, I think there 
was the germ of a very good story in there, but it took too long to get 
there and there wasn't enough time to deal with it when it happened. The 
idea raised by the victims' aunt and uncle -- and later by the shooter -- 
that their forgiveness should be enough to keep police out of it had me 
very intrigued, raising issues of what exactly the point of the criminal 
justice system is. I'm not sure I buy that argument, but it would've been 
interesting to see Greg and Jill wrestle with the question for a little 
while. But because the formula seems to dictate that we follow every 
stage of the investigation from start to finish, there simply wasn't time 
to dwell on that argument, since first we had to slog through Greg and 
Jill photographing the crime scene, interviewing witnesses, running 
lineups, etc., etc. (Although Greg's "Please ignore that creature in the 
cage" quip during the lineup was priceless.) If the story had started 
with the two of them in mid-investigation -- with some obligatory 
exposition, of course -- we could have gotten to the meat much sooner. 

A few other assorted notes:

-It would appear that Jill and Leo Cohen are splitsville, judging by the
 attention-getting she wore to her son's school play to make a play for 
 one of the dads. Since I've never been all that interested in the various 
 inter-office romantic entanglements, I prefer this quick-hit, subtle way 
 of conveying information rather than taking time out for a five-minute 
 break-up scene between the two of them. 

-Speaking of that locker room scene, it occurred to me that there's a 
 greater effort being expended to give Diane and Jill the same kind of 
 in-the-john bonding time as Bobby and Andy. I just hope that future 
 conversations aren't singularly focused on Diane's pregnancy. 

-I'm sure most of you have heard this by now, but Bill "Upstairs John" 
 Brochtrup is returning to the show for a few episodes later this year. 
 John won't be the new squad PAA, though; I understand he'll be in the 
 precinct to oversee a computer upgrade of some sort, leaving room for 
 either Naomi or a potential replacement PAA. 

That's it for this behind-the-times reviewer. There's no new episode this 
week, as Republican members of Congress will be trying hard not to 
snicker and throw tomatoes as President Bubba delivers the State of the 
Union Address. See everybody next time. 

Alan Sepinwall * e-mail: sepinwal@force.stwing.upenn.edu
NYPD Blue page: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/nypd.html 

RANDOM QUOTE:

"Yeah, but Jews have the 'Don't fuck with me' God, whereas Christians are
 stuck with some kind of omnipotent Barney."
        -Devout atheist and mad Usenet poster James Lloyd Hill giving
         his own interpretation on the Judeo-Christian divide