Some thoughts on the October 28 episode, "The Truth is Out There"

1)When the most exciting thing in an episode is Andy and Bobby's 
  discussion of "Pop Goes the Weasel," there be problems in Bochco-Land. 
  That said, I thought the nursery rhyme stuff was brilliant, as it not 
  only suggested that there's more to these guys lives than the Murder of 
  the Week, sounded like real-life office banter (which we rarely get on 
  this show), and was also cleverly used twice to help advance the plot: 
  when Andy calms down the wacky witness by asking her the meaning and when 
  Bobby tries to control the prisoners by ordering one to sing it. (And 
  you'll note that he didn't know the song and just kept singing the title 
  completely off-key. :)) That said, this would've been a terrific touch in 
  the middle of a more interesting case, but here it actually wound up 
  overshadowing the rather routine police procedurals, which is not good. 

2)So my sister called me up at around 10:18 or so, and I tell her that 
  NYPD Blue is on. She apologized (she knows it's the one hour of the week 
  where I don't want to take phone calls) and asked if she should call back 
  at 11. I was about to say yes until I saw Steve the Snitch appear on 
  screen, at which point I asked her to tell me what was up. As luck would 
  have it, our conversation lasted almost exactly the duration of the Steve 
  Richards scene, and you know what? I didn't feel especially lost at all 
  in the story, so if/when I rewatch the tape, I may just make it a 
  habit of skipping over Steve, one of the more annoying recurring 
  characters in the show's history.

3)Speaking of recurring characters, I honestly don't know what to think 
  about Naomi, the temp PAA. The fact that so much time was spent on her 
  here -- including the final shot of the show, which is usally loaded with 
  some kind of symbolism -- implies that she may be around for a while in 
  place of Gina. If so, I hope this was just used as a quick intro of her 
  and she's now reduced to Gina's old "three lines and five meaningful 
  stares per episode" role. As I've said before, I don't really care about 
  the squad PAA, especially when it means an episode barely features Jill 
  and Diane as a result. Some have speculated that Naomi may be the other 
  half of the Lt. Fancy affair Milch alluded to in pre-season interviews, 
  but if so, I'll be disappointed. Naomi's very pretty, but I just don't 
  see any sparks between her and the Lieu, even in the two "Arthur" scenes.

4)This may be a nitpick, but I'd have rather seen Kirkendall and Russell 
  work the cab robbery case, not just because Greg and James got a 
  spotlight in the last episode, but because this is the type of case 
  we never see the female detectives work. Either with the Lesniak/Russell 
  partnership or this one, they generally seem relegated to sex or 
  baby-related crimes -- cases that need "a woman's touch." This wasn't an 
  especially original or compelling subplot, but it might have felt a 
  little fresher to see Jill and Diane working the type of case we rarely 
  see them in charge of -- especially seeing them toss on the kevlar vests 
  to talk down the gunman in the park. 

5)I'm still not wild about the Cohen/Kirkendall romance, but one pleasant 
  side effect is that Milch seems to feel that, for the audience to accept 
  him as one of the cops' love interests, he has to be humanized a bit. I 
  really liked the scene where Leo got to point out Andy's hypocrisy, as 
  well as Jill's comment that Leo is smart, handsome and with a bright 
  future, while, on a day when Andy's feeling really good about himself, 
  maybe he thinks he's smart. 

That's it. See ya in the funny papers...

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

RANDOM QUOTE:

"Do you realize in the entire history of western civilization no one has 
 successfully accomplished the roommate switch. In the middle ages you 
 could get locked up for even suggesting it." 
"They didn't have roommates in the middle ages." 
"How do you know?" 
"Well, for one thing, they didn't have apartments." 
"Well, I'm sure at some point between the years 800 and 1200 somewhere 
 there were two women living together." 
	-Jason Alexander & Jerry Seinfeld, "Seinfeld"