Some thoughts on "I Don't Wanna Dye," the March 31 episode of NYPD Blue, after a brief summary: --------------------------------------------- Tommy Richardson's wife assists Bobby and Diane in implicating her husband in the murder of his lover; Andy's visit to the hospital for a catscan turns into one disaster after another; Greg gets more baffled than usual while trying to figure out how a murder victim turned up shot in a bathtub with an electrocuted but not dead man next to him ----------------------------------------------- And now, some thoughts on each storyline: TOMMY, CAN YOU HEAR ME: There was some good and some bad to be found here. On the good side, Diane Russell has finally been given something of a spine and tough attitude , particularly in the squadroom scene with Tommy. Also on the good side, there was the usual excellent silent work by Smits, and the final scene at the Richardson home was genuninely scary. On the minus side, I probably would've rather seen the Richardson case stay unresolved, or, at least, have a considerably longer waiting period beforehand. And there were a couple of credibility gap questions, most notably the idea that Tommy -- who knows Bobby and Andy are on his case and his wife is starting to get suspicious -- would send Laurie anywhere near the precinct on an errand. (Woulda worked much better if Laurie had come in entirely on her own.) Other than that, not much to say about this story. Again, the prospect of seeing Tommy Richardson finally see justice wasn't exactly keeping me awake at nights, so I found it hard to care, despite some very strong performances by the team of Smits and Delaney. MEDICAL SNAFU: I almost didn't want to watch this episode because aspects of this storyline hit a little close to home, but I'm glad I did, because it was terrific, and the main saving grace of the hour. The entire thing worked as a great paranoid nightmare for Andy, whose fear of doctors, bigotry and substance abuse problems all came into play practically within seconds. (I especially liked Dr. Gupta's oblivious second use of "We call it the chemical blindfold" as a sign that he says it so regularly that a patient declining wouldn't register). And the eventual use of a narcotic to calm Andy down had, of course, the opposite effect, and gave Franz some very nice moments. But what may have been the best thing here was Sylvia's role in all this. It could've been easy to write her as hysterical with panic over Andy's condition, but she wasn't. She was a rock. The way she stood up to the doctors was one of the best examples of the bond of marriage I have ever seen in an entertainment medium. As bad as it'll probably feel for Sharon Lawrence when Fired Up gets officially canned (an increasingly strong likelihood), it'll be much better for the show when she's back 24-7. And an added treat was the (presumably) brief return of Doc Mondzac, a character I was told we'd seen the last of once Titus Welliver became a cop on Brooklyn South. Not only was it a good idea to bring Mondzac back so the entire show didn't come across as one big anti-doctor screed, but it was neat to be reminded that Welliver can act -- physical appearances aside (and not even there, thanks to the wardrobe), I didn't see any traces of the hothead he plays on Bklyn South here. MEDAVOY THE MORON: I'm sorry, but this one bugged me. If last week's episode was a rare example of a personal subplot being well-integrated into the crime stories, this week's was a classic case of why the crime stories and personal stuff shouldn't be written independently. When last we left Greg, he had just demonstrated tremendous grace under fire and had killed a man. In the very next show -- which we know is taking place the very next day because of Andy's catscan -- he's not only right back in the rotation, but shows absolutely no after-effects of the shooting incident. Instead, he's back to the same old insufferable boor that he becomes when the writers are looking for cheap laughs. Bad, bad continuity there. I like the idea of there being a cop in the squad who's not suave, who doesn't have all the answers, and who occasionally gets on his coworkers nerves, but too often Greg goes well beyond that into a clueless dolt who induces cringes and/or eye-rolls from his coworkers everytime he opens his mouth. I could maybe -- maybe -- see Greg getting this out of sorts from a case that was really complex. This wasn't it, especially once the chainsaw turned up to explain how/why the father got shocked. Maybe a lot more got cut out that we didn't see -- and it certainly had a "let's wrap this up quickly to get back to Andy and Bobby" feel towards the end -- but it was a pretty run-of-the-mill case made noteworthy only because Greg was annoying Jill at every turn. Ugh. In other news, Fancy didn't have much to do this week other than sneak a Twinkie (or similarly creamy junk food), while Dolores and Jill shared a very nice, albeit extraneous scene. I'd still rather see Bill Brochtrup in that seat (especially since his much-ballyhooed "return" doesn't seem to have gone anywhere), but Lola Glaudini's slowly turning Dolores into an interesting person, and less of a caricature than anyone who's been the PAA outside of Upstairs John and Donna (and even they had their stereotype problems, which Dolores has thus far avoided). That's it for this week. Up next: a repeat of the season premiere. If you don't understand it, don't worry; rumor has it nobody at BochcoLand got it, either. :) 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: "There is no cannibalism in the British Navy, absolutely none, and when I say none, I mean there is a certain amount." -Graham Chapman, "Monty Python's Flying Circus"