A big week for TV. All good episodes, and a peek at an FX series called The Old Man.
NCIS Origins: Monsoon
Monsoon is another largely Franks episode. He steps in to help a homeless veteran whose friend is "gone". The man leads Franks to a homeless encampment where they find his friend has been murdered, hit in the head with a brick.
As the team fans out trying to piece together what happened, we see in flashback Franks running drugs after his return home from the war. His motorcycle and the stash are stolen at a gas station and he starts the long walk home. He meets Tish as she needs help with a flat tire, and afterward she helps him with a haircut as she's a stylist.
In the present day, he's been stalking a laundromat trying to find the man who attacked her, lying about being at work. When that all comes out, she packs her things and leaves him.
For Gibbs, a lot of memories of his time overseas come up while working with the homeless vets, and he takes a brochure about a support group where vets can talk about their experiences, then sits in with the group at episodes end. For all he's been through, and all he's been learning working at NCIS, there's still a vulnerability and a type of innocence about Gibbs.
Will Trent: No Faith In Second Chances
This was an action packed episode, full of twists and turns. At the end I'm going, oh no, you're not ending with that.
I have to note there are two cases this week, with Will and Faith trying to identify a completely burned body, and winding a narrative through a tale of a man who wants another man's wife.
The key story is a shocking episode opening with a farmer who hears pounding on his door, so he gets his gun and calls 911 to say someone is breaking in.
Next we find Angie and Ormewood at the farm, trying to figure out why someone broke in and killed the farmer. Fanning out across the property looking for evidence, and they find a girl dead, her tongue cut out.
The scene mirrors the crime scene where John Shelly's high school girlfriend was raped and murdered identically, the crime he was sent to prison for.
Though warned not to get too involved in cases anymore, Angie digs in on the case, and John tells her he was innocent, and that he confessed because his mother was dying. A box of notebooks kept by John's mom are what makes Angie think he may be innocent, but there's another killing, identical to the others. John tries to escape his apartment with a cooler with a tongue in it.
In side bits, Will and Marion, his new love interest share a salmon dinner at Will's place.
Sunny defies Amanda and invites her dad to the apartment for dinner. When Amanda busts in, there's a huge confrontation. You invited him into my home, she says. This is laden with, all his enemies could find her place and come for Sunny and Amanda. I love Sunny and her dad and wish they could be together.
So, at episode's end Angie asks Will for help. She feels the answer is in the notebooks and she missed it. She tells Will she never felt anything off about John when she met him, and her instincts would have told her he was a bad guy.
It seems obvious to me John's brother in law is the culprit in the old killings and the new ones. There's a possibility its a lawyer who is a dark and sketchy guy, but nah, the Brother in law has means, motive and opportunity. Let's just fast forward to next week and take that man down. Bingeing is simpler. Just keep going till the end!
Elspeth: Tiny Town
I've caught up to the weekly release of episodes. This Valentine's Day episode is completely charming!
There's a street installation in NYC called the Iris which gives New Yorker's a peek at a street in a small Scottish village, and the village a peek at a busy New York street.
A musician sits and watches the NYC street and he and the waitress from the pub nearby have been watching a couple meet and hope their romance will thrive. Instead, another man enters the scene and appears to threaten the woman who falls and drops a heart shaped box of chocolates, then suddenly she's choking and falls dead. The musician can't get anyone's attention to help her.
Soon enough the NYPD is on the scene, with Kaya, Detective Edwards, and Elspeth leading the investigation. It's totally charming the way Angus is watching this scene anxiously, when suddenly Elspeth does what she does, suddenly peeking in from the side of the screen. She's in pink with a fuzzy hat with hearts.
Angus is smitten immediately, and as they communicate by phone, each from their own side of the screen, Elspeth begins to be charmed as well.
There are romantic side stories for the Captain who has been taking dance lessons to surprise his wife for Valentines Day, and for Kaya, whose hunky new Coroner roommate brings her a cupcake from "work".
Matlock: A Traitor In Thine Own House
Sarah is still angry at Matty's betrayal last week in giving her case to Billy at the last minute. She teams up with Shae, who'd like to lay Matty out on The Rack and get a few secrets from her.
While working on a case of corporate espionage, the two do everything they can to make Matty uncomfortable. Matty fights back by reporting Shae to HR for harassment and ageism. Edwin and Alfie help set up a ruse that has Shae flying to Georgia to talk to an old coworker of Matty's, only it's Edwin in disguise.
In another twist, Edwin and Matty are wanting to try to find Alfie's father. They've no leads or clues, except Edwin does have one, which he lies to Matty about. It looks like Edwin wants a case of his own.
The Old Man
Jeff Bridges play the titular old man. When we meet him, the show emphasizes his age by having him get up to go to the bathroom multiple times a night, he has trouble putting on his socks, and he constantly makes what I call "old man noises". Don't ask Mr DOA about those, nope.
He calls his daughter, and he says something feels "off" lately. He sets up a string trap with cans outside his bedroom door. That night, he hears something downstairs and carefully makes his way down. His two rottweilers have a man cornered in a hall downstairs. Dan just pulls out a gun and kills the guy, then calls 911.
After talking to police, he gets a go bag ready and leaves the house with his two rottweiler dogs. Dan gets a call from an old fellow spy, John Lithgow's Harold Harper. Harper appears to want Chase to go to ground, disappear, and never be heard from again as it would bring up a past Harper doesn't want known.
I only watched the first episode but I liked it. Fast paced. Fun to see Bridge's character take down much younger men, with the help of his faithful dogs. Lithgow's character is hard to read. Is he really helping or is he just trying to shut Dan Chase up. I like how Chase refuses a deal that includes never contacting his daughter again, because they're important to each other, clearly, and it sounds from their conversations as if she know his past.
