30 Days Of TV- Episode you've watched more than five times
Since I've already discussed Many-Splendored Thing in such depth, and there really isn't a lot to say about my fondness for the Ernest T. Bass Andy Griffith shows, this post will be about "3 Men and Adena", the Emmy-winning Homicide episode.I think Tom Fontana is probably a dick(and, no, not because he called my fake husband David Simon "Nonfiction Boy,"...there are hosts of reasons) but "3 Men," is an undeniable writing achievement, and if I could ever figure out how he managed to make every time feel like the first time, man, I'd be a lucky little scribe indeed. And too fuckin' rich to have time for this bullshit, too.
For the uninitiated, 3 Men is probably the first time we're absolutely sure that H:LOTS is Not Your Dad's Cop Show. Because, the first and second season throughline of the Watson case seems to follow what "we know" about procedurals, right? We've got the sensitive(OMG, do we ever!) rookie teamed with the showboat older cop who doesn't want a partner, a tempestuous captain, and numerous blind alleys(Although, in typical "Simonverse" fashion, one that starts out quite comic, when Bayliss's fingerprint search pulls in a twelve-year-old kid, turns heartbreaking when he tells Pembleton "What do you mean, you've never been arrested, you're black?!")
So when arabber Risley Tucker gets pulled in for the girl's murder, we're primed by forty years of television to think we know what we'll see. Right? Possibly a heart-rending confession, maybe something will just pop into Pembleton's head, or maybe we'll be saved by The Magic of Forensics...somebody punching up weeks worth of technical data in forty-eight minutes.
But this is based on a real murder, one that Baltimore failed to solve. So FrankenTim ultimately fail as well, although every time, I think the clock will run a little longer and save my man Timmy from the case that dogged the rest of his professional life.
For the uninitiated, 3 Men is probably the first time we're absolutely sure that H:LOTS is Not Your Dad's Cop Show. Because, the first and second season throughline of the Watson case seems to follow what "we know" about procedurals, right? We've got the sensitive(OMG, do we ever!) rookie teamed with the showboat older cop who doesn't want a partner, a tempestuous captain, and numerous blind alleys(Although, in typical "Simonverse" fashion, one that starts out quite comic, when Bayliss's fingerprint search pulls in a twelve-year-old kid, turns heartbreaking when he tells Pembleton "What do you mean, you've never been arrested, you're black?!")
So when arabber Risley Tucker gets pulled in for the girl's murder, we're primed by forty years of television to think we know what we'll see. Right? Possibly a heart-rending confession, maybe something will just pop into Pembleton's head, or maybe we'll be saved by The Magic of Forensics...somebody punching up weeks worth of technical data in forty-eight minutes.
But this is based on a real murder, one that Baltimore failed to solve. So FrankenTim ultimately fail as well, although every time, I think the clock will run a little longer and save my man Timmy from the case that dogged the rest of his professional life.