The Guardian episode analysis.
Hi! I'm a huge Simon Baker fan and have been since the days The Guardian aired on tv. I, of course am a fan of The Mentalist/Patrick Jane (how could I not) but my first love is Nick Fallin. I have finally bought the dvds of season 1 and upon rewatch I remembered why I loved Nick and that show as much as I did and decided to do an analysis of this series. So basically I will do every week an in-depth episode analysis.
Each episode analysis will contain :
A quick synopsis,a part about Nick, a part about Nick and Burton (just love the father/son relationship in this show), Nick and Lulu (when she's in the ep), and a part on the other character(s) who has/have the b-story in the episode.
Voila. I hope some of you guys here will appreciate my breakdowns and hopefully they will create discussions.
For starters (before next week's entry) I did a short and quite general analysis of the pilot. I don't know why but I didn't feel like doing a really in-depth analysis of it and wanted to keep that first entry more general. (I think I will start the in-depth analysis with episode 2).
Anyway enjoy behing the cut! (or at my journal : http://thebulle.livejournal.com/)
The pilot begins with Nick Fallin being sentenced to 1500 hours of community service as a child advocate - a Guardian. He was arrested and judged for drug use. We learn that Nick works with his father, Burton Fallin, at Fallin & Associates, a corporate law firm. We can see from the start that Nick and his dad have a strained relationship.
Nick's 1st case is a boy, Hunter Reed, whose father stabbed to death his mother in front of him. Nick’s job as a Guardian is to do what the kid wants. At first Nick is not pleased to work for the Community Legal services and clearly shows us that he doesn’t want to be there and take care of Hunter when he has work to do for his father back at the firm.
Anyway, Hunter wants to be with his dad...and in order for that to happen Nick has to help the father. Hunter’s father was under the influence of an experimental drug (he is schizophrenic) when he killed his wife and Nick wants/has to prove that the father was not responsible. He wants to file a civil suit against the pharmaceutical company who created the drug. I don’t want to recap the whole episode so I’m just going to end this paragraph by saying that the Hunter Reed story doesn’t end here and continues in other episodes of season 1.
Ok so now, my thoughts on Nicholas Fallin!
Nick’s character is very interesting I believe, because at first he appears as being this cold and arrogant man (i.e. The scene with Laurie Salt in which he is extremely rude and basically tells her that she looks like crap...), BUT in fact by the end of the episode we realize that there's more to Nick than that. (i.e. The final scene where he hugs Hunter Reed) I think that David Hollander was very clever in his pilot because he put us on the right path, when it comes to Nick and Nick & his father, from the beginning. We get from episode 1, a pretty good idea of who Nick is and what his problems might be and where they originated from. We immediately love him, despite his being rude, arrogant etc. BECAUSE we see that he is a man in pain…deeply scarred by his mother’s death, his relationship with his father. You just want to hug this man and protect him. This episode makes you want to watch the show to try and see why Nick is the way he is, you want to see him and Burton sort things out for example, you want Nick to smile, you want to see if he can be happy, you want to crack his shell dammit!!! You simply want to see him open up…I think this is why some of my favorite episodes/moments are the ones where he cries, or does something that would seem unusual if you have in mind the Nick from the fifteen first minutes of the pilot!
Simon Baker really proves with that role that he is an amazing actor. He didn’t get the deserved recognition for this role in my humble opinion and it’s a shame because he deserved it. Simon is now this TV superstar, sexiest man on TV guy…thanks to The Mentalist and I am truly glad for I love The Mentalist and I loooooove Patrick Jane, but for me he became my star and tv’s sexiest man back in the days when The Guardian aired! People shouldn’t disregard The Guardian…this series is often forgotten and underrated. I mean, Nick is such a complex character and Simon was just spot on in his portrayal. You really feel Nick’s pain…just watch Simon’s eyes…they tell you everything! Nick doesn’t talk a whole lot, he’s a closed shell, many times you would just want him to say what he feels and unload his chest (other times you wish he wouldn’t say what was on his mind…lol), but the force of this character and of Simon’s portrayal is that in his eyes, through his facial expressions, you know! You just know what he feels and you don’t need words to understand. When you see Nick…you don’t see Patrick Jane! And that’s super important! Nick is Nick and Patrick is Patrick thanks to Simon’s tremendous talent. (Yeah I know…what can I do? I love the man)
Each episode analysis will contain :
A quick synopsis,a part about Nick, a part about Nick and Burton (just love the father/son relationship in this show), Nick and Lulu (when she's in the ep), and a part on the other character(s) who has/have the b-story in the episode.
Voila. I hope some of you guys here will appreciate my breakdowns and hopefully they will create discussions.
For starters (before next week's entry) I did a short and quite general analysis of the pilot. I don't know why but I didn't feel like doing a really in-depth analysis of it and wanted to keep that first entry more general. (I think I will start the in-depth analysis with episode 2).
Anyway enjoy behing the cut! (or at my journal : http://thebulle.livejournal.com/)
The pilot begins with Nick Fallin being sentenced to 1500 hours of community service as a child advocate - a Guardian. He was arrested and judged for drug use. We learn that Nick works with his father, Burton Fallin, at Fallin & Associates, a corporate law firm. We can see from the start that Nick and his dad have a strained relationship.
Nick's 1st case is a boy, Hunter Reed, whose father stabbed to death his mother in front of him. Nick’s job as a Guardian is to do what the kid wants. At first Nick is not pleased to work for the Community Legal services and clearly shows us that he doesn’t want to be there and take care of Hunter when he has work to do for his father back at the firm.
Anyway, Hunter wants to be with his dad...and in order for that to happen Nick has to help the father. Hunter’s father was under the influence of an experimental drug (he is schizophrenic) when he killed his wife and Nick wants/has to prove that the father was not responsible. He wants to file a civil suit against the pharmaceutical company who created the drug. I don’t want to recap the whole episode so I’m just going to end this paragraph by saying that the Hunter Reed story doesn’t end here and continues in other episodes of season 1.
Ok so now, my thoughts on Nicholas Fallin!
Nick’s character is very interesting I believe, because at first he appears as being this cold and arrogant man (i.e. The scene with Laurie Salt in which he is extremely rude and basically tells her that she looks like crap...), BUT in fact by the end of the episode we realize that there's more to Nick than that. (i.e. The final scene where he hugs Hunter Reed) I think that David Hollander was very clever in his pilot because he put us on the right path, when it comes to Nick and Nick & his father, from the beginning. We get from episode 1, a pretty good idea of who Nick is and what his problems might be and where they originated from. We immediately love him, despite his being rude, arrogant etc. BECAUSE we see that he is a man in pain…deeply scarred by his mother’s death, his relationship with his father. You just want to hug this man and protect him. This episode makes you want to watch the show to try and see why Nick is the way he is, you want to see him and Burton sort things out for example, you want Nick to smile, you want to see if he can be happy, you want to crack his shell dammit!!! You simply want to see him open up…I think this is why some of my favorite episodes/moments are the ones where he cries, or does something that would seem unusual if you have in mind the Nick from the fifteen first minutes of the pilot!
Simon Baker really proves with that role that he is an amazing actor. He didn’t get the deserved recognition for this role in my humble opinion and it’s a shame because he deserved it. Simon is now this TV superstar, sexiest man on TV guy…thanks to The Mentalist and I am truly glad for I love The Mentalist and I loooooove Patrick Jane, but for me he became my star and tv’s sexiest man back in the days when The Guardian aired! People shouldn’t disregard The Guardian…this series is often forgotten and underrated. I mean, Nick is such a complex character and Simon was just spot on in his portrayal. You really feel Nick’s pain…just watch Simon’s eyes…they tell you everything! Nick doesn’t talk a whole lot, he’s a closed shell, many times you would just want him to say what he feels and unload his chest (other times you wish he wouldn’t say what was on his mind…lol), but the force of this character and of Simon’s portrayal is that in his eyes, through his facial expressions, you know! You just know what he feels and you don’t need words to understand. When you see Nick…you don’t see Patrick Jane! And that’s super important! Nick is Nick and Patrick is Patrick thanks to Simon’s tremendous talent. (Yeah I know…what can I do? I love the man)