Random things I'm loving about Wiseguy
I'm up to the end of S2 (minus the arc that's missing due to legal problems with using the music, grr) and waiting for S3 to arrive. That's just as well since there are other things I need to be doing and this sad delay in seeing more episodes may enable me to get them done. It's better that a major work deadline and a new-fandom high don't meet in a dark alleyway, since my money would be on the new-fandom high.
I'm going to amuse myself doing notes on the good bits in the episodes like I did for Boston Legal, so I can easily find them again. In the meantime, a few random things I really like:
1. Vinnie has so many different versions of his name, which people use at different times for different effects. He's Vincent (his legal name according to his OCB card), Vincenzo, Vince, Vinnie, even Vin if you count what his brother's high school friend calls him. His mother only calls him Vincenzo. Sonny mostly called him Vinnie, including right from the beginning even though Vinnie introduced himself as Vince, but sometimes used Vince when he wanted to be a little more distant. Pete always called him Vinnie. Frank starts out calling him Vince and gradually introduces more "Vinnie"s as they became closer. Sometimes Frank calls him one name and then the other in consecutive sentences for slightly different shades of meaning.
2. Both Vinnie and Frank say "All I ever wanted was to be a cop": Vinnie to Roger in Date with an Angel, Frank to Vinnie in Stairway to Heaven.
3. At first glance Vinnie is not my type. You can't go too far wrong with tall, dark and handsome, but he's a bit too dark and swarthy and I prefer a much lighter build. However, on better acquaintance, the man is gorgeous in nearly every scene (at least when he doesn't have a beard). It's his expression as much as anything - he so often looks thoughful and concerned and conflicted.
4. Roger, Daryl, Frank and Paul all fairly explicitly tell Vinnie how good he is at his job (Daryl only does it because he wants something, but I still like it). Roger: I fell for it like a kid in short pants. Daryl: You're the best there is, Vince. You were born to it. Frank, talking about Raglan to Vinnie: The only man I know who comes anywhere close to your league. Paul: You and Frank are the best team at OCB.
5. Amber. How neat that Vinnie falls for (as his mother complains about) an older widowed woman who dyes her hair! I love her genuine laughter and disbelief when he tells her he's an OCB agent.
6. Vinnie standing up to Mel Profitt and also Roger to tell them he would go only so far with carrying out their orders and no further. With Mel's gun pointed at him in Fascination for the Flame: "I don't know what you're going to do, Mel, I only know what I'm not going to do." The scene in Player to Be Named Now where Vinnie pulls a gun on Mel - "Let's get one thing straight" - after Mel has shot at him with an empty gun supposedly containing a bullet is one of the hottest things I've seen for a long time.
7. Frank's great enthusiasm when it looks like Vinnie's connection to Don Aiuppo may result in a conviction for the OCB in Le Lacrime D'Amore. Vinnie is worried about what it might do to his family, but Frank reminds him "Vince, this is what we do. This is what it's all about, the aggravation, the wreckage that becomes our home life, this is it. This is the pay dirt."
I'm going to amuse myself doing notes on the good bits in the episodes like I did for Boston Legal, so I can easily find them again. In the meantime, a few random things I really like:
1. Vinnie has so many different versions of his name, which people use at different times for different effects. He's Vincent (his legal name according to his OCB card), Vincenzo, Vince, Vinnie, even Vin if you count what his brother's high school friend calls him. His mother only calls him Vincenzo. Sonny mostly called him Vinnie, including right from the beginning even though Vinnie introduced himself as Vince, but sometimes used Vince when he wanted to be a little more distant. Pete always called him Vinnie. Frank starts out calling him Vince and gradually introduces more "Vinnie"s as they became closer. Sometimes Frank calls him one name and then the other in consecutive sentences for slightly different shades of meaning.
2. Both Vinnie and Frank say "All I ever wanted was to be a cop": Vinnie to Roger in Date with an Angel, Frank to Vinnie in Stairway to Heaven.
3. At first glance Vinnie is not my type. You can't go too far wrong with tall, dark and handsome, but he's a bit too dark and swarthy and I prefer a much lighter build. However, on better acquaintance, the man is gorgeous in nearly every scene (at least when he doesn't have a beard). It's his expression as much as anything - he so often looks thoughful and concerned and conflicted.
4. Roger, Daryl, Frank and Paul all fairly explicitly tell Vinnie how good he is at his job (Daryl only does it because he wants something, but I still like it). Roger: I fell for it like a kid in short pants. Daryl: You're the best there is, Vince. You were born to it. Frank, talking about Raglan to Vinnie: The only man I know who comes anywhere close to your league. Paul: You and Frank are the best team at OCB.
5. Amber. How neat that Vinnie falls for (as his mother complains about) an older widowed woman who dyes her hair! I love her genuine laughter and disbelief when he tells her he's an OCB agent.
6. Vinnie standing up to Mel Profitt and also Roger to tell them he would go only so far with carrying out their orders and no further. With Mel's gun pointed at him in Fascination for the Flame: "I don't know what you're going to do, Mel, I only know what I'm not going to do." The scene in Player to Be Named Now where Vinnie pulls a gun on Mel - "Let's get one thing straight" - after Mel has shot at him with an empty gun supposedly containing a bullet is one of the hottest things I've seen for a long time.
7. Frank's great enthusiasm when it looks like Vinnie's connection to Don Aiuppo may result in a conviction for the OCB in Le Lacrime D'Amore. Vinnie is worried about what it might do to his family, but Frank reminds him "Vince, this is what we do. This is what it's all about, the aggravation, the wreckage that becomes our home life, this is it. This is the pay dirt."