21st June, 2020.
*Spoilers*
It’s got to be said: sometimes you need a break.
Sometimes … ?
Even a change of pace, can be good: for even a change of subject.
Or poking your nose in, where it’s not wanted.
Franky, I’ve spent a couple of weeks doing just that: doing a couple of pieces about digital poverty.
I’d don’t know if that would grab you …
~≈†≈~
At ANY rate … ?
Sunday night’s are getting to be something of a tradition.
I watch TV.
I caught the twelfth series of Doctor Who on a Sunday night.
And, just recently … ?
Episode nine … ?
Has left me panting …
~≈†≈~
Episode 9 — Sing, Sing, Sing — opens with the traditional summaries of recent episodes, including last weeks.
Then shows us Detectives Lewis Michener and Tiago Vega (Nathan Lane and Daniel Zovatto) discussing their options: in the wake of a Nazi sneak attack.
With Michener menacing LA’s senior Nazi, Richard Goss (Thomas Kretschmann): daring the Nazi to kill him on the spot.
Only to find that Goss* … knows exactly where Michener’s children and grandchildren live …
That … ? Is possibly the point Michener's decides he needs to speak to the only person he feels can help.
Murder Inc boss, Benny Berman (Brad Garrett†.)
Detective Michener wants to make sure someone is safe …
~≈†≈~
Meanwhile … ?
Councilman Townsend (Michael Gladis) is disappointed: his plans for ‘his’ version of the motorway are coming to nothing: as Councilwoman Beck has him over a barrel.
As Alex gently reminds him, though?
He can always do the one thing he’s been avoiding for years: talk to his father, Jerome Townsend (the late Brian Dennehy).
A prospect the Councilman isn’t relishing.
On the night the Councilman’s having that meeting … ?
Detective Vega takes Sister Molly (Kerry Bishé) to the Crimson Cat: on the same night his eldest brother, Raul (Adam Rodriguez) takes their mother, Maria (Adriana Barraza) … only to be joined by the youngest brother and sister Mateo and Josephina (Johnathan Nieves and Jessica Garza) …
Only — in a club full of dancers, and under the eyes of a malevolent Rio (Natalie Dormer) — for Tiago to give his family the dressing down he feels they badly need to hear.
What the Vega family don’t know … ?
Is that Detective Michener has been ordered to take Diego (Adan Rocha) to San Quentin.
Along with officers of the uniform division …
Diego … ?
The incredibly framed Diego?
Whilst the Vega family are enjoying a measure of reconciliation, Diego is lynched: whilst the shocked, and helpless, Lewis Michener looks on, and can do nothing …
~≈†≈~
Right …
I’m glad I’ve put a bloody great *Spoilers* alert at the start of this review: I loved getting read.
But also appreciate that I’ve just revealed this episode’s shocking ending … and would have rather you read this — or watched the video version —once you’ve seen the episode.
Shocking?
Yes.
A lynching is not a pleasant thing to see, nor does Sing, Sing, Sing pull its punches.
The episode shows us exactly how unpleasant some police can be.
At a time when the death of George Floyd, at the hands of a police officer, makes the subject very relevant.
The actual episode, itself?
Is a fantastic piece of work.
Dormer? Has been subdued … but menacing.
Spiner, as a captain, who’s set up one of his own detectives? Truly two faced.
Adam Rodriguez, Adriana Barraza, Johnathan Nieves and Jessica Garza as the Vega family, are beautiful to watch: you can honestly see this is a family breaking, after receiving shocking news from Zovatto …
But not yet knowing that a member of their own community has been killed … and is hanging from a lamppost in their street.
My admiration goes, again, to Nathan Lane: his performance as the angry, but helpless, Michener in this episode … ?
Is both riveting, sympathetic and something I can’t take my eyes from.
Given that? And the horrifying climax to this penultimate episode?
I’m back next week, for episode ten.
I hope you care to join me.
* There’s a similar line or two about Lord Vetinari: in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. The Disc’s most famous despot made sure the thieves guild leaders knew that he knew where their children went to school. Vetinari believed that, if you were going to have crime … it should be organised …
† Going by their respective IMDb pages, Lane is some 5’6”. Garrett? Some 6’9”. Being 5’2”, and known someone 7’2”? I know how that works …
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