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In this season we get a lot more worldbuilding. Usually, I love lore. I want all the lore a show can give me. With this show my reaction is more 'please stop'. Everything to do with Jim's time in Peru just gets more and more problematic as the series goes on. I'll put a pin in this issue until we get to a certain episode, but I just wanted to acknowledge that it's a thing.
This season we also see more episodes where police incompetence, abuse and lack of understanding of the communities they 'serve and protect' being plot points. Back in Season 1, Jim initially discounts a fellow officer with strong community ties and then goes back and is all 'I should have listened.'
Unlike other procedurals I've seen, police corruption is not seen as an isolated problem. One bad apple does spoil the ones around it. Usually on a cop show if they do a police abuse episode it always ends with a strong tone of 'but 99.9% of law enforcement are heros'. The Sentinel is like 'police, they catch some evil doers but they also straight up murder people sometimes and maybe they could stop?'
Out of the show's first 15 episodes, two of them deal with cops either trying or suceeding to murder people. In a 3rd episode a law enforcement officer is ordering killings. 3 out of 15 episodes is a lot.
Out Of The Past - This episode rubs me the wrong way from start to finish. Jim being empathetic and helpful is presented wrong in this episode. He tells a highly successful POC single mother that she 'needs to work on accepting herself'. What? No. Just, no.
The writer wasn't one of the regulars. *checks IMDB* The only episode of The Sentinel he worked on was this one. That happens when shows do full seasons sometimes, outside writers get tapped to just get another script done. That is why I am not going to bother tearing this episode...
Wait, the episode's villain was played by Mark Pelligrino? OMG, he looks different. There was something familiar about him but I did not catch on. I only realized from looking at the imdb page.
Some original songs were commissioned for the show, and one is in this episode. That is why I often reach for it on a re-watch. I need to put a sticky on the disk reminding me to reach for something else in the future.
The singing on the track is fantastic, tho:
This would be a great episode if the script didn't suck.
Deep Water - In this episode we get flash backs to Jim with a mustache, earring and sleeveless plaid shirt back when he was a hotshot detective fresh from vice. He causes all kids of accidents chasing perps. He doesn't think about it and didn't care. He is a rebel, man. He also bounces a tennis ball while talking to the captain because he's too cool to stop playing with ... his tennis ball. What the hell is this visual mess?
Overall a good episode, but ... just ... look at this weird dutch angle bullshit:
That Jim had an earring was of course a fun detail for the ficcers. It's even mentioned by his new partner who is worried that the earring will give people 'the wrong impression'.
Oh shit I'm old. Wait. For the youngs, a single earring in one ear used to be a low-key way to signal that you were gay. A guy with two earrings was tough, or cool or a punk. A single earring was a way to signal being gay without most of the straights catching on. Also in that sleeveless plaid Jim could've been headed to a lumbertwink event, if he lost the dumb hat.
Someone getting both ears pierced then taking one out for the weekend used to be a thing. Grindr didn't exist, so it's how guys found each other. I just read some articles that claimed this was either 'a myth straight people held' or that only the right ear was 'the gay ear'. I think, like with the handkerchief code and laces code, the finer points may have been regional. I used to know people who took out one earring when going out and also disagreements over which earring to leave in. So what does the earring really mean? We don't know, but it's a fun detail that can lead to lots of speculation about either his life or his time on the vice squad.
In Reunion we have poor Simon wanting to go with Jim and Blair, but their camping trip only has room for two.
It's also got a group of cops chasing and shooting after an unarmed black man they framed, clearly trying to kill him rather than arrest him.
If someone wanted to only watch the top 6 or 7 episodes of The Sentinel I might include The Reunion. It's got a lot going for it. Jim and Blair speak in unison at a point. The two actors are very good at making the characters like an old married couple. The running joke of Blair being horrible at navigating is started. We get some low key character development of Blair because he is very good at stealing medical supplies from the ambulance.
Oof, that is a lot of words and I've barely put a dent in season 2. Sorry for the heavy topics, but I noticed the really high rate of evil law enforcement and wanted to chat about it.
This season we also see more episodes where police incompetence, abuse and lack of understanding of the communities they 'serve and protect' being plot points. Back in Season 1, Jim initially discounts a fellow officer with strong community ties and then goes back and is all 'I should have listened.'
Unlike other procedurals I've seen, police corruption is not seen as an isolated problem. One bad apple does spoil the ones around it. Usually on a cop show if they do a police abuse episode it always ends with a strong tone of 'but 99.9% of law enforcement are heros'. The Sentinel is like 'police, they catch some evil doers but they also straight up murder people sometimes and maybe they could stop?'
Out of the show's first 15 episodes, two of them deal with cops either trying or suceeding to murder people. In a 3rd episode a law enforcement officer is ordering killings. 3 out of 15 episodes is a lot.
Out Of The Past - This episode rubs me the wrong way from start to finish. Jim being empathetic and helpful is presented wrong in this episode. He tells a highly successful POC single mother that she 'needs to work on accepting herself'. What? No. Just, no.
The writer wasn't one of the regulars. *checks IMDB* The only episode of The Sentinel he worked on was this one. That happens when shows do full seasons sometimes, outside writers get tapped to just get another script done. That is why I am not going to bother tearing this episode...
Wait, the episode's villain was played by Mark Pelligrino? OMG, he looks different. There was something familiar about him but I did not catch on. I only realized from looking at the imdb page.
Some original songs were commissioned for the show, and one is in this episode. That is why I often reach for it on a re-watch. I need to put a sticky on the disk reminding me to reach for something else in the future.
The singing on the track is fantastic, tho:
This would be a great episode if the script didn't suck.
Deep Water - In this episode we get flash backs to Jim with a mustache, earring and sleeveless plaid shirt back when he was a hotshot detective fresh from vice. He causes all kids of accidents chasing perps. He doesn't think about it and didn't care. He is a rebel, man. He also bounces a tennis ball while talking to the captain because he's too cool to stop playing with ... his tennis ball. What the hell is this visual mess?
Overall a good episode, but ... just ... look at this weird dutch angle bullshit:
That Jim had an earring was of course a fun detail for the ficcers. It's even mentioned by his new partner who is worried that the earring will give people 'the wrong impression'.
Oh shit I'm old. Wait. For the youngs, a single earring in one ear used to be a low-key way to signal that you were gay. A guy with two earrings was tough, or cool or a punk. A single earring was a way to signal being gay without most of the straights catching on. Also in that sleeveless plaid Jim could've been headed to a lumbertwink event, if he lost the dumb hat.
Someone getting both ears pierced then taking one out for the weekend used to be a thing. Grindr didn't exist, so it's how guys found each other. I just read some articles that claimed this was either 'a myth straight people held' or that only the right ear was 'the gay ear'. I think, like with the handkerchief code and laces code, the finer points may have been regional. I used to know people who took out one earring when going out and also disagreements over which earring to leave in. So what does the earring really mean? We don't know, but it's a fun detail that can lead to lots of speculation about either his life or his time on the vice squad.
In Reunion we have poor Simon wanting to go with Jim and Blair, but their camping trip only has room for two.
It's also got a group of cops chasing and shooting after an unarmed black man they framed, clearly trying to kill him rather than arrest him.
If someone wanted to only watch the top 6 or 7 episodes of The Sentinel I might include The Reunion. It's got a lot going for it. Jim and Blair speak in unison at a point. The two actors are very good at making the characters like an old married couple. The running joke of Blair being horrible at navigating is started. We get some low key character development of Blair because he is very good at stealing medical supplies from the ambulance.
Oof, that is a lot of words and I've barely put a dent in season 2. Sorry for the heavy topics, but I noticed the really high rate of evil law enforcement and wanted to chat about it.
