Neal mcdonough

A crime procedural drama set in Los Angeles (sometimes called Boomtown) that is unlike any other show in it’s genre, in that within each episode a crime is investigated and told through the unique perspective of the individuals surrounding the felony, i.e. the criminals, the victims, the policemen, the detectives, the lawyers, the media etc. The story unravels as vignettes, with character title card chapters revealing that character’s side of the investigation. At best, the individual chapters serve as self contained and complete narratives that feed into the main narrative. At worst, a character chapter would break the momentum of the episode.

“The Iron Ceiling” is the episode Agent Carter has been building to all season, and the kind of hour it needs most at this point in its run, now that the show’s world is mostly established. The episode more than makes up for the minimal forward momentum in the Howard Stark/Leviathan quadrants, with increasing character depth and backstories for multiple auxiliary players that until now have been given short shrift. A big problem that the show needs to work around is that everyone besides Howard, and maybe Jarvis, exists only to support Peggy or expand on her as a character. Some headway is made with this during the team’s trip to Russia to intercept the transfer of blueprints between Leviathon and a mystery seller who the SSR is led to believe is Stark. It’s only enough to hint at what the show is capable of doing rather than completely break down the walls between Peggy and her icy coworkers, but a hint of steady character building at this stage is worth much more than an endless stream of exposition about secret organizations and deadly weapons.

Justified, Season 3, Episode 13: “Slaughterhouse” Written by Fred Golan Directed by Dean Perisol Airs Tuesdays at 10pm on FX “That’s cute.” Among the many virtues of Justified is its sense of dramatic, and even comedic irony. Throughout the third season, there have been countless references to Robert Quarles and his nifty arm-gun. We’ve seen …

Justified, Season 2, Episode 12: “Coalition” Written by Taylor Elmore Directed by Benjamin Cavell Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX So long, Dickie Bennett. No, “Coalition” doesn’t kill him off, exactly – the shot that he takes from Raylan hardly seems fatal – but a pretty definitive dressing-down (“You’re just a craven, stupid hillbilly …

Justified, Season 3, Episode 11: “Measures” Written by Benjamin Cavell Directed by John Dahl Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX “Measures” is far from the greatest hour of Justified‘s so-far stellar third season, but it’s a crucial one. After a season full of shifting allegiances, double-crosses, schemes, and new threats, we finally have a …

Justified, Season 3, Episode 10: “Guy Walks Into a Bar” Written by VJ Boyd Directed by Tony Goldwyn Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX In what was easily the best episode of the totally serialized portion of Justified‘s third season, we finally get to see just how freaky Robert Quarles can be. Now he’s …