User Reviews

I liked the first couple of episodes of this new Netflix series, but the show nearly lost me with this episode. The show, if you're not familiar, is a quirky police procedural in the same vein as shows like Monk, but not as well written or acted. I mean, it's not bad, but it's also not terribly original or clever either. It's a show that goes into my "background noise" list; a show you watch when you want to relax and space out a little with something not too challenging.

The basic premise of the show is that Tony Danza plays a roguish disgraced former NYPD detective that was busted for non-violent money making crimes. The twist is that his son, played by Josh Groban, is also a detective but is an over-the-top straight arrow. There's also a checked-out detective partner who serves as comic relief and a female officer who serves as the will-they-or-won't-they potential love interest and sometimes investigative partner.

It's formulaic, so it doesn't matter if you miss parts here or there because you fell asleep (or something less pathetic sounding than falling asleep in front of the TV), and the mystery in every episode is just clever enough that you can get an ego boost by guessing the ending ten minutes in. Each episode is your typical whodunit, and in this episode (spoiler warning) the culprit is a Victoria's Secret model who has committed a murder.

Tony and his friends are playing poker at a local dive when they spot the model. Tony tries unsuccessfully to hit on her with a determination that borders on harassment; he insists on seeing her phone so he can put his number in it, which is required by the plot but would be really borderline behavior in real life. She shoots him down and he leaves a little embarrassed.

Anyway, she but-dials his voicemail while talking to the hit man she was there to meet, which is revealed in the latter half of the episode. The next morning, Tony wakes, severely hung over and with no memory of what happened the previous night (blacking out after heavy drinking, FYI, is a popular trope in television but would be an incredibly bad health sign in real life) to find the model at his doorstep, suddenly VERY interested in spending time with him.

Her interest soon grows into an obsession with finding his lost phone, and as he begins to lose interest in running all over town hunting for it she begins seducing him to keep him motivated. Finally Tony finds his phone, listens to the voicemail, and realizes what her true motivation is.

And here is where I really have a problem with this episode. The show tries to make it seem like a reasonable conundrum by having every male that sees the model do the humina humina thing over how hot she is, suggesting that sleeping with her would be akin to seeing the face of god. Tony goes so far as to go to confession to try and talk the priest into saying that sleeping with her would be ok if he turned her in afterwards.

But look past all the smoke and mirrors and what the show is really saying is that extorting someone for sex might be ok so long as they aren't screaming and crying "rape". I mean, Tony is a criminal, but not a thuggish scary one; he's more of a Han Solo scoundrel type that we're supposed to like, and he takes his indecision all the way to her apartment where he begins to make out with her before he has his "I can't do this" realization.

Look, I'm not an overly PC oriented person that obsesses over mansplaining and stuff like that, but it seems like knowingly extorting a person for sex, even if that person is really attractive and/or is a criminal, is just a plot element that shouldn't have a place in our storytelling anymore. I realize that the writers were probably aiming for "what would you overlook to be with your dream partner", but I think these are the kind of plots we should leave behind if we are really aiming for equality. Even the milder version of this plot idea, where the potential partner is "hot but crazy" is maybe something we should retire, imo, as they both encourage viewing people as conquests rather than human beings.

This episode was a little boring because there wasn't a lot of "meat" to the story. We had Tony being tricked by a model, but there were too many unnecessary and lengthy scenes showing that.

A few of the jokes didn't work, but the outrageousness of trying to nuke a phone in the microwave and the battle between Tony and Belinda over it made up for that.