Season One, Episode One
Fathers and Sons
This is an important episode. It's the
first one and being the first one, it's important. This is the moment
where you either gain an audience or lose it entirely. Sure, some
people might give you a second chance if your first episode falls a
little short of awesome, but there is so much television out there,
for all tastes and obsessions, that you really get one honest shot.
Ergo, first episodes are important. (I put the 'ergo' in there to
give this blog academic balls.) But here we are, going into a fourth
season and we're still all watching. And none of us are even a little
bit from Newfoundland, so it's not like it's playing on our homesick
heartstrings, the sight of brightly painted row houses and tall
masts. So, that's a win for you, Allan, that us privileged
Ontarioians still hunker down around the idiot box once a week to see
you get punched out and clumsy your way into the heart of your
attractive lady cop.
First scene – you remember that one,
right? Jake chasing Des through the charming and slightly mean
streets and across roofs of Saint John's while Malachi follows in the
pick-up shouting insults, advice, fatherly concern, and exposition
through Jake's radio? There's a lot to establish here, who is
important,what is he doing, why do we care? I'm pretty sensitive to
bad exposition; it gets under my skin like the itch of an unfortunate
trip to the bathroom in a patch of poison ivy; but while I'm aware of
it in this episode in a few places, it doesn't bug me.
Malachi: For God sake, Jake, we're
private investigators, not militia men!
Leslie: Is he going to be a problem?
Cop: Nah. He was a cop back in the
day, but the uniform didn't fit, I don't think.
Generally, though, the pertinent
information comes out in not at all annoying or out of character
dribbles that stem from the rest of the action/conversation.
I also love how the Des/Jake
relationship gets set up, even though we're not sure yet is Des is
more than just a one off character. But Des' whole: Don't hit me!
Don't hit me! And the number of times Jake smacks him around and
handcuffs him and takes his frustrations out of the poor kid. It's
like foreshadowing for their complex big brother/little brother thing
that we know and love.
I love the way Tinny totally plays both
her Uncle Jake and her Pappy with her whole 'women's troubles' excuse
for not going to school. I equally love the way Rose sees right
through her – which is one hell of clue to who Rose might be. Or
was.
Rose (when Mal is all shocked that she
reads lips): I got my own mystery.
The cross phone/split screen
conversation between Walter and Jake and Jake and Nikki.
Jake: She's completely crazy, Walter,
how did you ever let me marry her in the first place?
Nikki: Still me.
Classic, but it makes me laugh. Also,
the fact that Walter is in a strip club at, like, ten a.m.
Great moment, where Mal proves he can
speak street when he's trying to get info out of that whigger,
insurance fraud DJ/bank teller Tom.
Tom: Wanna pimp yer home entertainment
system?
Mal: I don't require any speakers,
thank you.
When Jake encounters Leslie for the
first time in the hospital, the shots get all frosted. You know the
look, that blurry, soft around the edges, classic movie-musical
thing, total Shirley Jones/Gordon MacRae in the moonlight of a studio
sound stage. It's entirely indicative of their seething attraction;
that's why that technique exists. Subtle, but effective.
It seems to me that Jake is way more
bumbling/stuttering in this episode (and kind of the season) than in
later ones. He's a smart guy so maybe it's a PI technique to get more
information out of people, like Columbo. Or maybe it's that he's
found it makes him cute and charming in his personal life, perfect
for snaring girls like Nikki who are practically insane. Or both.
But, to support the latter argument, Jake doesn't do the stuttering
thing with Leslie. Could this be the woman to whom he shows his true
face?
I love, in the lawyer/divorce
settlement scene when Nikki throws the jubejubes at Jake. Total crime
of passion, which only makes it funnier.
Awesome moment: Jake's silent shoulder
roll through the window into Laura Dawe's bathroom.
Also, serious points for the subtle
development of the drug subplot – with the picture of the guy who
dies working out at Big Gym, then the locker key, then Leslie and her
lackeys showing up to bust them.
I love the final framing – Des spray
painting Jake's car, Leslie beautifying up to knock on Jake's door,
and the lamp falling and breaking behind Leslie in the window
obviously from whatever Nikki and Jake are getting up to on the
inside while Leslie is checking her breath.
This opening episode is totally about
variations of love. Jake and Mal, Jake and Nikki, Jake and Leslie,
although they're just on the brink of affection. Mal and Rose, Jake
and Benny, Benny and his Dad, Benny and Theresa and their baby (love
the misdirection line from Benny btw: I am thinking of my family),
not to mention the Jake/Mal/Tinny familial love thing. What we do for
it and what it makes us do. It's interesting. It's like Allan and co
have set up the whole show as a heartwarming family drama with a PI
angle. Like Heartland, but with guns and, you know, decent writing.
