Shades of Blue: Good Cop, Bad Cop had me going. Tears were stinging the old eyes as Saperstein lay in his plain wooden coffin, decked out in his “police dress uniform” with a chest full of medals and then? That pesky old bugger, bad continuity stepped in again and threw this viewer right out of the moment.
If not bad continuity it was at least someone asleep at the camera, as it were, where from one angle the dead body, “in-state” is so high in the open coffin that the actor’s shoulders are above the top of the oblong box. The camera angle changes to looking down upon the dead man and suddenly, in the blink of an eye, Saperstein’s shoulders are against the bottom of his coffin and the head which was above the box is now inside it.
In a few seconds, we are taken out of that teary moment where we consider the fate of poor Saperstein and instead marvel at his incredible floating body trick.
This is no “optical illusion” at work here, but flat-out sloppy work by someone. It could be the director, camera operator or the editor, or a combination of all three. Regardless of who may ultimately be to blame this had the same affect as the shotgun mess in episode two; “Original Sin.”
Both these continuity glare-ers take the viewer right out of the moment. It serves to slap us up-side the head and scream:
“You’re watching a TV show stupid! Now grab a tissue and wipe your face!”
It seems that the producers hope that no-one will notice these moments that do not match, or fail to follow-through with what is happening on-screen. Similar to those times when, for the sake of safety apparently, a character points a cocked gun at someone and in the close-up, the hammer is suddenly “un-cocked.” Then the camera goes back for a medium or long-shot and it is cocked again. This creates an instant splash of ice-cold reality that takes even the most imaginative of us right out of the moment.
Thanks chaps.
Leaving this moment behind, or to be more accurate moments as this grievous sin of the “floating body” is committed twice, Good Cop, Bad Cop tries to tie a few things up. The “bad cops” who beat seven kinds of hell out of Cristina’s boyfriend are given their comeuppance and (as a perfect lead-in to the emotional funeral) Santos makes things right with her daughter and the new “man” in her life.
Another tear inducing moment has Tess getting those posthumous Mets tickets from David Saperstein. The same man who she has continually piled disdain upon for being the rat. A tissue grabbing scene where only the hardest of hearts could not be moved by the dead Sap’s voice reading his note to Tess and her reaction to the message he wrote.
Warren Kole‘s handler is working oh so carefully to get under his dream girl’s skin. His FBI Douche-bag should have dangerous stalker tattooed on his forehead, although to be fair, Jennifer Lopez‘ Harlee was aware of this side of Stahl from the get go.
By the end of the episode, Santos has opted to “roll” on Ray Liotta‘s Wozniak and the two “park cops” who beat up Cristina’s boyfriend and his pal have had some rough justice dispensed by Woz and the rest of the “fam.” Nava also manages to insult Harlee and she says in response to his Stahl induced allegations:
“Thanks for coming all the way down here to call me a whore.”
At least mother and daughter have gotten their trust issues sorted and, for better or worse, Loman is officially a member of Woz’ team.
Kudos to Ray Liotta for dancing like a madman as his character vacillates between “good cop and bad cop” as he attempts to lead his crew on both sides of the law. One moment dropping motivational platitudes about being “good” and then doing the same on the “less than good front.”
Shades of Blue ends with Harlee obligating to the FBI side. She has gone over to Stalker Boy’s corner but it remains to be seen just how long she will stay there. The series airs Thursdays on NBC T.un in and see if Harlee makes good on her promise to “dob” Woz in and to see how many other scenes the show’s makers can mess up with bad continuity.
Mikes Film Talk 