Shaggy Dog, City Goat Pt. 2

I say Holmes, we may have a mystery on our hands.

Why this picture?

In Part 1, we followed Mr. Allen and Ms. Meadows and their batty turn as a bickering couple who may also be the unwitting murderers of their son.

But, we’ve moved on. We’re into PART II, the HIGHLIGHTS POST ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE.

And, in a turn of events, there will now be a PART III!! (This’ll end up being longer than the episode itself!)

Why? Because I have a shit ton of memories about this one AND…

In recounting these stories, I stumbled upon a mystery as I pondered, “Hey, what’s up with the 'C' storyline involving the Mahoney lawsuits and Lewis’s untimely suspension?”

To solve that mystery, I’ll need to wait until tomorrow when my deep source gives me their scoop. Oh, it better be deep, funny, full of pathos, and snakes!

But, today we publish! On with PART II…

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THE HIGHLIGHTS:

The comedic duo of Diamond and Belz:

Kellerman was still enmeshed in the fallout from the Luther Mahoney case, but doesn’t let on about any of it until he’s served with a summons - then it’s a domino effect for everyone involved. As his character, Reed was doing a lot of juggling: he brilliantly portrays Kellerman's firm belief in what he did, his hubris, and his mounting anxiety - all while cracking wise.

Belz? He did what he was singularly phenomenal at, framing up the absurdity of the flashback case with his delish brand of dark, running commentary.

The Belz effect on Reed:

Remember when Reed busted out a Sherlock Holmes reference and that British dialect? Improvised. According to Reed, working with Richard permitted him to explore even more of his playfulness on camera. Though they may have only been partners on only three or four cases, their chemistry was par excellence!

Gharty and Ballard out in the boonies:

Ballard: This is America?

Gharty: It makes Baltimore look like Paris.

It was Day 3, and by now, I was in a wheelchair due to an on-set injury from the day before. However, the mud at this location was so thick from the rain that I wound up using crutches, which constantly got stuck in the sloppy terrain. The location had been a junkyard of sorts. Combine all that with our tip-toeing detectives rocking umbrellas, out of their element, and the dead-on background actors - and I didn’t have to do much except film the repartee pitting Gharty’s “old-school racism” versus Ballard’s “politically correct” naivete. That could have been written today.

Michelle Forbes as Julianna Cox:

Always great to act with, but what a dream to direct! She brought so much, appreciated direction (!), and had an innately dark and quirky vivacity. She really drove this episode and commanded the scenes she was in. So happy they wrote this episode for her to shine in.

Ballard steps up.

Callie brought, for lack of a better term, a determined idealism to her role. She may not have seemed like a detective, but there she was. Callie had great chops and she worked hard to distinguish herself from Melissa Leo’s Kay Howard and Michael Michele’s Rene Sheppard. Ballard was Straight Outta Seattle and eager to earn her stripes. Which she does in this episode.

Lewis’s lid:

During rehearsal with Jon Seda, Clark jumped in the Cav and left his faux-leather porkpie on the roof. That struck me as a premonition of his being suspended, so we decided to keep it in. I yelled action, they did their bit, then Jean panned the 16mm up to his hat, and ol’ Clark spontaneously grabbed it off the roof as the car pulled out. Viola!