Went to visit Annie Heise's twitter last night to congratulate her on a wonderful performance re-visit on "The Architect". Wasn't expecting it but she actually responded within a 1/2 hour. Told her about this wonderful black-list chat site but I think professional cast members are somewhat restricted in where they can post and participate under their real names. Most are allowed twitter feeds, instagrams, facebook, etc. but mingling with fans & viewers seems a producer's no-no. In any event I gave her the site coordinates and hopes that she'll at least read the site - and even post if permitted. Perhaps she'll tell a few other cast members and fellow actors about our most underground site! lol

lara1 wrote:

Big Badd Bazzer wrote:

I think as Red starts taking on more burden and has criminal shackles applied - the other members of his Post Office team are becoming strangely un-burdened of their own physical (or mostly psychological) shackles. Last week Samar was imbued with a strange new sense of humour, Aram is now a trained sniper/assassin and even more of a humanist, Janet/Elise is one of the good guys now, Ressler is becoming intransigent to internal authority - opening up the Reven Wright investigation regardless of orders from up top, Dembe is still a right hand man but occasionally shows his left, Tom is searching for his roots vs. being a professional spy and even Lizzy has come full circle since being re-instated and her gullibility index has been reduced substantially.

Comments?

BBB - agree with your observations.  I think part of why the show seems to have got its "groove" back - per Honey West! is that it is back to fully fleshing out the aspects of the characters vs the focus on procedural.  And they have done it most recently in a way that has pulled in audience involvement again so we can better  relate to the characters again (vs observing them) and can therefore become more invested in outcomes.  Well that is my two cents anyway from the comfort of my couch!  LOL
 

Character development is the key to show success. Lots of TBL characters were flat-lining (Liz, Harold, Ressler to name the main ones) and they had to re-tool their souls.
Person of Interest would have been a tremendous show given its high level of writing and unique plotting, scenery and direction. But when you imbue the main stock with unique presenters like Amy Acker, Michael Emerson, James Caviezel, Sarah Shahi & Taraji P Henson you get magic.
The latest comeback show by Katherine Heigl is testimony to this principle. Heigl is one of the most attractive actors on the planet - but they are trying way too hard to make it work. The dialog is forced, the characters have little to no chemistry with each other and cancellation is on the horizon. It will last longer than most cancelled shows but Heigl's new pilot is far worse than anything perpetrated on network tv this season.

Tatiana wrote:

I loved Annie Heise! How sweet of her to respond to you, BBB :-D

I have to rewatch though because she showed up so quickly and now she's working for the NSA? I hope she can have more spots on TBL. As Elise she was nice, pretty, but kind of superficial. I like Janet much better lol! She really sparks up the screen!

Maybe she thought I was the real Baz, who knows? lol
Anyways, you nailed it. She did her job as a fake lover for Aram in her first series of appearances but was mostly a seductive beauty queen. She did it - and did it well.
Now, she's one of the good guys - and her smile and spunk kinda lights up the room - sort of the way the late Mary Tyler Moore did when she appeared on screen.

Its a rare commodity for a young actress to possess. Most just go thru the motions, trying to stick to script and nail their lines. There are very few Amy Ackers & Taraji Hensons who go that extra mile, pushing the envelope with nuance or accent (or even posture) that make television drama viewing a pleasure vs. a chore.

In cable tv news - I'd say the only ones with this trait are Brook Baldwin of CNN and that feisty dark-haired lady on MSNBC.

Kelly Ripa has it - but its mostly because she's glib.

On panel shows - Sara Haines is starting to stand out on The View because she's a bit more under-stated and calm than the manic Joy Behar or the eccentric Whoopi Goldberg. The new lady, Jedediah Bila has real potential as she can get more animated than any of the others - only problem is she really likes to confront other panel members with her opinions.
 

Big Badd Bazzer wrote:

If they decide to use Annie some more that would be great.
My recommendation is to use her much like NCIS LA uses Israeli/Russian super-model Bar Paly - as an occasional member of the team.
Would love to somehow have the show-runners hook Annie/Janet up with Mozhan/Samar and have them get to know each other thru a mission directive. Aram still has feelings for both - and the results of pairing up Janet w/ Samar could lead to some very funny moments - or a couple violent ones! lol

Who knows, BBB. We haven't had an outside agency character participating in the stories since Meera Malik of the CIA. Maybe get someone from NSA assigned to the Task Force. That could be a good thing.

"Internal affairs review" for Aram and the bazooka. Love it, Colleen! (happy)

OK, so I am thinking about "Janet" and why did she come back in last night's episode (apart from the obvious, the hacking convention).  It seems that various US government agencies fought over her, to cut a deal and get her to work for them, and the NSA won out.

So - wild theory of the day - is/was "Janet" working for the agency that may be helping to take down Red?  I'm wondering what piece of the puzzle she has.  I'm wondering if they would have just dropped her into that episode like that without some sort of connection to something else in the plot.  Just my opinion, though, I could be wrong.  Or, she could turn out to be an asset of Red's...I can't remember Red's comments at the end of The Thrushes episode but the episode did leave open a couple of questions, as I recall.....

then again maybe she's back to generate an interesting dynamic with Samar and Aram....

Last edited by lara1 (2/17/2017 5:37 pm)

HW - that is really interesting, I will have to check out what is on aly's site.  I haven't had a chance to wander around other sites as yet.....And yes, suddenly Cooper is under pressure.  It could be because Red kidnapped Isabella Stone and did that damage to the convoy, but maybe that was just a convenient excuse to start putting pressure on him.  It's not the first time Red has absconded with a blacklister...LOL

Last edited by lara1 (2/17/2017 6:18 pm)

Lara - in the previews for The Apothecary you can see that Red's banker is at the dinner where Red becomes poisoned. I hadn't caught that before.
I really do believe we are getting closer to the Big Bad Cabal/Shadow Government. 

These three themes struck me as important in connection with Episode 4.14:
I find it interesting that we have two instances in this episode of people in unrelated plots with anonymous people paying them to commit crimes: Neither Richard Game's mother nor Judith Pruitt/Isabella Stone knew who was behind their assignments.. It's rare that we have mirroring like that going on in the same episode. I wonder if this is pointing to same person being behind the attack on Red and the disappearance of Christopher Hargrave? 

The other theme that we've had in this episode and in the Natalie Luca episode is people being forced to participate in crimes: Natalie Luca was forced to assassinate Red's accountant or have Isabella Stone turn her and the boyfriend into Hawthorne. In other words, they would lose their freedom. Aram was forced to help with the prison break. I'm thinking this theme is foreshadowing some reveal about Red, Katarina, and Liz and what happened to get them involved with the Cabal and the fulcrum.

The third theme that turns up in this episode is someone whose death was faked. Gavin Pruitt walked away from everything he loved and killed himself to the world to protect the innocence of his wife and children. Is this what Katarina did when she faked her death? Is this was Raymond Reddington did to protect Carla and Jennifer? I have a feeling this theme will be coming back around before the end of the season.
 

lara1 - Yes, that's what I was thinking about the forcings foreshadowing Kaplan being held by someone and forced to give up information.