"All In" ... All Bad? Not For Me

Popular opinion among the various blogs devoted to Vincent D'Onofrio and/or Law & Order CI is that "everything" that can be or needs to be said about this episode has been done...to death. So, while I will dispense with my "usual" recap...for the time being...I do have a couple of things I want to get off my sagging chest. After all, it ain't over till this "fat lady" has her say.

The first time I watched "All In," I felt just like the majority of CI fans throughout the land and across the "pond" did; i.e., confused, cheated, angry...bitterly disappointed. The myriad emotions were directed at the writers, however, not the actors. I mean, do they think we're that stupid? "Cruise To Nowhere" is one of my favorite episodes from Season 5. Whenever I'm killing time in a restaurant or in a movie theater, etc., I pull out my iPod and scroll to Season 5 of LOCI where I usually select either "Vacancy" or "CTN" to help wile away the time until my food arrives or the movie starts. Suffice to say, I've seen "Cruise"...a LOT!

I agree with the masses, there were numerous similarities between the Joey Frost/Josh Snow characters, but -- in my humble opinion -- there was one "glaring" discrepancy. Remember the tantrum Joey threw in the interrogation room where he stuck his fingers in his ears and rocked back and forth, shouting "la, la, la, la,la," because he didn't want to hear what Bobby was saying to him? The look on Bobby's face was "priceless," by the way, but I digress. After that, Bobby tells Deakins that Joey's emotional growth "stopped" at the age of 10. And, at the end, Bobby exclaims to Joey that Phil (the guy who "raised" Joey after he killed Joey's father) "kept him a child all his life."

And there's the "rub" for me. I found it impossible to reconcile Joey...the obnoxious, uncouth teenager, who didn't know what a microscope was, who ate cereal from a box with his hands, who dumped chicken scraps onto the mob guy's desk and then wiped his greasy fingers on his upholstered chair, and threw a temper-tantrum worthy of any three-year old...with the "grown-up" Josh Snow. Josh Snow, who is grieving for his deceased wife and is a mathematical whiz...apparently...to have come up with the whole cubed number thing.

So, not only are we expected to believe that Joey has grown emotionally in the past three/four years, but he, evidently, has grown a brain as well. Yeah, yeah...the kid was always "street-smart," but book smart? Not so much. Now, I can suspend belief with the best of 'em, but come on. To use a southern expression...that dog won't hunt. Oh well, perhaps Joey/Josh hooked arms with the "Scarecrow" and skipped down the yellow brick road for an audience with the great and powerful Oz.

On an unrelated, but worthy of mentioning note....don't even get me started on the "trick" with the bullet and the glob of beeswax on Bobby's thumb in the "gotcha" scene at the end.

The second time I watched "All In," I tried to put the whole Joey/Josh fiasco out of my head. Afterward, I realized that, if one was not familiar with "CTN," then the episode wasn't half-bad...it could have stood on its own. To confirm my hypothesis, I checked with my brother, Harold, and my friend, Linda. Both are "casual" viewers of the show, and they had no clue about the Joey/Josh conundrum, but they both thought it was a decent episode.

So, to put it bluntly...the writers fucked-up...big time!!!

I hate being taken for granted. I also hate lazy, lackluster, half-assed, unimaginative writing, and both scenarios appear to apply here. I read that Lou Taylor Pucci was supposed to reprise the role of Joey Frost, but was unable to make it for...whatever reason. But you know, a GOOD writer can make adjustments if given half a chance. Even if the show would have taken a page from the "Soaps" and made an announcement at the beginning that the "role of Joey Frost is now being played by..." I could have "bought" that rather than the pile of crap they served up instead.

Okay, I am officially done beating that dead horse. Before calling this a wrap, however, I have a couple more things to discuss...the thing I liked most about the episode and the "other" thing I liked least about it.

You may note that I did not include a screen cap of Bobby pointing the gun to his head in the following slideshow. For some reason, that scene just freaked me out. Mind you, I knew the gun was not loaded. I knew Bobby had used some "trick" or slight of hand to somehow remove the bullet from the gun. I knew Bobby was not going to blow his brains out if he pulled the trigger...and yet I started screaming "at him" the instant he positioned the barrel of that gun at the side of his head. I even cried..."sobbed"...I was so upset. Yes, I'm an idiot.

Part of it was that it reminded me instantly of the actor, Jon-Erik Hexum, who was critically wounded on the set of a television show back in 1984 after he placed a .44 Magnum prop gun loaded with blanks to his temple and pulled the trigger. Shooting on the set had been delayed and Hexum had fallen asleep between takes. When he awoke and realized that the scene still was not ready to be shot, Hexum, as if to demonstrate his frustration with the continued delay, put the gun to his head and...pulled the trigger.

You see, blanks use paper or plastic wadding to seal gun powder into the shell, and this wadding is propelled out of the barrel of the gun with enough force to cause severe injury, or death, if the weapon is fired within a few inches of the body, especially if pointed at a particularly vulnerable spot, such as the temple or the eye. So, although the paper wadding in the blank that Hexum discharged did not penetrate his skull, the wad struck him in the temple with enough blunt force trauma to shatter a quarter-sized piece of his skull and propel the pieces into his brain causing massive hemorrhaging. Six days later, he was declared brain dead. His mother had him taken off life support, but not before donating his organs for transplant. (With thanks to Wikipedia for some of the information. I could remember bits and pieces of the incident, but was fuzzy on some of the details.)

So, that is why I went spastic for a moment and why I won't be posting any pictures of Bobby pointing a gun to his head. I just thought it was irresponsible of Bobby...and the writers; he could have pointed the gun at the ceiling or at Josh...for that matter...clicked the empty chamber, and produced the same effect. It just bothered me...on a lot of levels.

And now for my "favorite" thing about this episode. Most of my family and long-time friends call me "Lou." So, it was a real treat for me for LOCI to have a prominent character named Lou Cardinale. I just knew that Bobby would get around to saying my name...if I just waited long enough. Well, he did, and...yes...I "actually" counted just how many times that one tiny, insignificant syllable; i.e., L...O...U, was uttered by that mellifluously soft and sexy voice. (Big Sigh!) Ten...I counted ten.

So, for me...if only on a purely personal level..."All In" wasn't a complete throw-away. Besides, any episode that features Bobby can't be all bad.

"All In" Slideshow