“Heartless” – aired on April 22, 2018
Written by: Michael Rauch
Directed by: Don Scardino
Grade: 4,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

At last, Instinct delivers the type of episode that I have been waiting for since day one. On the one hand, “Heartless” falls just short of being perfect due to the lack of cohesion in one of its B plots. On the other hand, for the first time ever, it manages to bring all the show’s strengths together to produce a convincing narrative that works without compromising its Rauch-style, character-driven entertainment factor.

If you have followed my reviews for Instinct, you probably know that I have been critical of its crime-solving portion. In “Heartless,” showrunner-writer Michael Rauch and seasoned director Don Scardino collaborate to create the first compelling case of the show. It features a plausible narrative that remains, for the most part, free of clichés found in procedurals.

Another first is the efficient use of the supporting cast without short-changing any of the talent available. After two episodes of token, inside-closed-chambers appearances by Julian Cousins (Naveen Andrews), followed by two non-appearances, we finally have him back for this episode. He plays a substantial role in the solving of the crime while appearing in more than one scene outside of his screen-filled “computer cell.” He also gets some much-needed character growth: he is an independent contractor, “unallied” and “liberated.”

Andrews as Julian energizes all three scenes in which he appears. The relationship between Reinhart and Cousins indeed has the necessary ingredients to create some fascinating story lines for future episodes. Julian is the only character who seems to be on par with Dylan in terms of pure intelligence. Whether the writers will exploit that tremendous potential or not is not clear. But, it is there without a doubt, because only Julian can stupefy a genius like Dylan by saying cool and nerdy things such as “I’ll use the print to reconstruct the victim’s actual fingerprint, and hack into her cell phone provider’s biometric cloud of cryptographic hash signatures. With a dactylogram match, I can data-dump the contents of her phone onto any computer desktop.” What is Dylan’s reply to that? “Totally.” Yep, Dylan does look totally lost at that moment.

The third dialogue between Dylan and Julian hints at a storyline that could become a major plot as Instinct moves forward. It turns out that Charlie’s death – Lizzie’s ex-fiancé and partner – may carry larger implications than Dylan was initially led to believe. He was apparently a person of interest in an international smuggling case shortly before he died. Julian expresses concern about who might be involved. Dylan takes offense at Julian’s suggestion that Lizzie may be involved. How far the writers decide to pursue this narrative remains to be seen, but it promises endless possibilities.

Rauch throws more bones in our direction by having Whoopi Goldberg make another appearance as Joan, Dylan’s editor. As was the case in the first and second episodes, the dialogue between Dylan and Joan is stellar. After three of those in five episodes, I seriously believe that I could be a fly on the wall for hours listening to Joan and Dylan engage in refined badinage and never get bored. I suspect that being the case even if it were Alan and Whoopi doing so in real life.

Andy and Jasmine are also present in the episode, with the former playing a bigger role since Dylan’s ability to maintain equal balance between his work and private life comes into question. And what a spouse Andy is! He is understanding, caring, and always sporting a genuine smile. He is almost too good to be true, but after five episodes, the line between “too-good-to-be-true” and “for-real-true” is getting blurrier. If we ever get an episode that puts Andy’s life in danger, I will be the first to declare the villain of that episode public enemy number one.  

Let’s get back to the crime-solving part, easily the biggest factor in setting this episode in a class by itself compared to the four previous. A young woman is killed in a case of mistaken identity. More precisely, her heart is removed. Dylan and Lizzie ponder on the clues and painstakingly carry their investigation as they hit one road block after another. At first, they do not even know that the woman was not the intended target. Once past that, they don’t understand why anyone would kill “Jane Doe,” let alone “steal her heart.”

Dylan is especially frustrated because he is used to working the super-human brain of his, having his blue-hued-epiphany moment or two, and “poof,” having the answers – hey, don’t blame me, that has been the pattern, has it not? But this time, it’s different. As shocking as it sounds, he even experiences an “incomplete” blue-hued moment – i.e., minus the epiphany.

He begins to worry that his obsession with the case may lead him down a dangerous path, one in which solving crimes becomes his primary focus and his loved ones fall into secondary roles. Andy reminds him that he gets “consumed by these things” and “can’t turn it off.” Dylan confesses to Joan that he is feeling like he is “being pulled in so many different directions.” He retired from the CIA precisely because he wanted to leave that type of life behind. Daniel Ings continues to impress as Andy and Andy continues to impress as the dream spouse of which we all dream at some point in our lives.

Lizzie and Dylan tackle more clues and question more suspects before Dylan finally has his successful epiphany to figure out the “why” of the murder. Unlike in previous episodes, this blue-hued-epiphany moment is tenable because the earlier conversations between Lizzie and Dylan show us in a cogent manner how Dylan got to the point where he could put the two and two together. The denouement is genuinely poignant, and it also avoids the usual good-n-evil dichotomy that underscores most concluding scenes of episodic procedurals.

The only significant flaw of the episode strangely emerges from what is usually its strongest asset. Even when all else fails, you can always count on the synergy between Dylan and Lizzie to save the day. In an episode where almost all else works well, it is the interaction between our two main leads that misses the mark. For the first 20 minutes, we listen to Lizzie and Dylan ponder on how the victim is killed. They also pick on each other in ways that are no different than what we have seen in the previous episodes. Lizzie finds some of Dylan’s habits quirky, lets him know about it. Dylan, in return, picks on Lizzie for driving fast and being bossy. We have seen it before, and we like it.

So then, why does this one awkward conversation between Dylan and Lizzie take place around the 20-minute mark by the coffee machine? Lizzie makes a comment that alludes to things not needing to be “complicated” which triggers an apprehensive reaction by Dylan: “Oh, we’re not talking about coffee anymore.” Lizzie takes a serious tone. She understands that he is “not a cop” but reminds him firmly that “there is a way we do things around here.” She adds, “you need to respect that.” She goes further by stating that he is free to have his “authority issues,” “mommy issues,” and “social issues,” but in the precinct, “the only issue that matters is the case.”

Wait, what is going on here? Why is Lizzie suddenly scolding Dylan? What did I miss in the first 20 minutes that was different – and warranted Lizzie’s reaction – than the many conversations that the two held in previous episodes?  More overkill comes when Lizzie affirms to Dylan, “I’ve been doing just fine on my own.” Dylan never said otherwise, so what is the purpose of Lizzie’s statement?

The entire sequence comes across as unnecessary and awkward. I have no problem if the writers prefer to inject some tension into the relationship between the main characters, but this one feels clunky, because Lizzie’s reaction is not warranted by anything seen in the episode. Luckily, the two have further conversations to get past that awkward one by the coffee machine and we return quickly to the Reinhart-Needham duo that we prefer.

Last-minute thoughts:

– Do sharks really have their livers and hearts “removed by the whales with almost surgical precision”? Can any human being really detect a “faint whiff of rhodinol and sour milk” and match that with roses and baby’s breath flowers? Someone please say “no” to one of these so I can stop feeling so stupid listening to the living encyclopedia named Dylan Reinhart.

– Nit-picking time: “Onishi! Two more Onishi rolls for my friends here,” yells Frank Fallon to the sushi chef early in the episode. So, the chef’s name is Onishi and the rolls are named after him? Then why does IMDB have the character named as Akira Sato? Something seems off.

– The flower guy runs away from Lizzie and Dylan for about five meters (?!?) before grabbing his knees form exhaustion. I do not even know how to comment on that absurdity.

– Andrew Polk is hilarious as Doug the medical examiner. After three appearances in five episodes, can I assume that he is a recurring character? I hope so.

– Precinct banter between detectives is entertaining, as well as the jokes they pull on each other’s motorcycles. Lizzie gets the last laugh in that game.

– Julian says to Dylan that it will only be a “matter of time” before Dylan gets back in the “Acronym.” What is this Acronym? Let me just say that it is another good reason for which Julian should be more involved in the show.

– Over-the-top moment that should have been edited out: Dylan riding his motorcycle away on its back wheel. It was unrealistic and corny.

Until next episode…

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“I Heart New York” – aired on April 8, 2018
Written by: Michael Rauch
Directed by: Constantine Makris
Grade: 3,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

Following last week’s debacle, Instinct could have used an outstanding episode to move forward on a positive note. Unfortunately, “I Heart New York” was not that episode, largely due to its overly contrived crime-solving plot, although it had some of the show’s best character-building moments to date and a skilled guest star (John Doman) appearing as Reinhart’s father.

Instinct seems to have settled into a pattern.

On the one hand, when the focus is on the personal lives of Dr. Reinhart and Det. Needham, Instinct’s appeal increases. Character development emerges out of our two protagonists’ interactions with others around them, as well as out of their conversations with each other. Alan Cumming and Bojana Novakovic reflect onto the screen, with great success, the intriguing profiles of the two main characters. The more Dylan and Lizzie learn about each other, the closer they grow, the more we identify, and the more we root for them.

On the other hand, there is the crime-solving part, supposedly the driving force of an episode for a procedural, that lags behind the above in a conspicuous manner. The cases presented are uninspiring and recycled variations of what has already been used in the crime-show arena. Furthermore, the way Instinct has so far solved each week’s mystery barely challenges the limits of imagination.

Take for example, the scene with the subway thief coming out from the sewer system. Dylan and Lizzie are walking on a random sidewalk, away from the crime scene. A particular manhole cover is lifted, and a pickpocket climbs out right in front of Dylan and Lizzie. Naturally, Lizzie questions him, and naturally, he carries some objects – notably, the cell phone of one of the victims – collected from the dead bodies after the explosion.

One of those cell phones, again naturally, happens to carry a crucial text that eventually leads to a witness who had spotted the perpetrator. She remembers him in detail, mind you? He ran into her as he got in the subway car, spilling the contents of her bag. She describes him down to the tattoo – a marijuana leaf – on his forearm, a marijuana leaf. Yet, somehow, she cannot help the sketch artist come up with an accurate image, because, you see, that would lessen the impact of our genius Dylan’s “epiphany moment” to come later.

And what an epiphany it is! Dylan puts a ton together, even by his own standards.

It starts with Lizzie holding a bathrobe at the scene of the third crime and asking, “Why the kids’ robe?” The screen suddenly turns blue-ish, Dylan appears under an imaginary spotlight, and he has visions that help him conclude that all three previously unrelated crimes, including the subway explosion that Lizzie and Dylan had been told to leave alone, must have been committed by the same person. The dead bodies (all 14 of them) are apparently victims of circumstances and the perpetrator’s initial intention was simply to destroy locations.

Even Dylan’s explanation (of his epiphany) to Jasmine does not bring down to earth how much he put together in his epiphany. Dylan says that the perpetrator projects all the bad stud about himself onto these places, that those places bring bad memories, and that our murderer/destroyer “could be the Doogie Houser of murderers.” Cumming’s fabulous delivery of these lines cannot possibly hide the outrageousness of Dylan’s brain power during the two-second-long epiphany.

Other neat plot devices appear along the way. The perpetrator happens to be present on one of the scenes and gets questioned by Lizzie and Dylan. Lizzie also has her epiphany moment – albeit a little less forced Dylan’s – clearly injected to take rapid leaps in the crime-solving process. A picture happens to hang on the perpetrator’s horse cab and it shows him, as a child, with his dad at the precise carrousel that was blown up earlier. The clues, all along, are conveniently placed, but thankfully, the pleasant synergy between Lizzie and Dylan, as they brainstorm about these clues, helps alleviate the “come-on-now” feeling that invades the viewer.

As do the scenes between Lieutenant Gooden and Lizzie, as well as the ones involving Dylan, Andy, and Roger. These bring out the best of what “I Heart New York” has to offer. Riding those moments, the episode provides us an enticing peek into our main characters.

For starters, Dylan and his dad have a strained relationship. Dylan refers to him by his first name when Roger Reinhart appears for the first time on screen. The malaise between the two is immediately obvious, of that Doman and Cumming leave us in no doubt, thanks to their superior acting skills when it comes to depicting profound characters.

We slowly discover that Mr. Reinhart believes Dylan is “wasting time” since having ditched his CIA career – he later calls Dylan’s work “nonsense.” Dylan seems to be bitter about his father not having read his best-selling book. When Roger invites Dylan and Andy to dinner, he also invites Lizzie, unbeknownst to Dylan. “He likes to withhold things,” he says to Andy about his father. Lizzie and Andy appear to feel uneasy as Roger and Dylan bitterly take jabs at each other. All four actors excel in their performances in this meaningful scene.

Kudos to Michael Rauch here, for not using the trope of the father’s bitterness toward his son, arising from the latter being gay, among other things. Roger is nothing more than the customary dad who is disappointed because, in his genuine opinion, his son chose a professional path that under-utilizes his abilities.

Later in the episode, Dylan and Roger have a final dialogue that is sentimentally charged. Add the final scene that immediately follows, with Andy and Dylan kissing and walking away holding hands, and we easily have the most powerful ending to an Instinct episode so far in the series.

Kudos again to Rauch for getting John Doman to star as Dylan’s father.

There is also a praiseworthy subplot involving the friendship between Lizzie and Jasmine. In a cute scene, we learn that Lizzie’s colleagues are intimidated by Lieutenant Gooden and depend on Lizzie’s close friendship with her to get the scoop on what is going on behind closed curtains. The cuteness is interrupted when Lizzie enters Jasmine’s office and learns that her close friend sought the help of another in planning her wedding. Lizzie’s feelings are hurt (in a petty way, to be frank). The subplot leads to some substantial world-building within the precinct and highlights the depth of the comradery between Lizzie and Jasmine.

If only, the crime portion of the episode was a bit more ambitious and felt less artificial…

Even the denouement rests on a repeated trope, the one in which Dylan stalls the final criminal act of the perpetrator with some heart-to-heart words intended to reach the latter’s deep psychological pain. It has already been used in two of the previous three episodes. Make that three out of four now.

Last-minute thoughts:

– Convenient scene-setting at the precinct, when Lieutenant Gooden gathers everyone in the office to give the ubiquitous pump-up speech, ending with, “show the rest of the world, no one gets to do this to us, let’s get them.” While everyone stands in a U-shaped form to listen, Dylan and Lizzie happen to be the only ones sitting in the middle.

– Could you tell who the perpetrator was before the denouement? I saw several who did on social media, although I must admit, it took me longer than them.

– Another episode with no appearance by Naveen Andrews as Julian, not that he was given any substantial time during the two in which he did appear.

– I hope the show garners more loyal followers who like it for the stories it offers. I am getting the impression that people watch the show because they are big Alan Cumming fans, Naveen Andrews fans, or because they appreciate seeing a gay couple portrayed, very pleasantly I might add, by Cumming and Daniel Ings. I am all for that too, but the story-telling needs improvement for the show to prove successful in the ratings and survive beyond its first season.

– I am a little concerned by the potential that the craze for Cumming, and the media feeding into it, could relegate Bojana Novakovic’s Lizzie into a secondary role. Most of the headlines I read about the show highlight Cumming and his character, with Novakovic barely mentioned in some. I am so far delighted to see that Michael Rauch and his team have not fallen into this trap and given equal time to both characters. I certainly hope it remains this way. Lizzie deserves better than the often-encountered-trope of female lead following in the footsteps of the more brilliant male partner in previous crime shows. Proceeding in such manner would do great injustice to Novakovic who has performed wonderfully as Lizzie.

Instinct is off next Sunday. See you in two weeks.

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“Secrets and Lies” – aired on April 1, 2018
Written by: Chris Ambrose
Directed by: Peter Werner
Grade: 1 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

I will begin by repeating what I have adamantly said in both of my reviews of the first two episodes. The synergy between the two lead characters, Lizzie Needham and Dylan Reinhart, is the number one strength of this show. The best scenes in each episode featured the two of them engaged in meaningful dialogues pertaining to their private lives. Next, there is also great acting talent in the supporting cast of characters. Then, and only then, come the episodic murder cases.

Judging from the three episodes aired so far, the above order represents the “compelling-to-mediocre” barometer of Instinct. Alan Cumming and Bojana Novakovic have sure succeeded in portraying Dylan and Lizzie as unique characters that mesh well together to form a dynamic leading duo. The supporting cast with Whoopi Goldberg as Joan the editor, Naveen Andrews as Julian, Sharon Leal as Jasmine the lieutenant, and Daniel Ings as Dylan’s husband Andy have performed well, only insofar as their limited appearances have allowed them. The murder-case-solving portions of the episodes, on the other hand, have felt rushed and filled with contrived plot devices.

Yet, the show belongs to the procedural crime-drama genre and the murder cases presented each week must often take precedence over character development. In fact, the ultimate challenge of being the production team of a TV procedural is to fabricate unique and captivating plots, knowing that others have previously done it thousands of times, over decades, in other shows. The murder case matters, and how it is handled must enthrall the viewer. Instinct has not done that so far, and unfortunately, “Secrets and Lies” has pushed the bar very low.

Look, I want Instinct to succeed. I am a fan of the people behind the show. I love watching Cumming perform. I applaud CBS for swaying away from norms and deciding to go with a gay character as the lead in a crime drama. I already expressed in my review of episode 2 how well the show handles Dylan and Andy’s relationship. I have been a fan of Bojana Novakovic and Naveen Andrews since seeing them in previous shows. I am an admirer of the showrunner Michael Rauch because I thoroughly enjoyed the previous series in which he was heavily involved (Royal Pains). I am pulling for Instinct, I really am.

I cannot, however, dispose of my impartial-reviewer hat when I write for this blog. As a fan of the show, “Secrets and Lies” is an episode that makes me want next Sunday to arrive as fast as possible, so that it can be left behind. As a reviewer, I struggle to organize my thoughts, in order to express just how problematic this episode was.

Let me begin with the most alarming problem, the bewildering resemblance of the murder case’s set-up with an episode of Bones, the third episode of season 5 called “The Plain in the Prodigy.” Believe me, if you saw both episodes, you may think my “bewildering” is too mild an adjective to use in order to describe the similarities. So, I will elaborate further.

I will first give you a somewhat-extended synopsis that perfectly applies to both episodes, although they are nine years apart.

A male teenager is killed. The investigators discover that he comes from an Amish family.  He used to play piano, unbeknownst to his family due to the fear of their disapproval, because the Amish do not play musical instruments. The boy also used to secretly take lessons from a piano teacher in town. He eventually left to escape his surroundings for the city with another boy from church, much to the family’s dismay. When our investigators talk to the parents, they notice that the mother is devastated, and the father harbors some bitterness toward his son for not having listened to him. The other boy eventually left, and he continued to live alone, until he was mysteriously killed. At first, the investigators suspect he immersed himself in the guilty pleasures of big-city living (weed, sex, etc.) and got in trouble, but little by little, they learn that he did not.

There you go folks! One synopsis for two episodes of two different shows. If only the similarities ended there. They go a lot further.

When Booth and Bones enter the room at Levi’s family’s house in Bones, they comment that there are “no posters, no video games.” When Lizzie and Dylan enter, they comment that there are “no posters, no electronics.” Booth follows it up with a snarky “if I was a teenager, I’d want out of this place too.” Dylan follows it up with “if I was a teenager, I might want to get out of this place too.” Wait a minute, I say to myself, what is going on here?

Few seconds later in Bones, Booth discovers a wooden box with stones and a photo of Levi in it, at which time Levi’s mother walks in. In Instinct, Dylan discovers a wooden box with popsicle sticks and a photo of Caleb in it, at which time Caleb’s mother walks in. Each mother says that she was not aware of the box. Then she notices, in both episodes of course, that our two protagonists (Booth-Bones or Dylan-Lizzie, take your pick) are holding a photo of her son. She asks them with a soft voice, “is it possible for me to keep it?” in Bones, and “do you think it might be possible for me to keep it?” in Instinct. Booth-Bones-Dylan-Lizzie recognize a mother’s love for her son and hand her the photo(s). She looks at the photo and begins to cry as our Booth and Bones in “The Plain in the Prodigy” and Dylan and Lizzie in “Secret and Lies” watch her with sadness. Yes, it is worrisome, and I don’t mean the mother crying. It is worrisome because the two scenes are identical.

Lo and behold, there are 88 stones in the box of Levy, the dead boy in the episode of Bones. Lo and behold, there are 88 popsicle sticks in the box of Caleb, the dead boy in “Secrets and Lies” of Instinct. Excuse me? Wait, there is more.

32 of Levi’s 88 stones are black, the other 56 are white. 32 of Caleb’s 88 popsicle sticks are black, 56 are white. Bingo! They 88 stones/popsicle sticks represent the keys of a piano, as says some genius in the investigating team of Bones in the 2009-episode and reveals Dylan in Instinct nine years later. Thus, Levi/Caleb was a piano player. Are you kidding me?

The investigators brilliantly figure out, uttering similar phrases in both shows, that Levi in Bones and Caleb in Instinct must have snuck away to take piano lessons since their parents would disapprove if they knew. There cannot possibly be too many piano teachers in their small towns, the investigating teams of Bones and Instinct deduce, so they decide to find the one he took lessons from for a talk. So, they meet the piano teacher. In both episodes, she is an older woman, and in both episodes, she can’t stop reminiscing about what a talented piano player Levi/Caleb was. She also informs Booth/Bones-Dylan/Lizzie that she never charged him because he was a “prodigy” (both women use the exact term). He inexplicably stopped coming after a while. Then, she shows them a clip of Levi/Caleb playing the piano. And by this point, we are beyond “resemblance” or “similarities.” I am literally experiencing a severe case of déjà vu.

Thankfully, around the 16-minute mark, a second corpse is discovered in “Secrets and Lies,” the two plots begin diverging, and the nightmare is over. Or is it? Because, at the end of the episode, Booth and Bones will visit Levi’s parents one last time and show them the clip of their son playing in front of their admiring but tearful eyes, in the exact same way that Dylan and Lizzie will visit Caleb’s parents one last time and show the clip of their son playing the piano as they watch with sad faces.

For goodness’ sake, what happened here? I would like to believe that this is just an extraordinary string of coincidences or oversight by the producers. Yet, I cannot help but wonder, how did anyone in the production team of Instinct not raise the red flag here? Surely, the dozens of people involved with the show must have a vast knowledge of recent crime shows. Furthermore, the writer of “Secrets and Lies,” Chris Ambrose, was a co-producer/producer of Bones for two years! Am I to believe that he has never heard of “The Plain in the Prodigy”? He left Bones the season before the episode aired, but does that mean a thing when there are so many identical developments, down to the details, in the set-up of the murder case?

Ok, let’s finally get to the contents of “Secrets and Lies,” and of only “Secrets and Lies.”

The investigation moves at a rapid pace with plenty of plot devices that are too convenient to ignore. At one point, Lizzie and Dylan arrive to the outside of a house of interest. Two characters, both extremely useful to the advancement of the plot, magically walk out one after the other shortly after. Long gone are the days of hours-long stake outs for detectives. Dylan, of course, moves in to talk the first one, while Lizzie apprehends the other who tries to run away. Narrative movement expediently executed, we move on.

Then, there is the epiphany moment in which Dylan figures out from the sentence that Lizzie utters as she is ranting about her sister Katie behaving irresponsibly. “That’s Katie’s way, she decides what is real” Lizzie says. Reinhart dons his “Eureka” face and figures out who the killer is because, you see, the killer also “creates the narrative.” I can watch Cumming and the mastermind Dylan Reinhart he portrays for hours, but that seemed far-fetched even for his genius brain.

Unlike the first two episodes, Joan and Julian (Andrews and Goldberg) do not appear in this episode, although their presence would have certainly helped. There must be so much that Instinct’s writing room could do with an ambiguous character like Julian Cousins to intrigue viewers, but we are still waiting.

Lost in the shuffle, there are some wonderful character-development moments for our protagonists. As noted above, we meet Lizzie’s sister Katie for the first time. We learn more about the main characters’ private lives. The case-solving is driven more by Dylan than by Lizzie in this episode, but Novakovic truly shines in the scenes centering on Lizzie’s difficult relationship with her sister. We learn that alcoholism runs in her family and that Lizzie is at a loss on how to help Katie.

Dylan gives her some valuable advice that includes an inconvenient action plan. That scene, along with the next two, work together to treat us to the best sequence of the episode, none of it involving the dreadful case. It includes the aforementioned dialogue between Lizzie and Dylan followed by Lizzie confronting Katie, and finally, and finally, Dylan and Andy having a drink together at the bar. The conversations are delightful and consequential.

Kudos to Ings, for portraying Andy in such a natural way, the only recurring character with significant time in this episode. Hats off also to Genevieve Angelson who properly conveyed Katie’s inner dilemma to the viewers. I can’t say the same for the Nicki character and I will leave it at that.

Last-minute thoughts:

– It took three episodes, but the show started on its advertised time for a change. 

– Dylan’s wardrobe, wow!

– Nicki’s accent sounded more like she was from an eastern European country than from New England.

– Smart move to have the short narration by Dylan to start the episode in case there were viewers who joined the show for the first time.

– In the next few days, I will post a preview of the second new show that I will be adding to Durg’s Reviews. Check back.

Until next week…

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“Wild Game” – aired on March 25, 2018
Written by: Carol Flint & Constance M. Burge
Directed by: Doug Aarniokoski
Grade: 4 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

Last Monday in my review of the “Pilot,” I noted that Instinct would have a problematic relationship with the ratings, one reason being the 37-minute-delay to the starting time of the episode due to the length of March Madness basketball games. The same issue resurfaced again last night, this time causing a 35-minute delay. I am curious if there are any records kept on this, but I would speculate that Instinct may be the only TV show to have suffered from having its first two episodes aired at later-than-advertised times, with only a few late notices by the network to inform its viewers. One piece of good news is that, despite this issue, the ratings appear to be fairly solid. The last half hour of 60 Minutes carrying over to Instinct‘s allocated time slot may (or not) have something to do with it. In any case, March Madness has reached its Final-Four stage, so next week’s episode will air on time.

The second piece of good news, a more important one for the survival of the show, is that “Wild Game” was, in several ways, a higher-quality episode than “Pilot.” A show that gradually improves over the course of the first few episodes will not only garner loyal viewers, but also gain their trust.

“Wild Game” managed to carry over the better parts of what we had seen in the first episode – another stellar dialogue between Alan Cumming’s Dylan the writer and Whoopi Goldberg’s Joan the editor, further development of the pleasant synergy between the two lead characters, and a fun classroom scene – and offered the viewers, at the same time, a more intelligently constructed case with a better-flowing narrative than the one in “Pilot.” Furthermore, Doug Aarniokoski’s experience came in handy as the director. He has helmed numerous episodes in other procedural shows like Criminal Minds and Bull.

For the second time in a row, we begin the episode with a murder scene followed by a classroom scene involving a student and Professor Reinhart. Next, we see Det. Lizzie Needham and her boss Lt. Jasmine Gooden (Sharon Leal) checking out the murder scene the next day. Then, we are treated to a conversation between Reinhart and his editor. If you need an example of the overall improvement I mentioned above, look no further than this four-scene sequence.

The murder is conveyed with a clear-cut vision and a back story, as opposed to the convoluted, obsessively blue-toned one in the first episode. The classroom scene provides us with more of the so-far entertaining dynamics of our professor’s relationship with the students. The post-murder-observation scene explains why Needham will need Reinhart’s help despite her police-partner problems. Finally, the writer-editor conversation features two five-star actors at work, again, engaged in a dialogue that deepens our knowledge of Reinhart’s inner conflict about going back to investigative work.

The sequence works in setting the stage and in compelling viewers to watch the upcoming developments, and it does so without even putting on display the strongest aspect of the show, which is the warm friendship – and the trust-building collaboration – budding between Reinhart and Needham.

A venture capitalist named Sebastien Trevor is killed while jogging and his body is displayed “rack-like” at the park. It’s a gruesome murder that involves some sort of ancient ritual according to Reinhart who is already busy profiling the killer with that high-IQ brain of his.

From that point forward, the investigation evolves with a couple of well-executed twists. There is a second murder that adds to the complexity of the investigation, forcing our heroes to modify their judgment on the killer’s possible motives. Of course, our protagonists end up solving the case. The value of a procedural show stems not from the denouement itself but rather from the creative narrative that guides the viewers along the way.

Carol Flint and Constance Burge – the episode’s writers – introduce us to several characters with ties to Trevor, each with an agenda of their own. The narrative is well-paced and succeeds in keeping us in the dark on the identity of the killer for the majority of the episode. And thankfully, we are riding along with Reinhart and Needham without being held by the hand, meaning being fed a neatly recited summary by the characters of what they are discovering every ten minutes (see my review of the pilot episode for reference). The guest stars perform well for the most part, notably Ashley Williams as Nora Cecchino, a friend of Trevor, and Afton Williamson as Haley, the short-fused chef of the restaurant owned by Nora and her husband.

The supporting regular cast, however, continues to be under-used. Daniel Ings as Reinhart’s husband Andy, Naveen Andrews as Julian, Dylan’s contact for hard-to-get information, and Sharon Leal as Lt. Gooden, Lizzie’s boss and friend, are billed in “starring” roles. Yet, they still have not benefited from any significant character development. So far, Gooden has only appeared in a couple of scenes, mainly as a head-nodder to what Lizzie and/or Dylan are saying. Julian is the most glaring example of a potentially fascinating character that is reduced to a plot device, only seen in a room filled with gadgets and computers while conveniently spitting out useful information to Reinhart.

Even worse, Andy is supplied with inconsistent lines over the two episodes.  Wasn’t Dylan deeply concerned with Andy’s reaction if he were to begin investigating cases again? Did he not retire from the CIA so that he could lead a peaceful life with his husband? Is that not the concern he expressed to his editor in both episodes so far? In fact, he initially refused Lizzie’s offer to join him, precisely because of that reason.

So, when he decides to take on another case, you would expect to see some type of a consequential discussion between him and Andy, right? Wrong. Instead of seizing the opportunity to develop a meaningful side plot, the showrunners give us not only an unconcerned Andy, but a quasi-enthusiastic one who is busy rearranging the furniture in their home so that Dylan can work more comfortably on possible future cases! He says to Dylan with a smile: “Look at you! All fired up, excited to save the world. I love this part of you.”

On a side note, I applaud the showrunners for not presenting the gay couple as a main attraction to the narrative of the show. Interactions between Andy and Dylan are handled as-a-matter-of-factly and they appear to be a happy couple tackling their busy lives. They clearly enjoy each other’s company. Instinct cleverly avoids the tropes of gay couples often used by other shows to bait attention and puts the focus on its story-telling.  

The episode falls into a couple of clichés toward the end. As if it were a requirement for all procedural crime dramas – I am beginning to think that it may be –, we get a nicely detailed confession from the killer in the climactic scene about the “whys-and-whats” of the crimes committed. As he did in the first episode, Dylan dishes out just enough psychological jive to distract the murderer and intervenes in time to avoid disaster. Credit to Aarniokoski, on the other hand, for the well-executed camera work in switching back and forth between the heroics of Lizzie and Dylan in that scene. Then again, I could also live with a little less bang on the background music when things get intense.

I said earlier that I enjoyed the classroom scenes with Professor Reinhart and his students. The one at the end with Lizzie sitting as a student was also cute and fit the narrative, but I am not sure if I am up to seeing that particular dynamic on a regular basis. It may well turn out to be a non-issue.

It appears that we have a definitive answer to whether Dylan and Lizzie would become partners or not. It’s an emphatic “yes,” and frankly, nothing less would do. They enjoy picking each other’s brain and work wonderfully together, as investigators and as the leading duo of a crime show. If you want to see examples of their cheerful relationship, watch first the hamburger truck scene – yes, Dylan is officially a lovable snob! Then, see the ending dialogue. It will leave you with a smile and looking forward to next Sunday.

Until next week…

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“Pilot” – aired on March 18, 2018
Teleplay by: Michael Rauch
Directed by: Marc Webb
Grade: 3 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

Instinct is bound to have a complicated relationship with viewers and a problematic one with ratings. For starters, the network apparently considered it only worthy of launch during the March doldrums, a period to which the left-over shows – ones that did not premiere in the fall or in January – are usually relegated. Then, to make matters worse, it got off on the wrong foot on the one night that counts the most for a nascent show, albeit through no fault of its own. The pilot episode aired with a delay of 37 minutes due to March Madness games ending later than scheduled – as though they ever end on time.

Uncertainty creeping up on the advertised start time of a premiere during the last few hours leading up to it must have felt like a nightmare for Instinct‘s producers. It is one thing for a long-running show with an established fan base like 60 Minutes to survive a delayed start (it preceded Instinct last night). It is another matter for a nascent series to take that hit when it needs all the intangibles to work in its favor on the evening of its pilot. It needs to garner as many viewers as possible and earn a rating good enough to avoid the early death sentence, a not-so-unusual occurrence in the business.

While the episode had its fair share of clichéd sequences and failed to offer anything singularly different from any other crime show in the development of to its central story and pacing, there is some promising material here, notably the pleasant synergy between the two leading characters.

Dylan Reinhart (Alan Cumming), the gifted ex-CIA operative who is now a writer and a professor specializing in abnormal behavior at the University of Pennsylvania, forged a noticeable chemistry with NYPD Detective Lizzie Needham (Bojana Novakovic), who appears invincible to everyone around but carries some baggage on the inside. Series creator Michael Rauch wrote the teleplay for the episode and it shows. “Pilot” unloads as much background information about the characters as it can in a compressed, 43-minute-long episode.

The first scene gives us a glimpse of the killer in action at a nightclub, where he lures a young man named Dino Moretti into the bathroom with the promise of a drug he calls “pulp.” It’s probably the worst scene of the episode. The club and the bathroom were overloaded with a pronounced blue glow that dominated the TV screen and overwhelmed any dialogue in the scene. That intentional use of distorted color was clearly meant to create an unspoken and powerfully visual storytelling vehicle, ostensibly to lend a specific mood or tension to the scene. All that can be said is that it failed to convey that effect – it was one big distraction for the eye, diverting attention from spoken words.

Furthermore, the dialogue plays out poorly, with the only relevant information being the visual clue of the playing card – a jack of diamonds – left at the scene by the killer. He first shows some needles to Dino who confidently says, “I don’t do needles,” obviously forgetting (!!) that he just walked into a bathroom at a blue nightclub with a sketchy guy who offers drugs. Then, he does needles twenty seconds later, naturally, while the killer claims to be “Michael Caine” in Dressed to Kill and talks about the Bible in an exaggerated deep tone with the camera focused on his mouth, his face blurred out. Never mind that the killer sounds nothing like the insecure and confused character that he turns out to be in the climax scene at the end.

An accomplished director like Marc Webb could not have done better with this first scene. Luckily, it’s at the very beginning and immediately followed by the best eight-minute stretch of the episode.

Dr. Reinhart, in his classroom, teaches “Abnormal Behavior Analysis” to his students. To complement his class lecture, he dares a “scared-looking” student named Edward to “punch him in the stomach.” Of course, the sequence leads to a psychology lesson that gradually dawns on the students, ending with the professor actually punching the student. We find out later that Edward was in cahoots with Reinhart and that the punch did not connect, but the other students do not know this. 

Allow me to digress here for a paragraph. I am currently teaching at a university, in Pennsylvania in fact, and I can tell you with 100-percent certainty that if I punched a student, or in this case, if my students believed that I punched a student, I would be in trouble, period. Deep trouble! Chances are I would not survive the verdict of the administrators even if I could prove that it was indeed a pre-arranged mock-scene with one of my students. I envy Reinhart and the University of Pennsylvania’s tolerance policies! Digression over, back to the episode.

Alan Cumming is in his fine form in this eight-minute stretch. The classroom scene, followed by the one showing his first conversation with Needham – who came on campus to ask his assistance in finding the killer – and the next one in which he discusses the publishing of his next book with his editor, played by Whoopi Goldberg, showcase Cumming’s talents as an actor. We learn a lot about Reinhart during this stretch. He is clever, observant, and witty. His nickname is “Professor Psychopath.” His wardrobe is impeccable. The quirky professor also rides a motorcycle while dressed impeccably.

Goldberg appears in this single scene. I hope dearly, for Instinct’s sake, that her guest-star occurrences will be frequent. The scene depicts two natural actors engaged in a free-flowing conversation – it works wonderfully well. The dialogue is well-written and informative with regard to Reinhart’s funk as a writer. He retired from the CIA and turned to academia because, you see, he made a promise to his husband Andy (Daniel Ings) that he would quit being the “man of action” and leave his CIA career behind. If you did not know anything about the show, now you know what the central focus of every article on Instinct has been. Reinhart is the first leading gay character in a crime show.

The scene begins with Goldberg’s character, the editor (whose name is not provided in this episode), telling Reinhart that he looks “fat,” reminding him of it repeatedly throughout the conversation, and adding that his new book is “flat.” She also gives him some valuable advice which plays into his character development. She wants Dylan to find his “mojo back” and implies that one way to do that would be to get back into what he did before he published his bestseller, entitled “Freaks.” She adds that she needs the “Dangerous Dylan” back, the “sexy Dylan.” The scene lasts one minute and 45 seconds. It’s meaningful and the two actors’ deliveries are hilarious.

The editor apparently convinced Dr. Reinhart because, after having turned down Det. Needham’s initial request for help with the case of Dino’s murder, he surprises her while she is talking to the victim’s father as part of her investigation. After the meeting, it was time for the viewers to learn a bit about Lizzie. She is “bossy” Reinhart notes, and Lizzie admits that she “has a bad history with partners.” More meaningful background tidbits are revealed on Lizzie as the episode moves along. The two throw verbal jabs at each other and we notice the beginnings of a good chemistry between Dylan and Lizzie. That chemistry and the promise it carries for future episodes is the strongest trait of “Pilot.”

I feared going into the show that the female Det. Needham would be portrayed as a supporting character to the male Dr. Reinhart, the so-called real star of the show. Not that I ever believed that anyone associated with the show would state this explicitly, but I worried that it would nevertheless be clear to the viewers. Call me paranoid, but we have constantly seen this pattern in shows that feature male and female leads (read my preview from last week for more on this). At first glance, Cumming has the higher profile as an actor and Reinhart appears to have more depth to his character than Needham does.

Yet, if I were to judge solely based on this episode, I would happily admit that I turned out to be wrong. There was no obvious discrepancy in the character developments of Needham and Reinhart, nor the amount of facetime they got throughout the episode. Of course, we are only at the beginning of Instinct and several more episodes need to air before one can pass a sound judgment on how equally the two characters are treated by the writing room. The jury is still out on that, but “Pilot” passed the initial test with flying colors. Well, almost.  

Bojana Novakovic deserves praise for portraying Needham as a bad-ass cop with a seemingly rich personality. There were, however, a couple of mediocre lines given to her character.  I mean, do we really need Needham to give a detailed bio of Reinhart to the audience as she is talking to Reinhart? She even begins the 12-second-long bio-unloading with “So, Dr. Dylan Reinhart, Penn undergrad, Ph.D. in Psychology….” Can’t this all be revealed in small doses instead of a speech resembling the poorly written mini-biography in the brochure given to attendees when they come to watch a motivational speaker?

The same thing applies to the scene in which the second victim’s dead body is discovered. During the examination of the scene, Reinhart forms some brilliant connection between the card found on the scene and the victim’s past just by observing the surroundings. It is not hard to understand how he reaches his conclusion. Right as we begin to appreciate Reinhart’s intelligence, there comes Lizzie, feeding to the audience a concise explanation of Dylan’s discovery. It’s a tired method, a cliché of the highest degree and one that appears to cater to the lowest common denominator. It also worries me that Needham may be used as a plot device to hold the scatter-brain part of the audience by the hand so that it doesn’t get lost.

Speaking of characters as plot devices, Naveen Andrews appears as Julian Cousins, Dylan’s all-purpose informant pal. He can get access to information that one may not be able to obtain through official channels. I can accept that, unless it becomes the full scope of the character on which Andrews’ acting potential gets wasted. Cousins needs to represent more than a convenient path to quick information so that the audience can spend more time watching action-oriented scenes.

Both the plot and the chemistry between Reinhart and Needham advance at warp-speed for the next thirty minutes. The murders multiply at an alarming pace. Needham and Reinhart discover a lot about each other. Along the way, we get introduced to Lieutenant Jasmine Gooden (Sharon Leal) from the NYPD, Mayor Myers (Sarita Choudhury).

Unfortunately, the plot reveals are not as captivating as the actors’ performances. It’s all déjà-vu and there is a good chance that you will correctly guess the identity of the murderer minutes before it is revealed. Furthermore, you get the ordinary climactic scene in which one of the heros miraculously delivers a soothing speech to an unnerved murderer who confesses the “hows-and-whats” of his crimes while he has a gun pointed to at someone. Reinhart, the hero in our scene, says enough to make the killer hesitate and saves the day. In addition, the other hero gets injured while trying to save the intended target of the murderer. Yes, we get the message. We must have no doubts in our minds that our two protagonists are truly heroic when it counts.

Speaking of miraculous, there is a scene in which Lizzie and Dylan are walking through the hallway of a hotel and the murderer is looking down at them with a gun pointed. He has a clear shot at both of them. As he is about to shoot, Lizzie magically turns her head 100 degrees to the right – and upward – for no apparent reason. She notices him just in the nick of time and saves Dylan by pushing him to the side as the murderer fires his weapon. Maybe she has supernatural abilities that will be revealed later in the season. During a couple of these types of action scenes, the score seems to bang in your living room, so check your volume.

It’s actually impressive that the synergy between Reinhart and Needham survives all these mundane scenes – the info-feeding to the audience, the magical moments, even the jokes cracked around a dead a body at another murder scene. The credit should go to Cumming and Novakovic. They are the strength of the show. Hopefully, they will have more to work with in the upcoming episodes

I, for one, will gladly tune in to watch next week’s episode… but not with complete trust that this show will reward my Instinct.

Until next week…

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