About Last Night…WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE, MASTERCHEF: GENERATIONS, BIG BROTHER, and More

Let’s talk about Wednesday night’s TV!

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE: It feels like it was possibly a miracle that Ray and Brad got to $125,000. (Though it’s extraordinarily funny Brad was convinced he knew which Christopher Nolan film had a field…and thought it was FIELD OF DREAMS.) So much of their game seemed to be based on vibes, but I’m glad they walked away with a solid amount.

I don’t know why Jason and Natasha didn’t do the same! Did they forget they could? No one seemed sure of the answer, and yet they gambled and lost. At least they got to $32,000.

MASTERCHEF: GENERATIONS: I always feel bad when there’s a specialized challenge like the beer one where there are contestants who cannot actually sample what they’re cooking for various reasons. Michael’s perk of getting to save a competitor was an interesting one; it was smart to pick someone strong in the hope it wouldn’t save their entire team…and it worked; the first Gen Z person of the season was eliminated.

(But how sweet was Michael being overwhelmed with joy over Gordon’s praise?)

First things first: WHO DOESN’T WASH LETTUCE?! I don’t care if someone tells you not to, you freaking do it.

But the Red Team seemed entirely doomed as soon as Gordon told them it was theirs to lose. The Blue Team was an absolute mess, but Arthur wasn’t being listened to—and he also didn’t demand to be heard—and it sunk them.

AMERICA’S GOT TALENT: Look, bluntly, the best act of the night was safe and the second-best act of the night was eliminated. I know these cuts are going to be brutal, but what a bummer.

BIG BROTHER: We’ve basically reached a point in the season where I’m seriously considering quitting the show for the year. I might change my mind depending on who wins the HOH next, but right now it’s chaos, and not in a fun way. (Though the house being in literal chaos post-Veto challenge felt apt.)

Kimo is very, very, very, very lucky Quinn didn’t out their smaller alliance to Tucker, because it could have ruined his and T’Kor’s alliance with the now-majority. And literally not one person in that house should feel safe with Tucker as an ally given he will only protect himself. And, to be clear, that’s his right, but he’s shown time and time again that he will take every bit of information given and blow up the house. If that’s your intent, great, go for it. If you think you’re the exception, you’re dumb.

HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET: “Three Men and Adena” is an episode I had heard about—and I am pretty sure I had seen at least a clip of—but I had no idea it was in the first season, which makes what they were able to pull off even more impressive.

The murder of Adena, a young Black girl, had been haunting the cops since the start of the series and they thought they finally had a real break, a real way to get justice for her. So the majority of the hour is Frank and Tim interrogating their suspect, Tucker.

Everything about the hour is brilliant, both on-screen and production-wise. With only 12 hours left to potentially get a confession, Frank and Tim don’t exactly play it good cop-bad cop; both men slide into both roles at various times, going from poking at Tucker to being friendly to practically vibrating with rage. They switch things up by having one-on-one conversations with him to double-teaming him. There’s an increased desperation as the clock is ticking that is showcased not only in the acting and script, but also in the directing and editing. It’s claustrophobic. It’s absolutely unnerving and uncomfortable. It’s everything they’re trying to make Tucker feel.

But Frank and Tim want their answers so bad that they don’t exactly sense when they start to lose control over everything, too, and Tucker starts pointing out their own weaknesses. It’s chilling when Tucker eventually admits his love for Adena, but—with the exception of the one brief moment where he acknowledges he’s not sure if he’s innocent—still refuses to admit he killed her. The cops don’t get the confession by the time the deadline passes; despite so much of the show bucking so much convention already, it still feels shocking they weren’t able to succeed here.

It’s a brilliant hour of television. It’s one of the best procedural hours I’ve ever watched. (And I don’t say that lightly.) I’m in awe the writers (correctly) trusted Andre Braugher and Kyle Secor so early in the show’s run to shoulder the hour with guest star Moses Gunn. It’s a device I truly wish more cop shows utilized, because when done right, it’s this; it’s a showcase for jaw-dropping writing, acting, directing, and the entire creative process.

It’s also unreal—and absolutely fascinating—that this was done while Frank and Tim were still sussing each other out as partners. In some ways, it would be easier to tackle this in, say, season 5, when the audience knows the characters inside and out, and the partners knew every beat of how the other worked. These two men were still learning each other, as the audience was learning them. And it’s fascinating they come out of the interrogation with differing opinions on Tucker’s guilt. It does feel, though, that it’s solidified their partnership going forward; we’ll see if that’s correct.

(Okay, I died at the Lincoln assassination being brought up for a moment of lightness in the bathroom. I was so physically tense by what was going on, them picking up that throughline shocked me into laughing so hard my entire body relaxed. Again, brilliant writing to know when and how to deploy a moment of lightness in a deeply intense episode.)

Which shows did you watch last night?

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