About Last Night…GHOSTS, MATLOCK, FOUND, and More

Let’s talk about Thursday night’s TV!

LAW & ORDER: Oh, man, this was a rough case; situations with kids always are.

Notably, Mehcad Brooks was great. Even though we’ve gotten a number of showcase episodes about him during this revival series, we haven’t frequently gotten to hear about his own backstory. Brooks was fantastic as Shaw opened up to Riley about his own past as a foster child. And it made the mess Shaw was dealing with at work—a young boy lied about knowing there were bullets in the gun he used to kill his teacher—even more weighted and poignant. 

GHOSTS: I don’t know if I’ll be in the minority or majority with this, but I’m really glad Patience didn’t actually turn Sam into stone. I know this sounds weird, but it felt like it would be a step too far with her ghostly abilities. (I absolutely realize how ridiculous that sounds given this is a show about ghosts.)

It was actually super structurally interesting as the ghosts found themselves in trouble and Sam was MIA/not able to help them talk to Jay. We’ve seen it before (notably when Sam got locked in the vault), but it’s always fascinating how the writers play with that device.

I will miss Patience, though. It felt like she was starting to (quasi-)settle in. But, uh…others?!?! I have questions. (And zero answers.)

[For more on the episode, here’s what Mary Holland and the showrunners shared.]



MATLOCK: Well, this episode taught me (or reminded me about?! But truly cannot recall it before) the Texas two-step approach. That’s…wild.

It was fun to see the firm split, though, and conceivably try to have a firewall between the opposing sides. And Senior played dirty. It feels way too easy to assume he’s the one Matty will ultimately be targeting, but we’ll see.

(Poor Matty getting asked out, though. It makes sense! And it was handled well. But it’s hard to maintain a lie constantly and at some point something is going to crack.)

CRIME SCENE KITCHEN: I know I keep saying this, but I’m so intrigued by whether these contestants are simply not good at detecting clues or if they’ve made it too hard. It’s a really difficult balance; you don’t want everyone to get it right, but everyone in pure chaos with a small percentage getting it right isn’t ideal, either. Alas. We’ll see what things are like when the two teams merge.

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: A fine episode; possibly the second-best of the season? It really helped that it actually felt a bit more balanced, cast/character-wise—Velasco, Bruno, and Silva got real stuff to do for the first time since the premiere. (Bruno making Velasco borrow his watch was funny, and Silva and Bruno discussing that she a) had looked up the squad before she joined and b) she knew about Bruno’s lawsuit via her father were good, small moments.) And the cold open was once again shorter/felt more manageable.

(That being said, as a reporter, not sure how I feel about the lie at the end. I know it’s TV and we do kind of have to acknowledge basically no profession is showcased exactly as they should/would in real life, but…for the record, reporters are not supposed to lie; that would likely be a career-ending scandal for her if it was discovered. But I get it was supposed to be an “okay” lie, here, because it allowed a survivor to regain some agency/change the narrative. I also acknowledge this may literally only bother reporters.)



FOUND: Margaret?! WHAT DID YOU DO?

A genuine nightmare to imagine being held for years so close to home. There’s no good way to be taken, clearly, but that would haunt me forever to know someone I loved and desperately missed was that close.

But, also, absolutely brilliant to have Sir and Gabi interact via the recording. It’s not easy to get the two of them together plausibly, but the writers really have done well at keeping the dynamic alive while also not making it feel ridiculous or implausible.

I’m intrigued by this new task force and how it impacts, well, everything. I also loved Gabi’s apology to her team and wonder what difference it might make. (Though, going back to the first point…it might be too late to fix everything.)

And since Sir might not be working alone…perhaps he’s working with someone he just mentioned? (AKA his sister.)

ELSBETH: I really appreciated the change in format for this episode. One of my concerns about a longer season was sticking to the same beats for an extended period of time, but shaking it up like this made things genuinely interesting. Viewers were in the dark and the Big Guest Star didn’t do it…well, at least not entirely. I do hope the show takes more swings like this going forward.

Which shows did you watch last night?

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