TVSquad

(S01E12) To begin, I know exactly where they shot the opening scene for tonight's episode. It was in the New York Transit Museum. It's an old subway station that was converted into a museum and includes subway cars from different decades. I visited there recently, which allowed me to recognize some of the background advertisements from the scene.

In the original British series, it was determined that Sam was in a coma. In this series, I think he's in some sort of shared virtual reality. This is simply a hunch based on what we've learned so far.

On to the actual episode...

It looks like Harry Woolf is going from Chief of DIC to Republican Presidential candidate in 30 or so years. I'm just sayin'. You just know that Fred Thompson will make another appearance down the line, assuming the show is renewed.

In watching tonight's episode, I couldn't help but think that given his tendency towards negativity, the reviewer/victim Joey Conway would be a standard blogger today. It's amazing that he reviews both art and restaurants for the same paper. Does he review movies too?

At the same time, how did Joey Conway know about Tony Crane's history? Was he a critic or an investigative reporter? And how did Sam conveniently possess handcuffs when he went to confront Tony Crane unarmed? While each of these could be explained with a single spoken line, the lack of doing so makes the story seem inconsistent.

The premise of this episode was slightly similar to the pilot, in which Sam is solving a similar crime that occurred in both the future and his past. This one had a different execution and different ending. I hope the creators don't make a habit of using this plot device, or it could get old fast.

I recognize that Sam is probably going slightly haywire being caught in 1973 for what seems like months, but his behavior tonight seemed very out of character. There is no way by-the-book Sam Tyler would stalk a suspect like that. He would have been .... should have been smarter about it. Actually, the behavior of everyone on the force seemed out of character (including the suddenly by-the-book Gene Hunt), but Sam even moreso. Unless this is going to be explained in the future, it seems like sloppy writing.

Still, they sort of reverted to form during the episode. I loved how they had to keep having to rewind the tape during the confession session.

Michael Imperioli still has the best lines: "He's one Brady short of a bunch." "He's as confused as a baby at a topless bar." Classic.

Did anybody notice the Truman Capote cameo? Nice to see considering the show seems to avoid using famous faces in their history and rather uses fictional characters based on them.

Tonight's episode had some cute scenes, but overall I'd rate is as fair-to-poor. I got the theme of the complexity of the individual, but the episode didn't quite work and seemed haphazard. This show has an excellent premise at its core, but care has to be taken to keep the characters consistent. If they do change, the viewers need to know why. Unless, of course, I'm correct in my assumption of a VR scenario. In which case, it's all just a dream anyway.