Review: Republic of Doyle, ep. 8

If we can take one ray of sunshine out of this episode, it's that the writers are certainly putting the pieces in place to write Nikki out of the show. Please, please, please God don't get too clever with this and get Jake to have second thoughts or whatever. The characters isn't working, no one likes her so just do the merciful thing and write her off...both from the show and as a failed character experiment. It's a perfectly all right thing to do.

God, the less said about that scene in the bar the better. Gah.

Anyway, this week's special CODCO guest is Cathy Jones, playing a grieving widow who is a little pissed to discover that her recently deceased husband left a chunk of money to a strange woman she's never heard of. The brother of the deceased is kind of pissed off with him as well, since the dead brother has been skimming two grand a month off of him for years. The woman in questions claims to not know the man and is getting a little pissed off with everyone poking around into her business.

But never fear, Dez and Tinny are on the case.

I will say this for the show...the mysteries are generally pretty solid and they do a good job of veering away from the obvious - the dead husband was having an affair and is paying off the girlfriend - into something more interesting and, in this case, tragic.

Hell, they even managed to pull off the small miracle of making Tinny not completely annoying. Actually, they might have finally found a use for Des and Tinny. It makes sense to use them when investigating the more youth oriented aspects of a case. Des is a mope, but at least he's got some computer skills. Tinny, despite being deeply annoying, does have a head on her shoulders. At least when she's being written properly.

As for the Rose and Martin subplot at least that finally moves forward in a smart direction. Malachy acts stupid, Rose acts stupid but at the end they realize they have a better chance of dealing with the Martin problem together rather than trying to keep secrets from one another. Certainly not a radically new story twist, but a nice one to finally see after watching Rose and Malachy both flail about the last couple of episodes. Although Rose was deeply stupid to go to that hotel room. I'm torn between believing the character was desperate or whether she was being badly written for plot convenience because I think she's normally far too smart to go and do something like that. It's a toss up.

While I mock the CODCO appearances, Cathy Jones wasn't too annoying. The cat fight was a bit over the top, but at least she didn't go to vast, twitchy levels of over-acting that Greg Malone inflicted on all of us.

Overall, another pretty solid episode. A step up from last week simply by the merit of not having as much Nikki in it and actually putting Tinny to some good use. Not as many great one liners in this episode, but still a couple worth mentioning.

"I am literally covered in another man." - Jake

"Crack that whip, constable." - Jake
"You’d like that, wouldn’t you?" - Cst. Bennett

"Don’t go talking about offin' yourself, Doyle. You’ll get a girl all excited." - Cst. Bennett. (For a character who was such a dud in the first episode, they really are feeding her all the best lines these days.)

"Whattya doin', playin' hopscotch?" - Jake
"Yeah, are ya stupid?" - Girl playing hopscotch

"I know a bunch of b'yes from the Goulds who would take care of this. Would probably pay me for the chance, actually." - Jake (Funny if you only know what the Goulds is like.)

"Well, it was still better than Jake's idea." - Malachy
"What? Goons for the Goulds?" - Rose
"Yeah, how’d you know?" - Malachy

Finally, remember producers of the show...less Nikki and more Walter. More Walter is always good. Although, honestly, Sean Panting must have laughed his ass off when he read the script for this one. Show up, do one scene lasting less than a minute, all the while two women are massaging him and working on his hands. Oh, and you can lie down the entire time. And yes, we will pay you to do this. Now that's a sweet gig. How can I get some of that.

Still. More Walter. Less Nikki. You've been told.

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All from Broken Bells S/T record