Day Two Hundred and Twenty-four - Numb3rs: Season 2, Episode 10, "Wait a minute... the murder was a tool of protest?"

It's a little difficult getting back into the swing of things after my working vacation down at Connie Mack. While it didn't interfere with my Couchbound blogging (in fact, I was able to watch quite a few movies I didn't feel I had time for normally), I've certainly gotten a bit too used to sleeping in and watching shows and movies veeeeeery late at night.

To that effect, today I needed to return to my normal schedule... and that meant that I couldn't watch anything wacky or necessarily needful of my complete attention.

This fact brought be back to Numb3rs.

I might've gone with BONES or perhaps more Burn Notice, but I wasn't really in the mood for the torture of the former... and, as cheesy as it is, I've never actually seen the episodes of season 6 of the latter, so Numb3rs it had to be.

Let me say first that this particular episode managed to surprise me with its choice of ultimate villain. While I deftly dodged the initial red herring, the guest character that I had pegged managed to not be the murderer and I am both impressed and appalled.

I mean, as much as Numb3rs tries to be smart with its gimmick of math and logic being the primary crime-fighting techniques, it's still a rather predictable weekly procedural. It's very rare for the true criminal not to be easily guessed at if his/her identity is still unknown by the end of the second (if not first) act.

That said, they through me for a loop with this one... especially considering the ultimate motive didn't seem to make any real sense. I mean, the message that the killer was trying to convey was pointed towards the people who had a vested interest in protecting the same things that the killer was, just for different reasons. It really felt like the writers dropped the ball here and I don't just say that due to my own hubris at having guessed wrong. The whole resolution just felt... off.

Still, there are a few redeeming qualities in the episode. More screen time for my favorite professor, Larry (Peter MacNichol), and the subtle vibes he puts off towards this season's new female supporting character, Agent Megan Reeves (Diane Farr). While there were more definite sparks in the episode previous, I prefer the slow, subtle burn at this point in their courtship... which leads me to the second surprise of the episode: that Megan wasn't invited to Larry's send-off house party.

While, yes, no one else from the FBI was invited besides Don (Rob Morrow), it still would've been a nice nod towards his attempts at wooing the intriguing profiler.

As ever, the series is a quaint and harmless procedural whose only redeeming aspects are its occasionally interesting math gimmicks and series arcing character relationships, but it was certainly what I needed today... you know, aside from a stiff drink while relaxing in a tropical locale.

One of these days I'll take an actual vacation again. I can't say I haven't in recent years as I did visit my sister in Alaska last October... I'm just dying to take another one! ;)

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~