#j.h. brodie

[wokemindvirusmd]

Would you like to... nvm

[itsdansotherblog]

[ltwharfy]

J.H. Brodie on "Homicide" the beginning of the "every show I love must have Max Perlich play a weird guy who dresses funny" era of television!

Okay, I guess I'm mainly just thinking of him as Whistler on "Buffy" and Jackson's Cousin on "Gilmore Girls", but still.

I'm enjoying him so far in my HLOTS rewatch. I think something is added by having a "civilian" character in a cop show.

4.3 Autofocus

Mike and Meldrick begin to work together and we meet Brodie, a lovable photographer who wants to join the squad, even putting his job at risk. Some find him annoying, but I find him a nice light to add to the cast.

[crochet-pattern-directory]

Pattern Directory: Amigurumi

Animals

Amelia the Giraffe by Carolyne Brodie

Betty the Butterfly by Cuddly Stitches Craft

Boo the Panda by HelloYellowYarn ($)

Chillu, the Chicken by Nuzrath Hameedha

Chubby Bee by anniegurumi

Colorful Chameleons by Red Heart Design Team

Crochet A Little Fish Amigurumi by @knithacker on Tumblr

Crochet Cat Pattern by Annemarie Shaak

Enzo the Teddy Bear by Paintbox Yarns

Firefly by ToyGurumi

Florence Flamingo by Lion Brand

Funny Reindeer by Carrey Reynolds

Fuzzy Hedgehog by PlanetJune

Golden Retriever Plush by Crochet At Teri’s ($)

Holly the Unicorn by Carolyne Brodie

Lola Llama by Lion Brand

Mini Whale Crochet by The Crocheting

Mommy and Baby Jellyfish by Sweet Softies

Paisley the Penguin by Amanda Phillips

Paisley the Pig by Jess Huff

Panda Bear Mod by Kristine Tullus ($)

Parker Penguin by The Loopy Lamb

Starfish Star by FollowTheYarn

Tag [Dugee Squirrel Club] by Alex Leung

Tumbler Alfred Duck by Tine Sommer Hansen

Dolls

2 Color Crochet Sally Doll by Lion Brand Yarn

2 Color Crochet Sally Doll #2 by Lion Brand Yarn

Baby Yoda Inspired Fanart by Theresa Kicher

Clefairy by Megan Bubbles

Happy Sunflower by J.H. Winter

FNAF Bonnie the Bunny by Codi Hudnall

Kaonashi (no face) by Sandra Rios

Mellie Teddy Ragdoll CAL by Melanie Grobler

Móhu Doll by móhu

Teletubbies by Julia Arkrait

Undertale Part 5: Sans by @crochetale on Tumblr

Undertale Part 6: The Great Papyrus by @crochetale on Tumblr

Undertale Part 7: Undyne by @crochetale on Tumblr

Undertale Part 12: Asriel by @crochetale on Tumblr

Willow the Woodland Doll by Sylemn ($)

Food

Buttermilk Pancakes by Chloe Bailey

Fairy Cakes by Vicky Phillips

Fried Egg Pattern by Many Evenings

Hot Dog Food by StringyDingDing

Lemon by My Amigurumi Farm

Pineapple Fruit by Yarn Blossom Boutique ($)

Root Beer Float by StringyDingDing

Sushi by Teenie Crochets

Other

Amigurumi Cactus by Codi Hudnall

Impkin by @craftyintentions on Tumblr ($)

Kawaii Seashell by @aradiyatoys on Tumblr

Travel Gonk by Samantha Osmond

[pass-the-bechdel]

Homicide: The Movie

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, once.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Eleven (28.94% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twenty-seven.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Film Quality:

Definitely not a strong finish to the series, but then again, neither was anything in the final season of the actual show, either. You could skip this and not really be missing out. In fact, you might be better off that way.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Howard interviews Mrs Desassi.

Female characters:

Dawn Daniels.

Helen Lucaitis.

Terri Stivers.

Laura Ballard.

Kay Howard.

Nonna Giardello.

Megan Russert.

Rene Sheppard.

Mrs Desassi.

Billie Lou Munch.

Julianna Cox.

Male characters:

Al Giardello.

Paul Falsone.

Meldrick Lewis.

Mike Giardello.

Frank Pembleton.

George Barnfather.

Tim Bayliss.

Stuart Gharty.

Stanley Bolander.

John Munch.

Roger Gaffney.

Robert Hall.

John Komen.

Karl Miller.

J.H. Brodie.

Terry.

Robert Gessner.

Dr Williams.

Salerno.

Jasper.

Bernard Weeks.

George Griscom.

Mike Kellerman.

Eric Thomas James.

Ed Danvers.

Steve Crosetti.

Beau Felton.

OTHER NOTES:

Considering this film is set not long after season seven ended, it’s kinda weird that Gee has apparently gone from his newly-appointed Captainship to campaigning for Mayor in that time. I mean, I’m not surprised that he would be bored out of his mind in Property Crimes, but this is quite the sudden leap for a guy who never expressed a desire or inclination for a political career.

The old credit sequence is back! Wouldn’t have been right to finish without it.

SPEAKING OF OLD THINGS THAT ARE BACK:

Forget about Gee’s career shift being weird: what the heck with fucking GHARTY being Homicide’s shift commander now? Remember four years ago in-show, when he was introduced as a cowardly derelict-in-his-duties uniform officer just trying to make it to his pension (only a few months off at that time)? How does that guy make it to Lieutenant in four years? Seems fucking ridiculous. 

Mike Giardello going on a rampage beating the shit out of people is objectively uncool, but the decision to have Mike Kellerman tagging along watching him while casually snacking makes the whole sequence hilarious. 

It’s been so many hours since Gee was shot, where the heck are his other kids, huh? I feel like they’re conveniently pretending they don’t exist so that they can focus on making his bond with Mike seem especially ~profound~. It’s too late in the game for the father/son Ultimate Bond cliche, y’all. 

Why the fuck Gharty talking about putting up with being a ‘stooge’ in order to get off the street, instead of just taking that Goddamn retirement? What a tiresome man. I can’t believe we wasted literally any scenes at all on giving him a weak excuse for a subplot-esque thing, when we’ve got all of these other great characters running around getting about three spoken lines and zero functional purpose. Urgh.

Bayliss confessing to the Ryland murder to Pembleton is a great scene, but it feels out of place in the film, and disingenuous as a plot development for the characters - considering it’s the last development they ever get, I really don’t think it’s a meaningful conclusion (individually or as a partnership), and it takes a mainstay of the series at its best - the writing, acting, and chemistry that made Pembleton and Bayliss the show’s flagship team - and perverts it with the kind of dramatic contrivance that was a mainstay of the series at its worst. 

Lewis just gotta bring up Bayliss’ sexuality, coz he’s a jerk.

The afterlife scene is super weird and not a strong ending for the entire series in the slightest (the dialogue there feels especially stilted), but I am delighted that they took the excuse to include Crosetti and Felton, and complete the set by getting every single major character from the series back again, living and dead.

I mean, yes, I am delighted that I got to see EVERYONE one last time, but it made for a wildly overstuffed hour-and-a-half film, and almost none of those characters were used to meaningful effect. Essentially, having the entire cast back is a gimmick - and a gimmick that I love - but consequently the plot has no idea what to do with itself, characters drift in and out of it and mostly achieve nothing more than just physically being there for the sake of it, and thus there’s almost no building of emotional resonance or even the natural tension which should arise from having our beloved shift commander shot. More than anything, this feels like an excuse to bring Bayliss and Pembleton together one last time, and I certainly understand that temptation, but it’s a bad move in terms of actually telling the story of the film (which involves thirty-six other named and speaking characters who are not Bayliss and Pembleton, lest we forget). 

Additionally, the movie is dotted with useless extras that have nothing to do with the core narrative and only serve to waste vital time which could have been better invested giving one of the many underused characters something to do (the pointlessness of Detective Hall, who was not part of the original series and has no impact upon this film now, is chief in my mind on this score - adding drama by having the shooter in the hospital was also a time-waster), but then again, even the scenes which DID use our old characters were largely red herrings that could be excised from the film completely without altering the story at all. In some cases, that really would have been an improvement, since the movie doesn’t even pretend to treat Little Gee’s rampage as anything other than a pointless dead end, nor Munch and Bolander’s visit to the African Revival Movement, Sheppard and Lewis’ interview with the white supremacist (who was never part of the original series either), or Howard and Falsone’s visit to the widow Desassi. All of these scenes exist purely so that those other characters can do One Single Thing as if it will magically legitimise their presence, while Bayliss and Pembleton unsurprisingly take up the bulk of screen time and are the only ones who uncover anything useful (seriously, they’re even the ones who notice the gunsmoke on the video, even though Ballard and Stivers were assigned to review the footage. Fucking script couldn’t even give some other characters just one genuinely useful thing to do in all this useless mess). 

Altogether, the whole thing feels massively under-cooked as a story in its own right, and it has nothing to say about the show, its legacy, what it meant or why it existed in the first place. Homicide was never about Al Giardello’s command, any more than it was about Bayliss and Pembleton’s partnership. Then again, this movie isn’t really about those things either, they’re just the only aspects it manages to carve out with anything close to clarity. Ultimately, I’m not so sure this movie was about anything.