L&O: episode 4

[sabotabby]

It's the Crack Mayor one everyone!



Okay so there is a municipal election and three city councillors are vying for mayor. BTW I think you have to resign your seat as councillor to run as mayor but I could be wrong. We have a slick guy named John whose kids go to private school and who is savvy at developer-based corruption (this would be John Tory), Liz, a competent woman of colour who is good at her job and cares about housing (Olivia Chow), and McCreigh, who looks like Tony Blair but he's Rob Ford. Woefully miscast—and I'm not saying this because he's skinny, but he doesn't give off the right kind of Big Fun vibes that a bruiser like RoFo gave off. A young hard-hitting investigative journalist from the paper of record, Toronto Life, is leaked the crack video, but on her way to meet with the source, a masked man slits her throat. The cops find a longer cut of the video, which shows the reflection of the contractor who filmed the video, and he winds up dead too. (Total murder victims on this show = 9, or 8% of all murders in Toronto.)

Turns out, and I shit you not, the killer is Jack Layton. He knew the contractor from a sports bar and convinced him to film the crack tape in exchange for Liz approving a construction permit for his company. This would help Liz's campaign but when the full tape emerged, he knew it could be linked back to him and therefore Liz, so he killed the journalist and the contractor to cover it up. Also he has cancer and wanted to see her win as mayor and fix the city before he dies.

I do not like that by avoiding slandering RoFo by having him be the murderer, they slandered Jack Layton. Saint Jack would never.

There are a number of fun things in this one:

• As everyone has pointed out already, having Toronto Life be an actual news outlet is absolutely hilarious. What's funnier is having it be the kind of magazine where not one but two investigative journalists are covering an affordable housing project.
• Okay, the idea of there being an affordable housing project in Toronto is also pretty funny.
• The funniest thing, though, is that there is a joke about the Eglinton Crosstown boondoggle that will not date the show in any way, even if you watch this in ten years for some reason.
• Rob Ford being rude to cops is unthinkable.
• The construction worker is Italian and would never be caught dead at an English football pub. I don't even think you need to be Canadian to know that.
• Realistically, no one at Union Station stops when the journalist gets murdered.
• We get a moment where they zoom in and enhance a poor-quality video!
• The Toronto Sun has a story about the murder but the headline is way too tame for the Sun.
• John Tory sends his four kids to UCC, which seems accurate, but it's politically embarrassing for him as opposed to part of his brand.
• Anyone at all thinks the competent woman of colour can win in a three-way mayoral election against two white male blowhards.
• The idea that the crack tape would work against Ford's re-election prospects.

We actually learn information about the cops in this one! Bateman (the single mom detective) wants love and is maybe interested in Graff? She makes a date at the Four Seasons (where the victim wanted to go have drinks) and I guess invites him? It's unclear because the dialogue in this is quite bad. Graff hates sports bars and politics and likes karaoke.

Plot: ** (vaguely competent mystery, brought down by the need to not make the mayor the murderer)

Characters: * (we learn multiple facts about the cops!)

Toronto: *** (this is the most Toronto one yet, as it centres around the one thing that most people know about Toronto. However, politicians caring and being able to act on affordable housing is unrealistic, and Toronto Life being a serious publication is extremely silly.)

Comments

[ioplokon]

I can't believe they did Layton dirty like that. I guess because he can't sue?

& yeah, I was under the impression the party drugs were like... The most sympathetic part of Rob Ford's whole deal?

[sabotabby]

Ford can't sue either! But I guess Doug might.

Any sympathy I had re: RoFo's addiction dried up in the face of what he wanted to put other addicts through. He got the public sympathy and the fancy rehab; they get a ballooning police budget, encampment raids, and jail ODs.

[ioplokon]

Right, but see, relative to his other attributes, it's less odious.

[moon_custafer]

The Toronto Sun has a story about the murder but the headline is way too tame for the Sun

Does it at least have an unrelated photo of a woman in a swimsuit confusingly close to the headline?

[sabotabby]

Not that I could make out. The victim was pretty, though, and I can't imagine there wouldn't be some kind of pun (especially because we get some murder-related puns later).

[kore]

This show sounds idiotic but your recaps as always are gold. And I'm learning about real Toronto!

[sabotabby]

It's very sad to listen to a show where politicians talk about fixing the city, and knowing it is in fact fucked.

[troisoiseaux]

John Tory sends his four kids to UCC, which seems accurate

As soon as you said "sent his kids to private school" I was like WHICH ONE.

[sabotabby]

Of course it's UCC.

[frandroid]

Girls would have to go to Branksome Hall, or Havergal. (Fun fact: A Relative taught at Branksome for years until, amazingly, she went back to teach at a public school.)

That user icon looked cooler when it was big.

[sabotabby]

Not that amazing. Top tier private schools get the benefits of union contracts without having to be in the union (equivalent salaries and benefits), but there's no mobility or job security. If your principal (or headmaster or whatever they call it there), decides to fire you, you can't just move to another school, and you're back to zero seniority or pension. It's a raw deal. In many ways the working conditions are better—the kids tend to be more obedient, unless they're the sort sent to a private school to "straighten them out," and there are parental expectations and so on. The high-needs ones are kicked out. Class sizes are smaller and of course the school is better resourced. But the parents are a nightmare and the expectations around extra work are insane. I'll take public school and normal kids any day.

[lynnenne]

Turns out, and I shit you not, the killer is Jack Layton.

Okay, this is where I burst out laughing and didn't stop until I got to the end of your recap. AMAZING.

[sabotabby]

I'm so delighted!

[frandroid]

I was like, whaaaaaaaaat??

[sabotabby]

I made someone guess and it took him like five guesses to get to Layton.

[greylock]

I feel I missed out a lot by not knowing the ins and outs of local politics (the Fords aside), but it feels like whoever wrote the script did. So... I count that as win.

but he's Rob Ford. Woefully miscast—and I'm not saying this because he's skinny

If he's not red and and bloated what's the point?

[sabotabby]

It's generic L&O extruded product unless you know local politics and then it's inadvertently hilarious.

[greylock]

I think you mean 'subversive'.
I mean, all things being said, it sounds brilliant and well done, for the Nth spin-off in a 40-year-old franchise.

[sabotabby]

There's a missing /s tag here, yeah?

[greylock]

Sarcasm tags are for the weak.

[rdi]

Fie on them for slandering Saint Jack.

[sabotabby]

Right? They need to keep his memory out of their bad show.