天下制覇

I would love to have seen the conversation that lead to stuffing children into a sewer. 

Impressions:

I continue to be very frustrated with this show's tone and characterizations. Which is better than being bored or annoyed by it, but if it played things a little bit closer to the vest, and just a little more seriously, all the dramatic and emotional elements would be so much more effective. The council of dicks in this episode would be so much more effective as antagonists if they were less Snidely Whiplash and more Anton Ego. They're presented right from the get go as ridiculous over the top jokes, sadistic lunatic maniacs who stuff children into sewers out of general spite, both, or absolute non-entities. It would have been so easy and obvious to do the standard twist where the seemingly unassuming guy was actually the super racist/stuffy jackass who is their true antagonist, while the one putting them through the wringer is the one they win over or teaching them a valuable lesson or the like. You know, the kind of high literary twist in everything from Scrubs to Monsters Inc. Instead, it wants to repeatedly scream ELEGANT like it's playing an obnoxious drinking game, and as if it wasn't on the nose enough, the family picture spontaneously comes down with an attack of the draaamaaaas. 

Well, the 'spy' stuff is phoning it in pretty hard too. It mostly reminds me of Burn Notice's random expositional lessons. Say what you want about Jeffrey Donnovan being a black hole of charisma in that, but at least it did a good job selling that he was legitimately breaking down situations and people on the fly while teaching you how to make an improvised flashbang out of a stapler, rotary phone, and coffee mug. Here, the (scare quotes) 'spy' stuff is still mostly being used as an excuse to repeat the premise yet a-goddamned-gain for the most forgetful members of the audience, and to read off dossiers instead of anything organic or natural. Lloyd, or Loid, or however we're spelling this, would be so much better cut from Holmes or Westen's cloth instead of Siri.