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shirleyshani
Reviews
The Way Home (2023)
The Way Home does grief justice
As a family therapist who specializes in grief, my favorite TV moments are when shows touch on these topics and do it well, making them both authentic and relatable. That's when I get excited enough to discuss them.
Jacob's (Remy Smith) disappearance leaves Del (Andie MacDowell) Colton (Jefferson Brown) teen Kat (Alex Hook and Chyler Leigh) with what professionals call "ambiguous grief": when the circumstances of loss are unclear and there is no closure. The ambiguity is like a big pile of "buts" "maybes" & "what ifs" that often doesn't allow for grief to enter the rooms of our lives. It's hard to grieve a loss that we cannot acknowledge, or that we're not sure even happened. In this case, not knowing what happened to Jacob creates tension between the hope that he may still be alive ("A Landry never gives up hope") and the will for closure ("when a family member died, they would write down the date, close the book and move on").
The Landry family unit was extremely close before Jacob disappeared. I'm sure they had their fair share of less-than-ideal moments, but all-in-all, they were close and had no trouble expressing their emotions. After Jacob disappeared, they fell into a pattern of silence and disengagement and stopped communicating emotions other than anger. They could not recreate the puzzle of their family unit. While this is by no means a testimony to all, or even most families, it is not uncommon.
In popular culture, we often see a linear process of moving on from grief. However, that linear process doesn't exist, because grief is not about moving on from, it's about moving on with. It's not about getting over, it's about integrating our grief into who we are after a loss. The Landry family shows us the complexity of grief in ways that other shows have not.
The cast portrays it authentically and genuinely, Jefferson Brown is a wonderful, vulnerable Colton, Andie MacDowell is as iconic as ever as both younger and older Del - the first innocent, happy and in love, and the latter hardened by pain and shut down. Alex Hook is an emotional, expressive teen Kat, who portrays the multiple losses she experienced and her trauma bond with Brady well. Also, her resemblance to Chyler Leigh, who portrays adult Kat, makes her a casting brilliance. Chyler Leigh always portrays grief and vulnerability well, but this time she really exceeds even my already high expectations. Last, but by no means least, Sadie Laflamme-Snow, is brilliant in her first lead role, carrying the story and cast. She shows us one can grieve people one never met. I am beyond curious to see where her path leads.
Criminal Minds: The Forever People (2015)
Great episode
This may contain spoilers.
Okay, so AJ Cook really does an outstanding job on this one, as do the writers. PTSD is hard to portray in a TV show, without falling into the cliché trap, i.e. having some specific noise/sight as a trigger for memories. Like a fan trigger the memory of a chopper. However, they did it! JJ had no obvious cliché triggers, which makes her PTSD that much more realistic. The part when Reid confronts her, and she nearly falls apart, is touching and re watchable on it's own. But the last scene is amazing: there are number of ways to show how PTSD can destroy a person, but having it put in the mouth of Tivon Askari, with his sadistic tone, like a torture on it's own, was brilliant. My only complaint that they didn't follow through on her process of coping. Kudos writers and actress!
Criminal Minds: 200 (2014)
Well done episode - spoiler alert
This review will be filled with spoilers! I know a lot of people found this episode to not fit with other plot stories, but I think all these supposed "holes" can be explained or are explained in the episode.
Let's start with the jumps between past (JJ's flashbacks to the events in Afghanistan), her current tortures and the team's work. Accurate. Not one detail is needless or missing.
The team's determination to work the case, after being told to stand down, Hotch being so protective of JJ & Matt: I love those episodes where we can see their devotion and care for each other, not just the job. But to do so while risking their jobs and freedom, rebelling against the system they serve, was an added bonus.
AJ Cook is playing this episode accurately. Outstanding work. The fact that in her time of need, JJ hallucinates of Emily, not other members of the team or Will, coming to her rescue, is a nice tribute to a rare TV womanly friendship.
And last, but by no means least - it takes great writing and directing to use subtle hints to show a mental and physical condition, without specifically wording it. The final scenes are exactly that: Emily releasing JJ, and keeps one hand to her the whole time she unties her, thus creating the "safe" feeling without saying it; JJ, full of rage and adrenaline, not giving in to pain but rushing after her kidnapper - but one can still see she's off her A-game; the bar scene, where JJ is sitting with her family of BAU and husband, supposedly as if nothing happened, but anyone can see she's shaken up and hurting in her body language. Saying so much, with no words of added scenes, is extraordinary.