Review: Boss – Season 1, Episode 2 – “Reflex”
Rating:
Air date: Friday, October 28 at 10pm ET/PT on Starz
Sabotaging the re-election campaign of Governor McCall Cullen (Francis Guinan) is at the top of Chicago Mayor Tom Kane’s (Kelsey Grammer) to-do list in this week’s Boss. In the course of a day, Kane exercises his political muscle to weaken Cullen and break the Trash Bill impasse as his degenerative disease manifests in public.
“Reflex” starts a week after The City Council stalemate over the Trash Bill. Cullen wants dirt on his likely challenger, State Treasurer Ben Zajack (Jeff Hephner). When Cullen’s aides show him a video of Zajac supposedly involved in a University of Chicago beating incident, he asks the right questions about it but ignores his instincts that something about it doesn’t feel right.
Kane’s two aides, Ezra Stone (Martin Donovan) and Kitty O’Neill (Kathleen Robertson), prove why they are Kane’s right hand people. In a press conference brilliantly scripted by Stone and thought to be Zajac’s disastrous entry in the gubernatorial race, chaos is masterfully manipulated to throw in a twist. The reporters are suckered into the moment and miss the real scoop of the day – Zajac’s post-conference ‘sexcapade’ with O’Neill.
“What do you want?” he asks her.
For the second time, O’Neill doesn’t answer and I hope the evasiveness surrounding her feelings leads to an interesting story arc that is yet to be tapped. The workaholic female catering to a married man out of loneliness is an uninteresting and over-used cliché.
Kitty O'Neill (Kathleen Robertson) gives the play-by-play of how the Trash Bill voting is going to her boss Mayor Tom Kane.
Cullen’s arrogance burns the Governor some more. Stone has secured a video of a social conversation between Cullen and another passenger at the Miami airport and spins it into possible gay rumors. Kane orders Stone to release the video with the same ease as if he had authorized a CD to drop on iTunes. Based at what’s coming at him, I hope Cullen starts listening to his advisors soon.
Kane’s daughter, Emma Kane (Hanna Ware), explains there is mystery in the bible’s message to her scarce and bored congregation and apparently, that also applies to her rigid sermons. Due to her drug relapse and personal and professional issues, signs of her downward spiral can be seen coming. The sexual tension with Darious Morrison (Rotimi Akinosho), the young man she meets at the free clinic she runs continues to build up. Thanks to Emma’s stalkerish tendencies, we see the obvious dangers in his life; but Morrison is also smart and perceptive enough to ask Emma if she keeps seeking him out for something other than the drugs. When he stops her from getting high by kissing her and Emma gives in, the obvious question is whether she will give up one addiction for another.
In the meantime, ever since his diagnosis, Kane is seeking to end his five year estrangement with Emma. Kane beams in her presence and his perseverance yields a victory: Emma agrees to resume phone communications with him. However, Emma doesn’t fully react to her father’s biggest reveal to her: “Doing a lot of thinking, being kinda forced to.” She remains more defensive than concerned for him.
Distrust and pain characterize the relationship between Tom Kane and his daughter Emma.
Meredith Kane (Connie Nielsen), while dutifully fulfilling her Chicago First Lady’s duties, reacts negatively to her husband’s news about Emma. Nielsen’s delivery is impeccable during these exchanges; her body language empowers these scenes. After ruthlessly dealing with reporter Sam Miller (Troy Garity), who questions why her husband is being treated by Dr. Ella Harris (Karen Aldridge), a fact unbeknownst to her, Meredith goes straight to confront Tom. They size up each other like two cowboys in the Wild West trying to assess whether the conversation will or won’t lead to a shootout. Meredith deals with Tom as if he was breaching a contract and the conversation reveals how they’ve distanced themselves from their daughter:
“I recall you being clear to me about why this was necessary…We committed. Emma is a liability… was then, is now… Her behavior can’t be tolerated. She had to be cut loose. That does not change. I cannot have that change…”
Meredith clearly sets her expectations and tackles Tom next about Dr. Harris. Just when you think she’s emasculated him, Tom fights back by bringing up their non-existent sex life: “When was the last time you cared where I put it?”
Kane as a character is a study in efficiency but ultimately his disease, the death of a 92-year-old alderman, and witnessing how his father in-law needs to be tended to, Mayor Rutledge (Tony Mocus), forces Kane to face his own mortality as his aides and wife grow suspicious at his actions. Rutledge seems stuck in his own world and his sucking reflex when being fed by a caretaker, impacts Kane greatly.
“Reflex’s” script gives viewers enough information to keep their interest and when the full-reveal comes – the reactive stimuli or ‘reflex’ — proves to be very rewarding. Media coverage is used to advance the plot and how today’s news is manipulated and exploited by both politicians and media organizations is addressed.
Music and editing are worth noting, especially in how they enhance mood and tension. When combined, they poignantly highlight Tom’s symptoms and Emma’s sense of urgency to get high. Visual details are used to support key story arc points. For example, the garbage piles in multiple scenes emphasize the significance and severity of the Trash Bill impasse.
Alderman Ross astutely points out Kane almost doesn’t get his way in the City Council vote – and seeing how others are sensing his weaknesses too – tells me Boss is about to get more interesting.
Tune in to Boss Fridays at 10pm ET/PT on Starz. For more on the show, visit http://www.starz.com/originals/Boss.
Photos © 2001 MMXI Lions Gate Television Inc. All rights reserved.
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elleL
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