The Equalizer (2021) s02e13 – D.W.B.

Tory Kittles gets his most significant episode of the season (if not the show), but with several caveats. First, it’s a Black trauma episode. Kittles—with his two sons—is somewhere in not-New York City New York, and a couple sheriffs’ deputies assume he’s a suspect. When he asserts his rights, the senior officer (Lee Tergesen, leaning into his typecasting as a racist piece of shit) attacks him, knocking him unconscious. Once the other, less overtly shitty cop (Brandon Espinoza) confirms Kittles is a cop… they put him in the back of their car and drive him out somewhere to kill him instead of calling an ambulance.

Because all of a sudden, “The Equalizer” really wants to be realistic.

The other big caveat for it being a Kittles-centric episode is it being, one way or another, a major change for the character and potentially the show. We finally meet his ex-wife, Tawny Cypress, who’s initially confused why her sons called Queen Latifah for help before her, and then we get some backstory on Kittles. Including how Cypress always wanted to tell her kids about racist white cops, but cop Kittles wouldn’t let her. The episode speeds through that aspect of the story, letting the detail inform Kittles’s arc but not Cypress’s or the kids’.

The last caveat has to do with Kittles and Latifah’s chemistry. The show leans into it more than ever, but also without there being much weight behind it. Kittles has multiple flashback hallucinations in the episode, including returning guest star dad Danny Johnson either getting CGI de-aged (or de-aging make-up just looks like CGI now) and Kittles occasionally playing himself as a child. It’s kind of an acting showcase for Kittles, really. Just a horrific Black trauma one.

Because even though the show couches the racism a little bit, it’s only a little bit. The small-town cops are sympathetic to being murderers; the only non-overt racist the show introduces in the small-town is Dennis Boutsikaris, who plays a judge. Boutsikaris knows New York D.A. Jennifer Ferrin, who helps Latifah look for Kittles. The New York City cops can’t act because small-town racist sheriff Michael Pemberton tells them everything’s fine, so Ferrin and Latifah have to independently investigate.

While keeping the investigation limited makes it easier for the episode plotting—Adam Goldberg and Liza Lapira don’t get much to do here, and Laya DeLeon Hayes and Lorraine Toussaint don’t even appear–it also comes across like Kittles’s brothers and sisters in blue do not give a shit if Black cops are murdered by white ones.

Again, “Equalizer”’s picking one heck of a story to go for realism on.

Tergesen shows up before the opening titles, but then Boutsikaris and Ron Canada’s names show up, so it’s obviously going to be a big guest star episode. Canada has a great scene; sadly, all Black trauma stuff.

The show’s been having a rough time this season with Kittles as a Black cop and somehow decided the best way to resolve it was an exploitation picture from the seventies. Kittles does a great job. The main racist white cops are good too—Tergesen, Pemberton; a weird compliment.

Latifah simultaneously gets a lot to do but also not very much.

It’s a harrowing episode, start to finish.

The Equalizer (2021) s02e01 – Aftermath

“The Equalizer” returns with a whole bunch of problems but still has a reasonable amount of charm to it, just because of Queen Latifah. She gets a really good “mom” monologue when Laya DeLeon Hayes is yelling at her about being a former super-spy now using her very particular set of skills to help those in need. It’s much better written than most of the episode, which credits Terri Edda Miller and Andrew W. Marlowe as the writers. Obviously, there’s a room; obviously, there’s the Guild; obviously, Marlowe’s terrible; I hope Miller wrote the monologue. It works.

It doesn’t really make the episode feel any more realistic because even though Latifah’s hunting a bunch of apparently CIA-trained bank robbers who are targeting families, she’s never worried about Hayes’s safety. Apparently, the bad guys could hack into Adam Goldberg’s super-computer, but they couldn’t put a tail on Latifah. Though whenever Goldberg talks about his super-computing skills, you doubt the veracity of it all. The Internet’s way too easy to hack on CBS.

This season premiere picks up a couple weeks after the finale, with Hayes staying at her dad’s and not wanting to talk to Latifah after the super-spy reveal. Latifah’s still not talking to Chris Noth, and cop Tory Kittles has a new partner, Erica Camarano. In fact, Latifah’s planning on shutting down the whole “Equalizer” thing to focus on repairing her relationship with Hayes.

Until Kittles calls in favor markers for help on a bank robbery case with expertly trained perpetrators who aren’t in any fingerprinting system.

Then there’s another subplot involving Goldberg feeling cooped up in his Lex Luthor from Superman: The Movie hideout—though he’s more Otis—and wanting to go outside. He’s been down there five years, which is a lot less impressive for people who’ve been through Rona lockdown, but Rona still doesn’t exist in “The Equalizer” universe.

Solvan Naim’s direction is better than the show needs. Latifah and Kittles still have the right chemistry—even if both seem bored regurgitating A plot exposition after every commercial break—and Hayes, Noth, and Lorraine Toussaint are all still appealing. I feel like if the show were thirty-four minutes instead of forty-two, it’d be an even better watching experience. Probably not a better show, but definitely more fun with less time investment. Or maybe just don’t time suck on Goldberg and Liza Lapira (Lapira’s so scenery she’s furniture this episode).

But a season two renaissance seems very unlikely, but for network procedural fodder, “Equalizer”’s fine. Enough. I mean, you’re watching it because it’s Queen Latifah as a badass super-spy. No one’s pretending there’s any other reason to tune in.

The Equalizer (2021) s01e03 – Judgment Day

Well, this episode establishes a couple things “The Equalizer” certainly didn’t need established. First, Chris Noth is not a regular cast member no matter what the titles say; he’s nowhere to be seen this episode. Second, turns out Andrew W. Marlowe’s not going to be the worst writer on it. I was upbeat when I saw Erica Shelton getting the writing credit because anyone has to be better than Hollow Man Marlowe, right?

Nope. Shelton is much, much worse. Her ear for dialogue is on par with a bad Saturday morning cartoon, so it’s good she doesn’t have any real conversation in the episode, just endless snippets of exposition.

Also–and since Shelton’s so bad I’m not giving up—Adam Goldberg’s journey to being less annoying stalls this episode and there’s nothing for Liza Lapira in that department either. Shelton writes them as a cloyingly cute couple with absolutely no chemistry or timing.

But before it even becomes clear Noth’s not showing up, Goldberg and Lapira are going to be offensively bland, and all of Shelton’s writing is going to be bad, the episode also reveals they haven’t got a guest star budget. There are some great—albeit poorly written but what can you do—guest star spots in the episode and “The Equalizer” doesn’t get anyone of note for them. There’s the New York District Attorney, Jennifer Ferrin, who’s better than, say, judge Amy Hohn, but not as good as defense attorney and Queen Latifah’s client-by-proxy, Danny Mastrogiorgio. Mastrogiorgio gives the closet thing to a good guest star spot, but it’s not easy with the dialogue. Hohn’s terrible. Ferrin’s… well, Ferrin comes through enough not to be terrible anyway.

The worst casting is the real client, Joe Perrino, an escaped con who didn’t commit the murder Hohn put him in prison for and Latifah’s going to find out the truth. Whether Perrino wants her to investigate or not, which leads to an almost good scene for Goldberg, only for Lapira (but really Shelton) to flush it down the drain.

Latifah’s got a subplot with daughter Laya DeLeon Hayes not wanting to hang out with her “Fake Woke” former friend (presumably, since the friend is a Black girl, she’s a fake Black Lives Matter protester, which isn’t explicit but odds are on it). Hayes thinks fake protesting is stupid and Latifah tries to talk to her about it but Shelton’s writing’s bad and the episode’s got no ambition for actual relevance (still no Rona), much less sincere character development. Lorraine Toussaint’s in it so little I thought she’d left the show.

Tory Kittles goes from pursuing Latifah to being her erstwhile partner, which leads to her self-identifying as “The Equalizer” at one point. Kittles isn’t great but he’s likable enough and he and Latifah have more chemistry than anyone else has in the show.

Enthusiastic direction from Solvan Naim helps a lot. It’s hard to imagine being enthusiastic about directing, say, Perrino or Shelton’s teleplay, but Naim manages it.