Tag: Jennifer Ferrin

The Equalizer (2021) s02e04 – The People Aren’t Ready

I’m not getting roped into the “maybe ‘The Equalizer’ will actually be good” game again, but this episode’s solid. It improves some things, it maintains some things, it fails at some things.

The fail is Tory Kittles teaming up with Dominic Fumusa for a bit. Kittles has all these buddy cop one-liners he dismissively spouts just before the cut like a “Law & Order” spoof. The one-liners ring particularly hollow because they’re the only interactions Kittles has with Fumusa where the episode doesn’t go out of its way to remind Fumusa is a complete asshole. There’s even a secret origin reveal of his character to further explain the assholery. It’s a bunch.

The improvements are for—almost unbelievably—Liza Lapira and Adam Goldberg. They go out in the world on a mission together, and Goldberg’s a buffoon, and Lapira has to save their bacon, but it’s actually cute. Even with Lapira’s socially conscious expository dump in the first few minutes about prosecutors holding people of color in pretrial detention for years on end. It’s the second time “The Equalizer” has tried this information dump from Lapira, and it works better this time. It also doesn’t end up being very important to the actual plot, which has Queen Latifah getting arrested and having to save the day from jail.

Latifah’s got information about a threat against Karen DA Jennifer Ferrin, but Ferrin doesn’t believe it at first. Once there’s an incident, Ferrin makes Kittles and Fumusa work together to try to stop the would-be assassin—aggrieved father Michael Chenevert—while Goldberg and Lapira are pretty sure it’s a frame-up.

Meanwhile, in jail, Latifah meets a young woman (Imani Lewis) whose stubbornness is stopping her from getting out of a bad situation. So Latifah becomes a mentor, whether Lewis wants one or not.

Then at home, Lorraine Toussaint and Laya DeLeon Hayes are freaking out about Latifah being in jail—as part of the family’s new honesty policies, Latifah discloses her arrest—though no one knows her identity. So lots of good, quick family drama for Toussaint and Hayes.

Combined with the Lapira and Goldberg all of a sudden being charming and an inventive episode setup… maybe “Equalizer” is getting better. Or at least it seems to be raising the bottom.

The script—credited to Joseph C. Wilson—still manages a bunch of awful dialogue.

The Equalizer (2021) s01e07 – Hunting Grounds

The episode opens with district attorney Jennifer Ferrin deciding she’s going to go after vigilante Queen Latifah because it’ll make a good “law and order” story for the media. Yep, Karen Ferrin (it even rhymes) will be going after Black woman Latifah who helps the BIPOC people the NYPD at best ignores, at worst murders. But as “The Equalizer” continues to exist in an alternate universe where Rona never happened, I guess they can try to get away with it.

The Ferrin subplot only pops up again at the end, when she tracks down Latifah’s erstwhile partner, NYPD detective Tory Kittles. We’re back to splitting “Equalizer” between Kittles episodes and Chris Noth episodes apparently; no Noth this episode.

Instead, it’s Latifah and Kittles trying to track down a serial killer whose latest victim starts the episode with forty-eight hours to live. Kittles doesn’t like Latifah’s methods, while Latifah’s more interested in Kittles’s parenting techniques (are his two sons a retcon) than his professional abilities. He’s a partially useful body to have around, otherwise Latifah can do it all on her own.

Including hack into the NYPD’s interrogation room cameras—thanks to tech guy Adam Goldberg and his sniper wife, Liza Lapira. “Equalizer” has finally figured out how much Goldberg and Lapira the show needs and it’s not a lot. There’s not even big, profoundly inaccurate tech exposition from Goldberg. He’s closer to being a welcome cast member than ever. And Lapira’s fine.

Meanwhile, Latifah’s aunt Lorraine Toussaint is starting to date online. Latifah’s not thrilled about it or daughter Laya DeLeon Hayes helping her figure it out. It’s a solid subplot though, just because Toussaint and Hayes are so fun together.

The serial killer pursuit—the NYPD missed the ten victim plus serial killer streak because they were all Black women—is all right, though the resolution leaves a lot to be desired. Along with the eventual serial killer, whose performance similarly leaves a lot to be desired.

Kittles and Latifah continue to be good together (regardless of him being superfluous), but his cop storylines are still pretty bland stuff. There’s only so many times it can turn out no one listened to him because he’s the only Black guy and for him to turn out to be right, only for him to turn around and defend the system.