MovieChat Forums > Profiler (1996) Discussion > 3X01- Was That A Sick Joke?!?!

3X01- Was That A Sick Joke?!?!

posted 14 years ago by fallen_angel_256
12 replies | jump to latest

The first two seasons were fantastic. I started watching a month ago, and it's fantastic, from the criminals they're after, to the dark atmosphere, to the great depth of the characters. and the Jack story-arc- pure genius. he's so intelligent and mysterious and creepy- a feeling the series really succeeded in giving the viewer. personally, i loved the second season better, as it was more intense and the Jack & Jill storyline was great, and Marcus Payton was a wonderful addition to the team, and Jack himself became more... well, creepy.

But the first of the ep. of the third season ruined everything that was good up until now. it was idiotic, illogical and plain dumb. the writer and new producer, Stephen Kronish, has written a script that rellay f-upd the whole storyline and the characters themselves, and did things that really made no sesne at all. what do i mean:

1. where's Payton? is he dead? did he leave the VCTF? at the second season finale, he was okay after the blow to his head that Jake gave him. so, what happened? he's not mentioned in 3X01, and it's like nobody even cared about him, or worse- even known him. even John Grant,which is weird, given that he and Payton became good friends.

2. So... Chloe is a mutant or something? she has aged overnight from being 8 years old to, what, 13-14?! don't get me wrong, i've nothing against Evan Rachel Wood, she's a wonderful actress, but Kronish didn't even explain the sudden aging. it was just there.

3. Bailey and Sam fighting and on edge most of the time, which is not like them at all. and with the way Bailey acted, it seemed that he actually blamed Sam for Jack, for what he became and what he did. what's more confusing- she calls him Malone, not Bailey. weird.

4. The biggest screw-up. Jack. in the first two seasons he was complex, intelligent, creative (in a sick-sort-of-way) and always has a good plan to escape. so what happened? this ep. showed him as a regular psychopath, stupid and not intelligent, just another freak, and other-hand, he did unexplainable things, like: how did he break into Sam's apartment, given that he never knew where she lived, and given that the apartment was secured? and in the Jail, how did he managed to impersonate Bailey? i mean, we were never shown that he brought another costume (what's more that he's not the same height as Bailey). is he a shapeshifter?!
and then comes the confrontation. so, he killed Tom because he was INLOVE with Sam. he haunted her because he was IN-LOVE... WTF??? did Kronish was high when he wrote this? did he ever watch the first seasons??? Jack's not in-love with her, he's obsessed with her because he admires her for her ability to get into his mind, because she's smart as him. he killed Tom so he can show her that he can come close to her, that no-one's safe around her, and because he thought that death would bring her wild side (so to speak) and will her the same as him. at least, that's how i understood it.
what's more- the new Jack is nothing like the old one. he doesn't even acts as Jack, doesn't even talk like him, haven't even got the same mannerisms. he's just... weird. and the things he said and done in that ep. contradicted everything he done in the first two seasons...

sorry about the rant, and for the long post. i just had to get it out of my system. i really love this show, but that ep. really killed everything that was good on this show...

too bad.

[–] profilergirl 14 years ago

I agree with everything you said. But there was one episode in season one that disappoint me a little. Modus operandi (great episode) but when they are going through the victims. I always thought they should have explained Tom's death a lot more. Like killing him to get her back on the case. Attacking/threatening Tom,Chloe or Angel would have done that. So I have to ask what was the real reason. Just didn't make sense to me that's all.

Now I'm sorry about the rant.

[–] fallen_angel_256 14 years ago

maybe the original producers, Kim Moses and Ian Sander, would've eventually explained why Jack killed Tom. thing is, we will never really know why he did that, why he was really obsessed so much her.

But the way i figure it- Jack admired Sam. he saw her as his equal, and wanted her to be very much like him. sure, threatening and/or attacking Sam's family would've made her hunt him, sure. But Jack always wanted Sam to feel as he feels, see as he sees. he wanted her to become like him and so, by killing Tom, he figured that she would become so enraged, so dead inside, so cold- like him.

anyways, that's my two cents, because as i said- we would never know what was the real reason.

[–] mikko-sandt 13 years ago

I agree. The third season is full of inconsistencies. I saw Coronation (3X01) for the first time in 1999 and since I had no idea the production team had changed between the seasons I kept wondering why the show suddenly seemed to be from another dimension.

I didn't mind the Donald Lucas plot though because it was so obvious from the beginning that he wasn't the real jack. But I do have to wonder how the VCTF team could have mistaken him for the real Jack. Why didn't they simply check his voice print, or if his blood was O negative? And why did Sam suddenly turn psychic?

Otis, California was a great episode though, largely thanks to Dennis Christopher's (Jack) brilliant performance. The last scene of the season, with the real Jack finally making an appearance as Jack, was awesome. While you never believed for a second that Donald Lucas could've been Jack, you just knew this was the right jack the moment he stepped into that cabin and opened his mouth. The roses, the manner, the nice suit, the voice - they really nailed it!

I have watched the first two seasons several times over the years but I haven't seen seasons three and four since they were first aired.

[–] ainoarwen 13 years ago

I thought Bailey's explanation for Jack's motive for killing Tom made sense. Jack killed Tom because he wanted Sam to stay completely focused on him, and when she withdrew from the case, he had no choice but to up the ante. Also, like Elliot Wykoff from "Into the Abyss" said, I have no trouble believing that Jack hated Tom, who was a rival for Sam's attention and/or affections and therefore had to be neutralised. (That was why he killed Coop.) One time, I paused the screen when Tom's details in "MO" were up on the main frame, and I was able to discern that Jack had killed Tom with a hand gun. I found that intriguing, as the method was never uttered in any of the episodes.

I own the first two seasons on DVD, bought them as soon as they were available, but haven't bought the other seasons. I won't give Kronish and his addled script monkeys the satisfaction. In fact, to this day, I steer clear off them and won't watch any series they produce. The most recent example of this being "White Collar", the first season of which was exec produced by Kronish's partner in crime, Clifton Campbell. Oh, did you know that the Kennedy mini-series that was yanked off the air was produced by Kronish? Great was my glee when I read about it.

I'm *still* tempted to contact Kim and Ian and get to the bottom of their vision for the series. How would Jack be caught? How did he know so much about Sam? How would that particular story have ended, how would they have finished the series? Oh, pipe dreams.

[–] profilergirl 13 years ago

Yes I understand Bailey's explanation was good but... I always felt they were going to bring up something that actually triggered jack to kill tom. As we know tom's parents were a nasty pair who thought they were better than everyone else, so I really did think jack might bring up the reason why he killed tom like he was going to leave Sam and take Chloe or something like that.It just seem to fall short if he killed tom because he hated him and wanted to be the only one in sam"s eyes why not Chloe, angel or even bailey. It just fell short for me. But I can still pull out these dvds and watch them all night long!

[–] mikko-sandt 13 years ago

Hi Aino!

I too have been wondering what the original plan concerning Jack was, or if they even had a plan; maybe they were coming up with all that stuff as the show went on and had therefore never settled on any definite answers. Regarding the "How did he know so much about Sam?" question, I don't think Kim and Ian's vision would (or could) have been much different from what the monkeys came up with. Jack, once Sam got on the case, obviously established contact with as many people from Sam's past as possible, including her father, and squeezed out every bit of information these people had on Sam.

If you ever manage to contact these people, don't forget to post here!

[–] captkirk_4 13 years ago

I got a laugh at all these esoteric motives the serial killers had on this show...someone who got off on shooting people through glass because he "wanted to be Sagittarius?" When in the real world we know that with 99.9% of these killers it's all about sex.

[–] AceRoccola 11 years ago

And by "the real world" I'm assuming you mean some poorly written and poorly researched episode of CSI or something? Because that's a baseless and ignorant reduction.

[–] skay_baltimore 10 years ago

Clearly Donald Lucas was not Jack. He had none of the respect for Sam that the real Jack displayed. He was, as you said, just another psycho.

"Love isn't what you say or how you feel, it's what you DO". (The Last Kiss)

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] mikko-sandt 10 years ago

That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen on screen. It's as if the whole thing had been written by a 5-year old.

[–] 10 years ago

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