Original Sin

Truth be told this was a boring episode. It was a necessary episode as it was putting pieces of the puzzle in place, but it was all boring one-color pieces.

In the old days of the series, the cultural references were fun, well-placed and judiciously used. Now, they are present in every other sentence and the vibe is: aren't we just so very clever. It's like a child actor who believes they are too-cute by half.

We also get to meet a new arrogant, smug character Bradford Luke (Babak Tafti) who will run the insufferably-arrogant Mike Prince's (Corey Stoll) campaign.

There were some bright notes, in that, Chuck (Paul Giamatti) is back in place and 'Wags' (David Costabile) is back in form. We also got to spend a lot of time with 'Axe' (Damian Lewis) and that's a very good thing.

Let's hope this episode was one to be endured for bigger and better things.

Well, as everyone knows, Bobby Axelrod (Damien Lewis) is back. Without Axe, there really is nothing to recommend the series, as we witnessed in the cringeworthy season six. BUT: the plot holes still dominate the storyline. The writers backflipped through hoops to try to put the twice-disgraced, former federal prosecutor back into the fiefdom that is SDNY. The problem is, there is just NO WAY that would ever happen in real life. No single news story will ever rehabilitate a corrupt prosecutor, and Chuck Rhoades is nothing if not corrupt. And there never has been any reason for him to go after Michael Prince in the first place. Once Axelrod fled for Switzerland, the show was effectively over, but no one bothered to tell the writers.

Shame, really.