At it's surface, the Equalizer is perhaps not much more than above average as an action series or as a crime procedural. There are shows which are honestly better at both. And, at times, the acting can be a bit over the top. Latifah can occasionally cross the line into wooden when trying to speak lines with conviction - narrowing her eyes and forcefully nodding her head (with an occasional head-tilt).
Lorraine Toussaint is a magnificent actress and, as anyone who watched Rosewood can tell, excels at wholesome, caring, motherly roles. Unfortunately, many writers fail at depicting concern and distress, leaving her with dialogue that makes her seem manic and "hysterical". That's on them - not her. And of course there's the struggle to sell Robyn as a peak combat veteran. Sometimes that's a win. Sometimes not. Moving past the reliance on family to demonstrate the softer side of a vigilante, characters like Dante, Mel and Harry provide a lot of nuance and emotion.
Where The Equalizer excels is in making the characters human and relatable, and in choosing narratives that spotlight the plight of the downtrodden and disenfranchised. It's far too easy in a procedural crime show to focus on the crime - sending the writers in an escalating spiral trying to top the last episode's crime. It's also common for these shows to only rarely spotlight the massive failings in our legal system (which is explicitly not a "justice" system) because the protagonists themselves represent that legal system.
By choosing an outsider for the protagonist, and having her work *with* the police as much as *against* the police, The Equalizer tries to give a more balanced, nuanced narrative. Law enforcement is essential to society - especially in a society with pervasive inequality and poverty. But when the police and prosecutors have no oversight and no reason to look past their initial impressions, law enforcement can be as much a tool to rubber-stamp injustice as much as prevent it. This season (in particular episodes 3-5) highlights a lot of the ways our legal system fails us because what it wants is someone to blame - not for the truth to come out.
As is typical in a procedural, we have a few plots running simultaneously. There's the main plot questioning whether media attention can be more harmful than not. There's the sub-plot involving Delilah and Vi's public encounter with a vicious, spiteful Karen. There's little drops of story here and there, such as the wrongfully accused person ruined by careless social media sleuths. This is hardly the first show to take this format or to tackle these issues.
But this is a show where you should get lost in the characters. And while lost in the characters, you will learn more about the difficulties that people different from you may face and learn to have empathy for people who might otherwise be to alien to understand. It shows the struggles of living while black in the United States and the sometimes harder struggle of trying to rise up and be the bigger person instead of succumbing to the bitterness caused by the unending, systemic grinder that chews up the lives of people of color in favor of the stability of a system designed for white people.
And it breaks my heart that more people were moved by the short audio-only reference to animal abuse than have been moved by the possibility of a hard-working, law-abiding woman almost being sent to jail for a period of years-ruining her life and those of her family - all over a retail spat with a lady abusing her privilege as a believable victim. And the hateful, narrow minded, unrepentantly bigoted words she speaks are the reminder of how far we are from being enlightened.
It shows in the votes that people were quick to condemn this episode over the kitten segment. It's easy to love animals because we see them as non-threatening extensions of ourselves - only capable of loving their owners, capable of doing no wrong. True humanity is learning to love and fight for people - all of whom are capable of saying and doing things that make them hard to love.
This show may cause the occasional eye-roll. It's most definitely not perfect. But there are precious few shows teaching our society about the dangers of a bureaucratic system that thrives off the ready, consistent sacrifice of the most vulnerable of us. We need more shows that openly discuss these issues while simultaneously providing the strong, caring role models we need. Don't condemn a person based on the first color you see, and don't condemn a show for what's on the surface. What we can learn depends on our depth as much as the depth of the material.
Lorraine Toussaint is a magnificent actress and, as anyone who watched Rosewood can tell, excels at wholesome, caring, motherly roles. Unfortunately, many writers fail at depicting concern and distress, leaving her with dialogue that makes her seem manic and "hysterical". That's on them - not her. And of course there's the struggle to sell Robyn as a peak combat veteran. Sometimes that's a win. Sometimes not. Moving past the reliance on family to demonstrate the softer side of a vigilante, characters like Dante, Mel and Harry provide a lot of nuance and emotion.
Where The Equalizer excels is in making the characters human and relatable, and in choosing narratives that spotlight the plight of the downtrodden and disenfranchised. It's far too easy in a procedural crime show to focus on the crime - sending the writers in an escalating spiral trying to top the last episode's crime. It's also common for these shows to only rarely spotlight the massive failings in our legal system (which is explicitly not a "justice" system) because the protagonists themselves represent that legal system.
By choosing an outsider for the protagonist, and having her work *with* the police as much as *against* the police, The Equalizer tries to give a more balanced, nuanced narrative. Law enforcement is essential to society - especially in a society with pervasive inequality and poverty. But when the police and prosecutors have no oversight and no reason to look past their initial impressions, law enforcement can be as much a tool to rubber-stamp injustice as much as prevent it. This season (in particular episodes 3-5) highlights a lot of the ways our legal system fails us because what it wants is someone to blame - not for the truth to come out.
As is typical in a procedural, we have a few plots running simultaneously. There's the main plot questioning whether media attention can be more harmful than not. There's the sub-plot involving Delilah and Vi's public encounter with a vicious, spiteful Karen. There's little drops of story here and there, such as the wrongfully accused person ruined by careless social media sleuths. This is hardly the first show to take this format or to tackle these issues.
But this is a show where you should get lost in the characters. And while lost in the characters, you will learn more about the difficulties that people different from you may face and learn to have empathy for people who might otherwise be to alien to understand. It shows the struggles of living while black in the United States and the sometimes harder struggle of trying to rise up and be the bigger person instead of succumbing to the bitterness caused by the unending, systemic grinder that chews up the lives of people of color in favor of the stability of a system designed for white people.
And it breaks my heart that more people were moved by the short audio-only reference to animal abuse than have been moved by the possibility of a hard-working, law-abiding woman almost being sent to jail for a period of years-ruining her life and those of her family - all over a retail spat with a lady abusing her privilege as a believable victim. And the hateful, narrow minded, unrepentantly bigoted words she speaks are the reminder of how far we are from being enlightened.
It shows in the votes that people were quick to condemn this episode over the kitten segment. It's easy to love animals because we see them as non-threatening extensions of ourselves - only capable of loving their owners, capable of doing no wrong. True humanity is learning to love and fight for people - all of whom are capable of saying and doing things that make them hard to love.
This show may cause the occasional eye-roll. It's most definitely not perfect. But there are precious few shows teaching our society about the dangers of a bureaucratic system that thrives off the ready, consistent sacrifice of the most vulnerable of us. We need more shows that openly discuss these issues while simultaneously providing the strong, caring role models we need. Don't condemn a person based on the first color you see, and don't condemn a show for what's on the surface. What we can learn depends on our depth as much as the depth of the material.
