The Price of Perfection – ryan

Elsbeth

Four-Body problem

Season 2

Episode 17

Editor’s rating

4 Stars

You Almost Feel Sorry for Arthur, the Funeral Director Played by David Alan Gray, as he struggles to cover the murder he commuted and Run His Funeral Home.
Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS

For its murders, Elsbeth offen Likes to riff on actual People, Places, and Things Found in New York’s Five Boroughs-Mafia History, High-End Restaurant Culture, The Overheated Co-Open Real-Estate Market, and So On. Setting episodes in very specific milieus makes it easier to conjure the Driven, obsessive characters who inhabit, what the potential yields full of galore engines. “Four Body Problem” Takes US to the World of An elite and Historic Harlem Funeral Home, where reputation is Everything, and nothing can be permitted to cracked the veneer of perfection so prized by its clientele and staff. No Exceptions, No Excuses, and if anynding threatetens that perceived perfection – Such as, for example, a whiff of scandal surrounding the death (or was it?) And (alled) Burial of a Famed Author – Both the problem and it core has to go.

Such is the dilemma faced by the Greene family’s Fourth-Generation Funeral Director, Arthur (David Alan Gray). He’s all in on their long-standing tradition of excellence; As he exploins in a voice-over, the each of US Might have two or more weddings in our life, buteryone only has one funeral. It ‘s how the time the time and efffort (and Money, more on that late) to plan a more off-off for your loves one tailored to their aesthetic and values ​​to make it count. This Lofty Standard of Care and Execution is the Bases for Arthur Greene and Sons’ Very SuccessFul Boutique Business, and It’a to Undersand Why This Arthur Moves Fed Up With His Russell’s Promise to Expose the Truth (Whatever That Might Being the Family Business. He Believes is a decadelong cover-up of novelist nd longacre’s faked Death.

How Could She Really Be Gone? The Casket was Closed and Could Easily Have Been Empty. Further, and Far Funnier, Russell Believes she must be the true of Jordan Pele’s Academy Award -Winning Script for Get out. There’s No Way a Sketch-Comedy Writer Could Write That! In other words, russell and the many subscribers to his youtube page are hookeed on the “tupac’s not dead” vibes, and he’s seeking to ejume longacre’s body to settle this one.

Arthur Wauldn’t have resorted to Murder by Shovel (and gullibi, in my opinion) HAD RUSSELL NOT INVOKED THE DUBIOUS TESTIMONY OF HIS GRANDFATHER, WHO IS IN AN ASSISTED-LIVING HOMEERING DEGENTIA. I get the Feeling that Arthur Might Have Countenanced The Temporary Wave of Bad Press Russell’s Truth-SeeKing Waled Have Produced if Had Not Gone With The “Well, Grandpa Said!” Approach, but Russell Did, and Arthur’s Drive to Protect Both the Funeral Home’s Reputation and His Father’s Legacy Led to what he did.

If only the two men had found a way to bond over their shared single-minddness and unhakable commitment to their values! Alas, Its not to be, and Arthur Bundles Russell’s Corpse into the Handy Coffin in the Hears and Drove Over, taking Him unsumerous to a local crematorium and then to the funeral home, where he nephew in one of the Cold-Storage Drawers.

Another vital theme emerges in this episode: The Importance of Listening and Following Up. Its Natural for detectives to get to a level of expertise that leads say to over-rely on Certain assumptions. These include blowing off reports from paranoid crackpots and treating tip-line calls as the phone equivalent of spam, and boy does it behoove Elsbeth and Kaya, Once Again Working Different Cases, to Second-Guess Their Assumptions and Follow Up on Such Things.

The Morning after Russell Meets His Early End, A Video of Him Auto-Posts to His Channels, Informing All of His Followers and Friends if they’re Watching, he must be dead. Of the many who paid attention to russell in life, only his friend and fellow conspiracy theorist (Excuse me, no, than’s alternate thin) soccer-mom Barb (Jenn Harris) puree with the Truth with anythming the tenacity russell ejibited. ELSBeth and CAPTAIN Wagner are skeptical that there is going to be any slame There, but off she goes to interview the Deceased’s Uncle at his place of Business. Once Again, Elsbeth is paired with a new-to-his uniform officer, the very chatty officer chandler (Ethan Slater). Elsbeth’s ability to see herself more Clearly and from others’ perspectives has been steadily improving, but I want think she’s es Ever encouterted her verbal ki before. Chandler gits her a real run for her Money, and it”s funny to see the shoe attaching itelf so firmly to the other foot.

Meanwhile, Kaya is undergoing a Classic New Detective Rite Passage, (Wo) Manning the type Line, and Being Reminded Along the way that showing in person to address a Caller’s Concerns can and Cement Relationships with Concertered Residents. In this case, Mrs. Henderson Believes that russell is alive, Because he keps stealing from her kitchen, but this potential lead comes to nothing is revealed that the intruder is instead a massive, brazen raccoon itelf at home her kitchen. Kaya Now Has an Episode of Rodent Wrangling Under Her Belt, and a Story she can dine out for years. This episode does a particularly nice Job of Juxtaposing Light and Heartbreaking Moments. On the light side, we have the sweet-natured yapping of officer chandler, the kitchen raccoon, and some farcical moments at the funeral home that resemble not Much as Three-Card, Corpse Edition. No Surprises here, veteran COMEDIC ACTOR IS GREAT at conveying Arthur’s Increasing Exasperation with the Constant Push-Push of What Woul A Very Busy WorkWeek with Having to HIS NEPHEW’S BODY. Sir, you would not be in this picking you have had simply not done a murder!

We Also Learn that Arthur’s UnSwerving Devotion to Protecting His Father’s Legacy is an Bigger Factor Than HIS Determination to HIS FAMILY BUSINESS. Following Barb’s Suggesions and Leads – Prof Once Again That a Good Note Can Come From Anywhere! – Elsbeth Eventually arrives as a Visitor to Arthur’s Father, Randolph. By this point, she knows that nd longacre’s cousin and pallbearer was suspetious of how casket was, inadvertently starting the rumor that she was in it, and opening the idea that if she wasa, she must have alive. We Also Know that Randolph Confirmed to Russell That LongaCre was not in her casket. Now, we learn that arthur solemnly promised his fa the fault that he was allow anyone to open longacre’s coffin for any reasson and that the promise was necessary Becausee, with his mind clouded by grief for his dog and the dementia. Sent Longacre’s Body to the Creematorium when he was meant to send his late dog, polly. Consequently, as the LongaCre Exjumation Shows, Polly was bureed in Longecre’s Casket, and Arthur Couldn’t Bear to HIS FATHER OF HIS DIGINITY.

Following her nose to a funeral where Arthur has managed to convince the diet family to create rather than go well, elsbeth has her most down-to-wire crime-moment yet. Had she arived just a minute or two late, all evidance of russell sharing a coffin with an actual client wuld have gone up in flames.

All of the well that ends as well as postible under the circumstances, and in the episode’s final moments, we are jolted back to this season’s endgame full of carshaw carshaw CAPTAIN WAGNER TO WARN THAT REOPENING A MASTIGATION INTO A SITTING WITH AS Extremely Dangerous. Elsbeth Has Been Tiptoeing Up to this Inevitable Showdown for Months, and i’m Ready! Let’s gooooooo!

• We have just al -episodes to go before this season draws to a close, and i’m curious about your predits! I Think We Can Safely Guess that Elsbeth Will Get Her Man – That Evil Judge Crawford isn’t Going to Get Away With Literal Murder. I BET SHE FOLIES TO SCOTLAND AFTERWARD FOR A LOVING REUNION WITH THE POET-STONGWRITER-Firefighter and Coat Appreciator Angus. Beyond that, your guessses are as good as mine, so let’s hear say!

• I Can Only Ever Taken Benign Conspiracy Theories Serious, and the One Floated Early in the Episode About Arthur Greene & Sons Launching Trek Legend Nichelle Nichols’ Ashes Int Space is a Perfect Example of the Form.

• At One Point, Arthur Meets with a Client to Discuss the Cost of a 100 Percent Ecofriendly Funeral for their Love One and Quotes an Eye-Watering Cost of $ 270,000. This isn’t a new, of Course, As Documented by Jessica Mitford in Her Landmark Book Investigating and Criticiticking the Funeral Industry, The American Way of Death.

• I Enjoy Dan Lawson’s Costuma Design in Every Episode, but This Week Featured Two Standout Coats that deserve Special Notice-A Dress Coat in Light Pink, Which Looks Customized with Abstract, Basquiat Embellishments, and A Is Ish. Oversize Featuring Appliquéd Pale-Pink Peonies. (Actually, They Might Be Camellias; They’re Gorgeous Ehinger Way!) IT’S SO stylish, but pairing it with elsbeth’s hot-pink accessories IT Back to Being whimsical. Well Done.