Lights Out: "Cut Men"

Once I figure out a way to make cooking a competitive sport, I’ll offer up a review of tonight’s episode, after the jump…

Ladies and gentlemen, Lights Out is back. Okay, so maybe that’s a bit dramatic for a show in its first season, but for me, the past few episodes haven’t been as good as I would have expected given the flashes of brilliance present in the first few outings. But tonight’s episode was excellent, gripping in the way the show has yet to be, yet I have always expected it to be. And it owed this excellence to two factors.

First, until the final minutes, it was never obvious whether or not the fight was still on. Sure, given that this fight is the obvious end game of the season, there was never any real question about the state of the fight. Yet the show didn’t just rest on this fact, but decided to take this opportunity to show the complexities of the boxing world, all of the hoops and hurdles a boxer has to jump through, and how they can easily lose their chance at the belt through either the actions of others, or their own hubris.

And thought the episode of course paid due diligence to effects that Light’s injury and Teresa’s career might have on the fight, as well as Barry K. Word’s pride, tonight’s main focus was on Death Row Reynolds, and man was this a creative win for the show. Though we know that Reynolds enjoys the inherent poetry in life, and that he is on some level a basically good person, we don’t really know what make him tick. Tonight, we saw him cave to the pressure from Barry, and then attempt to adhere to his moral code of boxing which dictated he truly defeat Lights before he quits the game, only to duck the fight for the sake of family. Which of these – Barry, honor, family – holds the biggest sway over Reynolds? Even after the events of tonight’s episode, we still don’t know, and as long as he remains a wild card, then the show can still retain a great sense of drama.

In fact, many characters were caught in some sort of moral quandary tonight. Lights had to decide whether he should rest and let his body heal, or power through the injury so that he could earn the money his family needs to finally free themselves from their debt. Teresa has decide to turn her back on the institution that taught her (and really, her life-long dream) in order to provide for her family – but only so Lights wouldn’t have to fight anymore. And Johnny had to fight off the urge to get involved with Brennan again, even if the man could solve their current predicament by backing them with the money they needed to postpone the fight. And though each of these characters ultimately made a choice that could on some level be considered immoral, we know that these aren’t bad people, and that keeps us coming back to the show. All in all, good stuff.

The second factor that kept this episode riveting was the way in which it deftly folds all of the character interactions onto one another, in order to create a big pile of seething tension. Barry, who likes to screw with people, and ultimately feel superior to everyone, seems to be rejecting Light’s request for a delay out to spite. Part of the reason Reynolds doesn’t want to grant Lights a deal due to complex feelings regarding Ed Romeo. Lights and Teresa are butting heads over her career change, both since Lights doesn’t want to have his chance to provide for his family stolen away from him, but also because he fears that Teresa is once again trying to keep him out of the ring.

And then there’s Margaret and Brennan, which is essentially the impetus for most of this tension. Margaret actually likes Brennan, and Brennan truly seems to like her, but is he also attempting to get in deeper with Lights? And that doesn’t even take into account the fact the Lights and Johnny need Brennan as a backer, because even if he is a terrible man, he’s not nearly as bad as the other available financiers. And then there’s Brennan’s deal with Barry, which though while never spoken about during this hour, hovered around the scenes, an extra subtle layer to all of the other emotions that were at play here.

The question now stands – can Lights Out maintain this level of quality for the last episodes of the season (and possibly ever)? The preview for next week makes it seem so, but that says nothing about how the episodes after that will play out. Though I wouldn’t say I’ve regretted watching any episode of this show, but some have been much better than others, and these lesser quality episodes tend to make me wonder if the show will ever be able to maintain the great quality that it seems so capable of achieving. Yet this episode gives me hope, so let’s maintain an air of optimism for the next few weeks, shall we?

What did everybody else think?


Additional Thoughts:
“It’s a good thing I quit Vicoden, or I’d ask if you have any extra.”

Eva’s in London? When did that happen?

“Wrap a towel around his head, and you’ve got a religious war.”

What’s with these “special looks” that they’ve been building into the commercial breaks during the past few episodes? It seems a bit late in the season to be airing them.

“Watcha think, Katie Bear?” “Pretty good.” “…Just ‘pretty good’?”

Johnny saying “Never say never” shows just how long ago this show was filmed. They never would have tried to include this following Bieber’s movie.