9x01 LHDP 66.6: The Rip-off - "Bullet in the Head"

What up PepSi U? Did you miss me? Well, I missed all of you. I have lectures rollin' around in my noggin which I have yet to put from fingers to keyboard, but I'll get around to it eventually. In the meantime, I'll be starting a new lecture series which our illustrious founder, the great Dr. P, came up with. Basically, I'll be examining the rip-offs that have been spotted in each episode of S9 and explain my take on why they fail. Since I'm starting this series four eps. behind, I'm taking them one by one. In other words, I'm going to try and write this one as if I hadn't seen the other three yet, which means my views are based on this ep. alone and not the developments we've seen unfold. The next lec will take both Ep. 105 and 106 into account when it comes to any character/plot developments but not Ep. 107 and 108, and so on. I hope that made sense. And since you know that "Music is My Hot, Hot Sex," each lecture will still be titled with a song. However, unlike my other lectures, I'm going to flip the script. While a song usually inspires the title of the lecture and the episode it is based on, the S9 episodes (or something about it) will provide the inspiration behind the song and thus, the title. Finally, if you spot any rip-offs that I've missed, leave a note below and I'll edit the post accordingly. So, without further ado, "Let's Get it Started."

Ep. 105: Las triquiñuelas del mal (Evil's little tricks)

Rip-off: House
Summary: A team of diagnosticians, led by the anti-social yet brilliant Dr. Gregory House, attempt to diagnose and cure medical mysteries. House himself is known for his lack of a bedside manner, believing that "everybody lies," and he goes to great lengths to avoid interacting with his patients. To say that House is arrogant is an understatement, but his brilliance allows him to get away with it. He is also known to engage the service of prostitutes and is addicted to Vicodin, which he takes to help with the pain from the infarction in his right leg. Although his friends say that he was misanthropic prior to the infarction, I personally think that his substance abuse has only exacerbated his extreme personality.




LHdP spin: Deker's character description lists him as having a disposition similar to House. Like House, Deker is talented and has been described as a womanizer who is known for being sarcastic and irreverent. However, unlike House, his sarcasm and irreverence masks the fact that he does empathize with the suffering of others.




Epic fail: Deker doesn't work as a House rip-off, partly because unlike House, Deker is all about protocol. In the subsequent episodes, he wants to inform Mariano about the inscriptions on his back and he was hesitant to cut the third victim open - both reasons were based on his belief that protocol should be followed. House is the complete opposite when it comes to protocol. He takes a differential method to his diagnosis, where his treatment of patients are based on a process of elimination. Based on this method, House often butts heads with his superiors, because he wants to perform medical procedures that he feels are necessary (and they feel are unnecessary) to diagnose and cure his patients. It is this unorthodox method of treatment, and his success with it, that allows House to be as arrogant as he is. Additionally, while House is known for being crude and mocking people, he often does so based on observations of their personality and appearance. Deker is good at his job - there's no denying that he is a competent forensics inspector. However, in Deker's very first scene, his complete disrespect for Silvia's domain and her work when he knows nothing about her just makes him seem like an asshole. And as I've stated before, the audience (and the hombres) have yet to learn why Deker is the way that he is, so it's hard to write off his arrogant behavior like the audience can do with House. Moreover, House's comments might be crude, but they are also funny and true. I don't care how much Deker uses sarcasm to mask his supposed empathy. I find it hard to believe that he's being empathetic at all when DL informs him that Silvia died on her wedding day from a bullet wound which she tried to operate on herself and his response is "Unsuccessfully, I see." Again, that just makes him come off like a douche.

Rip-off: Serpico
Summary: Frank Serpico is a NYC police officer whom many of his fellow officers refuse to work with because he doesn't participate in extorting money from local criminals. While Serpico starts off as a beat cop, he later transitions into working on undercover assignments and changes his appearance to blend in with the hippie generation of the '70s, including growing out his hair and beard.






LHdP spin: Pove took on somewhat of a Frank Serpico makeover in this episode. Mainly, he grew out his beard in an attempt to "blend in" as a tough cop that the newbies would respect.
Epic fail: Granted, this rip-off is limited to Pove's appearance being similar to Serpico rather than his personality or the situation he's in. And in something I have to credit Alex Pina & Co. for, they acknowledge that this rip-off fails. Pove as a hardass doesn't work, because that's not who Pove is, and the only reason why he's altered his appearance is because he's "undercover" so to speak when he's training the newbies. It's all an attempt to create an image that the newbies will respect and fear so that he can properly train them to protect themselves when they are in the field. At least he could if they would quit bitchin' and pay attention.

Rip-off: Se7en
Summary: Two homicide detectives search for a serial killer, who chooses his victims because they represent examples of the seven deadly sins. The killer is motivated by the fact that people are not dedicated to working on being virtuous. Their sinful acts make them evil, and thus, the killer believes they can only be saved by acts of contrition.




LHdP spin: The show's take is actually a reverse rip-off. The serial killer behind the "66.6" storyline is choosing his victims because they represent examples of the seven virtues - charity, justice and soberness thus far. Additionally, the killer (who I suppose is the devil himself) appears to be motivated by a desire to eliminate the good in the world so that evil can prevail.
Epic fail: First of all, Se7en had an all-star cast, which included Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, and Kevin Spacey. Secondly, it's a film, which means the writers had the freedom to create the premise from scratch. LHdP is a television show that already had an existing premise: honest yet bumbling cops who solve crimes. Thus, the major reason why this is an epic fail is that this whole storyline is not what the show, at it's core, is about. Granted, they have had overarching storylines before - Uriarte, El Kaiser and El Gordo. However, all of those storylines stayed true to the premise of the show: honest yet bumbling cops who solve crimes. Uriarte was a mobster who dealt drugs and engaged in police corrpution, El Kaiser was a thief who attempted to cause international chaos through counterfeit bills, and El Gordo was a mob boss who engaged in numerous criminal activities. Now, some of you may be going, "But K, they are trying to catch a serial killer, and that's legit police work," and you have a point. However, the supernatural element attached to this storyline (which is revealed in the next episode) is what separates this storyline from the previous one. As ridiculous as some of the prior storylines have been *cough*El Kaiser*cough* as least it stuck to the basic "cops trying to catch bad guys" formula.

kalike

*The title for this lecture is based on the song "Bullet in the Head" by Rage Against the Machine