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Good mystery: A murderer in a devil mask kills a businessman's wife and brother. But in the middle of the double murder investigation, Mooney and Dumas, the only detectives on the island!- take time out for an afternoon dance class! Awful. The slapstick couldn't save this. After solving the case, JP accepts Mooney's invitation to his dance class. JP shows up later without his wife, a gorgeous fashion model. JP's wedding was the climax of a great episode a few seasons back, but the doofus writers just tossed out his backstory- lazy writing. Getting tired of the music always being 60 years old.

In his MasterClass, actor Samuel L. Jackson chose one character to expound on. The one he chose was Romulus Ledbetter, the protagonist in The Caveman's Valentine. This is one of Jackson's greatest roles, because it is so thoroughly composed, like a sonata (he plays a homeless musician), and it's Jackson as you rarely see him-- vulnerable. There is an old saying that "bad books make great movies." BUT If the book is good to begin with (as the case with Green's gumshoe novel), the movie has an uphill battle, because the book's fans and critics will not tolerate a filmmaker that does anything but slap the book on the screen, and Kasi Lemmons is no hack. The Caveman's Valentine is a visually stunning movie. You can tell from the lame poster that the studio just gave up on it, because it turned out to be an arthouse film. Any still frame from this film would've made a better poster. But the only thing the marketing department had faith in was Samuel L. Jackson (on a bench) and that faith was just based on dollars. They put no money into advertising, they didn't release it overseas. Ironically, the reviews for the film upon its DVD release in France, Denmark, etc. praise Lemmons' for what she brought to the story ("it's when you enter in his head that the film takes its flight"), the visuals, and of course, Jackson's amazing performance. Caveman's Valentine is really worth seeing -if you can find it.

The story was good. But absence of Standing and Sasha at the same time made it seem lackluster by comparison. Lawson and Lyndhurt's characters are well developed and they played them wonderfully. We know the backstories for McAndrew and Griffin and we are made to really care about them episode after episode. Furthermore, they are really different from each other. Lawson brings the Glasgow gleam in his eye, Lyndhurst the understated braininess, both of which provided contrast to reformed womanizer Gerry and his wildcard antics. The new character "Ted" brings no contrast. He is also brainy like Griffin (Lyndhurst), so he's redundant and bland. Without Sasha, the episode was three gray-haired guys, in gray clothes, in a gray office, in a gray city. Then in walks Strickland wearing a gray suit!