‘Major Crimes’ season 5, episode 14 review: Back in the saddle again

Monday night’s season 5 winter premiere of “Major Crimes” has come and gone, and there were some significant highs and lows. You had a memorable guest spot from Camryn Manheim, a fascinating case, a great opening, and then also a few things that weren’t altogether explained.

For one, it felt like there were some things that just took place that didn’t even seem like they were on the radar in the first part of the season. Take, for example, the new attempts from Rusty to be a journalist. Where in the world did that come from? Also, It was great to see that Andy Flynn was okay in the aftermath of what he went through, but the show didn’t really address the cliffhanger all that much at all in the episode.

Let’s go back to the opening, mostly because it was interesting in the way that watching training exercises are. While we didn’t buy for one second that this was the team actually out in the field, we do enjoy Provenza being Provenza and not following any of his orders the way in which that he should. We also enjoy petty disagreements after the fact.

Speaking of petty disagreements … enter Manheim’s Deputy Chief Davis! It feels like part of her job is to make life as hard as possible for Sharon Raydor, which you would think was challenging enough when you think about everything that she’s going through already. There’s a competition already forming for a higher position, and it seems like Davis’ main strategy is putting other people down in order to properly build herself up. We’re not sure just how well that is working, but it’s something that she’s boldly attempting nonetheless to varying effect.

The murder mystery itself had some nice wrinkles to it, but it felt more like it existed more as a means to do counter-balance Provenza in the training exercise. He was able to proclaim on many occasions just how right he was, and seemed to be rather thrilled with himself as a result of all of that.

Your Rusty update for the week – Gus had something to tell him, but it had to be in person. It looks as though the two may have some decisions to make when it comes to their future living arrangements, but the whole movement on this story was completely unnecessary. Why did Gus have to make this such a production? We can get it that some were annoyed with Rusty being a little bit whiny with some of his impatience, but in his situation we’d be annoyed about all of this too!

In the end, this was a solid way to start off the second half of the season despite the show jumping forward and jumbling up some stories — we supposed that this was just more of a natural time jump, so we can deal with that so long as the cases stay good and the characters fun. We got that, so we still consider the “Major Crimes” premiere a worthy return. Grade: B.

What did you think about the winter premiere of “Major Crimes”? Share some of your thoughts in the comments, and head over here to see a preview for what is coming up next. (Photo: TNT.)