‘Major Crimes’ season 5, episode 7 review: Was ‘Moral Hazard’ a story hazard?

When it comes to danger, there is no denying that “Major Crimes” had it in spades Monday night with “Moral Hazard.” They even had some humor here and there. Somehow, this show managed to make a story about Provenza being in danger funny, and that may say something about the seriousness of the story everywhere else.

The key issue with this episode was with the main case, mostly because it felt like the subject of mental illness was really skirted around just for the sake of a classic “mentally deranged man goes on a rampage” story. To an extent, it is easy to sympathize with the show from the angle of there only being so much time in an hour (commercials included) to tell a story, and there were many different parts of it that needed to be touched on. Yet, at the same exact time, we do think that you could have cut down on the more violent aspects of this to at least allow some more insight into this man, and or how less of a stigma surrounding mental image could have turned things around for him.

On the flip side, we appreciate Rusty trying to help out Buzz more than most, even if his interest turns at times into obsessive. The guy doesn’t always get the best treatment from fans, but we look at him at this: He’s still a stranger in a strange land, and his way of doing things often contrasts with everyone else. He’s an outlier, and with that often comes being at odds with many other people in the cast.

While we did laugh at some of Provenza’s lines, we did still take his situation seriously and it was an interesting window into a guy around retirement age who is facing some hard choices about the future. Had the main mystery been a little bit more focused on the case rather than the action, maybe we’d feel like this was one of the better episodes. Instead, it’s probably one we wouldn’t check out in repeats. Grade: C+.

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