This ain't a review, but I figured I would post some random thoughts on 
"Three Girls and a Baby," the 10/14 episode: 

1)Is there some kind of new rule in Bochco-Land saying that every key 
piece of exposition has to be repeated at least twice to make sure 
everybody in the audience gets it? Having Bobby and Diane hear about the 
sleeping night tour guys, and then hearing them tell Andy, and then 
hearing them tell Fancy may be the way this sort of thing works in real 
life, but it's damn boring to watch, and I've been noticing sequences 
like it a lot lately, both here and on Brooklyn South. 

2)Well, waddayaknow? The real Greg Medavoy showed up this week. You 
remember the real Greg: a well-meaning, loyal guy and decent cop who has 
a bad habit of not thinking before he speaks. Not the bozo with a badge 
we've been subjected to for the past season or so. Not only was this the 
best portrait of Medavoy in a really long time, but I'm now legitimately 
interested in the Abby subplot for the first time, well, ever. Abby
asked Greg to father her child because she wanted to start a family with 
Kathy. Now that Kathy's gone, she still has the baby (presuming she 
doesn't suffer a Gina-like setback; more on that below) but not her 
principal reason for wanting to have it. Romance is obviously out of the 
question here, but I see a very interesting sort of family being formed 
here, with Greg stepping in to help fill the void left by Kathy, at least 
in terms of friendship and being a good parent. Could be very 
interesting, and kudos to Milch and Meredith Stiehm (a fellow Penn 
alumnus) for not only salvagaing this albatross of a subplot, but 
actually making it compelling. A terrific ending, too. 

3)While most of the burnin' love story didn't interest me (been there, 
done that), the first scene at the dead girl's parents did the trick, 
making me feel just as slimy as Andy and Bobby were supposed to feel 
about holding back news of her death. 

4)Personally, I could do without more of the James and Gina relationship 
altogether (yeah, they're supposed to be emotionally reserved, but 
putting the two of them together is like dumping water on a bunch of 
firecrackers), but I know I'd care a lot more about the complications in 
Gina's pregnancy if we'd seen her at all tonight rather than hearing 
about it all second-hand from James. Reminds me of the off-camera birth 
of Arthur Fancy Jr. from a few years back, which similarly marginalized 
what was supposed to be an important event in one of the supporting 
character's lives. 

5)Despite the Gina problems, James did get the line of the night, noting 
that the hired killer and self defense are like best friends. 

No Blue next week - ABC's showing some news special -- but presuming I've 
got something to say about the show after that, I'll be back. 

Alan Sepinwall * e-mail: sepinwal@force.stwing.upenn.edu
NYPD Blue page: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/nypd.html 
What is Alan watching?: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/tv.html

RANDOM QUOTE:

"So, you've never been curious about men?"
"Well, I've always wondered why my father watched Hee Haw."
	-Joey Adams & Ben Affleck, "Chasing Amy"