Some thoughts on "Remembrance of Humps Past," the December 16 episode of 
"NYPD Blue," after, of course, a quick summary:

-------------------------------------------------
Andy unsuccessfully tries to rehabilitate the troubled daughter of a 
high school friend; Greg and James take a bite out of a grave-robbing 
operation; Bobby discovers that Naomi's from Down Under instead of 
Down South 
--------------------------------------------------

NYPD Blue is so often such a grim show that, in theory, I'm all in favor of 
the occasional humorous episode, especially since the show features 
several very gifted comic actors in Dennis Franz, Jimmy Smits, Gordon 
Clapp and Andrea Thompson (and on rare occasions, James McDaniel). 
Unfortunately, in practice, most of the show's palate-cleaning hours o' 
comedy don't really tickle my funny bone. In fact, the only Wacky Episode 
that I really look back on fondly is "We Was Robbed" (Andy and Bobby have 
to pose as stick-up men when they get caught planting a bug in a mob 
hangout), which was the perfect fakeout before all the sturm und drang 
surrounding the birth of Theo and death of Andy Jr. at the end of season 
three.  

After the 150 minute semi-opus that was "Lost Israel," this would have 
been the perfect week to do another off-beat hour, but "Remembrance of 
Humps Past" kept missing the mark for me. There was just enough drama to 
keep me from laughing at a lot of the jokes, and too much silliness for 
me to care about the dramatic moments. 

It was very hard, for instance, for me to get much of a kick out of 
Andy's "Mr. Nitpicker" cracks about Lt. Fancy after we'd just seen poor 
Margo the "hermaphrodite" with her head caved in for kicks. And by the 
same token, all the goofiness about Naomi "EllieMay" Reynolds, plus the 
usual Andy and his "prostrate" gags kept me from any major emotional 
involvement with the case. The hour tried to be a little bit of 
everything and wound up, for the most part, a whole lot of nothing. 

In fact, the most interesting case to me was the grave-robbing subplot. 
The idea of a detective who spends a good deal of time staring at dead 
and often mutilated bodies getting creeped out over a jar of teeth held a 
lot of promise -- these cops deal with death on a regular basis, but how 
do they really feel about it? -- but for once, a Medavoy story was over 
far too quickly for my liking. 

Another problem I had was Andy's "first-rate hump" tale. Aside from being 
part of a great hourlong showcase for Jimmy Smits' comic reaction skills 
-- in a former life, I'm sure he was a straight man in vaudeville -- it 
struck me as way out of character for Andy, who's always been shown to be 
rather respectful of and shy around women when the subject of relations 
comes up. For him to be bragging about this didn't seem right to me, even 
if it did make for a funny scene. Of course, judging by the cadence of 
all the dialogue, I'm sure David Milch had a heavy hand in its writing, 
and he's Sipowicz's creator, so what do I know? :)

(On a related note, was I the only one who was thinking the episode would 
end with Andy going to visit his former conquest, only to learn that 
she'd had a now-35-year-old son by him?)

Finally, we come to Naomi the Aussie. Didn't buy it. Not one bit. Again, 
Smits had a ball trying to keep a straight face, but it just seemed so 
far-fetched in the context of a show that prides itself on realism 
(often to a fault), that I didn't find it all that funny or even 
interesting. Let Gabrielle Fitzpatrick go back to lots of quick, 
Abandando-esque reaction shots, and spend the six minutes or so of time 
this took on something -- anything -- about one of the cops who didn't 
get anything to do this week. Maybe Kirkendall hanging with her sons. Or 
Diane looking in on her mother. Or Fancy taking his daughter home from 
the hospital. Or, heaven forbid, actual police work. 

That's it for this week. For those what celebrate Christmas, have a happy 
one. Ditto for the Chanukah types in this crowd (including yours truly), 
as well as all the Kwanzaa-ians. And if you don't fall into one of these 
categories, have a Happy New Year. See y'all in 1998!

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

RANDOM QUOTE:

"I put six bullets into him!  Are you telling me I didn't kill him?"
"It wasn't meant as a criticism."
        -Joe Pantoliano & Mike Starr, "EZ Streets"