Lethal Weapon - Brotherly Love - Review: "Full of Heart"

Every show changes from the pilot as it finds itself and cuts out the elements that don't work in the long run. Lethal Weapon is no different - the very first episode suggested a slightly more bombastic show with exaggerated melodrama and overt comedy, while the tone of the following episodes has been a lot more subdued, showing how the show has become a more balanced and mature one as it's progressed through season one. And often, it's not just the tone that gets changed - entire plotlines often fall by the wayside as writers move onto more interesting conflicts that'll work on a weekly basis.

With that in mind, it's surprising to see Brotherly Love return to a lot of the ideas set up in the pilot, and even repeat some of the images. We have the return of Murtaugh's heart condition as a major conflict, a final set-piece in which Riggs' life flashes in front of his eyes, and a much more streamlined case of the week with far less of the detail of a typical episode. That's not to say Lethal Weapon is repeating itself - a better way to put it is that it's revising itself, taking a second pass at ideas with all that it's learned and exploring them in much more depth.

For instance, Murtaugh's heart condition. In the pilot, that was a minor conflict that had no real impact on anything, mostly just serving as a way to make Riggs look like Murtaugh's worst nightmare as a partner. Here, however, it's used as a way to explore Murtaugh's attitudes towards his job and his personal life, with some genuinely interesting character development emerging as a result - to see the normally cool and collected Murtaugh so flustered by the possibility of others finding out about his disease and defining him by it is a strong reminder of how important his identity as a tough cop is above all.

Moreover, his flawed attitude towards his heart disease shows how Lethal Weapon has derived from success from showing that Murtaugh is just as weird as Riggs in his neuroses and paranoia over how he'll be perceived, which makes for a much more interesting dynamic between the two men where Riggs frequently comes across as the mature adult in the room and Murtaugh as the petulant rogue.

It's not a perfect re-run of the idea. Brotherly Love manages to keep the peril of his heart problem front and centre for a good while, fuelling a lot of the conflict of the second act as it's revealed to Trish, but its eye slips off the ball in the final act so that the episode can pivot into a big action set-piece.

While Riggs gets a good conclusive moment in amidst the firefight, the episode seems to forget that it's really a problem and therefore fails to bring his plotline to a satisfying endpoint that summarises all he learned - he still gets involved in the final action, so the idea that he learns how to hold back isn't really followed through upon. It's a good plotline, certainly, but one that falls victim to Lethal Weapon's tendency to lose sight of character in amidst the action.

As mentioned above, the case of the week is much simpler than usual, following a familiar tale of two brothers who get caught up with a crime boss. The episode can't entirely shake off the cookie-cutter nature of the premise, one of the oldest in the procedural playbook, but it does really well at providing a fresh spin on the old idea. To do so, Brotherly Love uses its ace in the hole: Trish Murtaugh, who gets a pleasing amount of screen-time which develops her character leaps and bounds by showing off her formidable skills as a lawyer and strict professionalism as she navigates a conflict of interest with her husband that would probably, in reality, lead to a major ethics probe, but here makes for a satisfying mix of procedural and character.

Keesha Sharp does well with the different shades of Trish that she gets to play with here, from the relentlessly competent attorney in court to the frustrated wife to the tough but compassionate mentor figure, and the end result is that Lethal Weapon has taken another big step forward in crafting its ensemble into living, breathing people with flaws and hopes and dreams, as opposed to basic archetypes who are defined by their role to Riggs and Murtaugh (Dr Cahill, despite how much nuance Jordana Brewster brings to her dialogue, is still stuck in one mdoe as a character).

And then there's Riggs, whose grief plays out mostly in book ends as he grapples with the significance of losing a ring that symbolises his connection to his wife. While the subplot begins formulaically - Riggs being introduced for the episode with a moment of grief in his RV is a plot device that's ageing fast - Dr Cahill's question of just what Riggs would do without the ring leads to a smart and impactful conclusion where Riggs has to leave it behind.

The choice to end the episode on a more complicated note, with Riggs buying one from a pawn shop to keep around instead of moving on, is an impressive level of emotional nuance, showing just how hard it is for Riggs to break out of his vicious cycle and therefore how easy the path of remembering Miranda by grieving is.

By necessity, it's not a hugely substantial plotline, and the amount of time between reminders of the ring means that some of the importance of it for the episode leaks away, with the return to the conflict feeling a little abrupt when it comes. Nonetheless, what we get works, and it promises some intriguing conflict for Riggs later on down the line.

After a couple of episodes that began 2017 decently but without much spark, Brotherly Love marks a solid tick up in quality. It dips into disappointingly familiar material every now and then and peaks about midway through, but it offers a strong story for Murtaugh, a good showing for Trish and an entertaining case of the week that avoids the clutter Lethal Weapon sometimes falls into. As the show heads towards the episode 13 mark, this was a punchy reminder of how much the show's improved in relatively little time.

Overall Grade: B+

+ A heart-pounding story for Murtaugh
+ More Trish
+ Interesting conflict for Riggs

- Sometimes a little familiar in its plotting
- Murtaugh's story fizzles out