the audience applauded

Excellent but underrated film

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Although this seems to be quite an old show (2002), I watched my first ever episode last night and I have to say it has to be the worst show . . . ever.I am not one for placing comments but I was so shocked that a show could exist that blatantly tries to pander to, and I am only assuming that this was their target audience, children under 12 years old or people with a less than average IQ.The episode I was subjected to last night contained so many disjointed story lines, tried to include EVERY possible plot summary imaginable and all the while trying to preach about friendship, family, religion and politics !!!.Basic story that they covered in the episode: Frat House hazing gone wrong wrong with too much alcohol - Death Turns out to be Senators son who wants FBI to investigate. Death is actually murder by peanut allergy Senator thinks it could be his sworn enemy and childhood best friend who did this because Senator was taking money for his votes for legislation but eventually got a conscience and said 'no' to mean mulit millionaire. Everybody a suspect but all have the usual alibi (ex-girlfriend student shagging a married teacher so had to lie, disgruntled student who was reported by victim actually had life changing experience, Senators enemy did not pay desperate student to kill sworn enemies son, he gives money freely to lots of broke students). All the while the heroine of this dribble has her niece staying who is 'at that age' and has a crush on a boy, who she eventually gets the courage to talk to with the assistance of her aunty, but only to dump him because the 'in' girls says he is not good enough and so to keep in with them she dumps him. Don't worry, she gets back with boy after she learns the truth about life and the 'in' girls drop her, Aunty also explains that God is the only one who truly she can rely on (I was almost sick at this point).This 'drama' gets even better when Sue and her FBI team find out who the killer is . . . your gonna laugh at this, i sure did . . . It is one of the Frat boys who only a year ago found out he was adopted and that his real dad is an International terrorist and he is trying to impressive real daddy by killing boy and planting bomb at funeral . . . . . . . The characters are cardboard the acting is cardboard the continuity is cardboard the story is cardboard Anybody who says that they love this show has cardboard for a brainWhy the writers of this show have tried to pack in EVERY eventuality into the one show means that they obviously have no faith in the character development or actors capability to carry off a simple plot line. Watching this show is like watching 'Last Action Hero' with Arnie killing 5'000 people with a tooth pick, except Arnie is a better actor (wow, never thought there would be a day that i would say that !!)In the words of the Simpsons beloved character 'comic book guy' . . . . WORST TV SHOW . . . . . EVER.

Rarely do we get a detective series on TV that does not follow the stale old formula; murder/car chase/punch up/tough cop wins again! Boring! Unfortunately, Hollywood, etc. churns out this drivel endlessly. Sue Thomas was different. It had characters that you cared about--even the one or two you didn't like. The story line could quite easily have become repetitive--Sue reads lips and solves the crime. Instead the writers created interesting and enthralling stories that brought us back week after week.I suspect that the lack of viewers had much to do with the title. "Sue Thomas" does not shout crime/detective/mystery. And the "F.B. Eye" made no sense at all. Sue was deaf! Not blind! Bottom line is that anyone searching the TV listings for a good cop show would probably pass this one by. We did! We didn't discover it until the show was cancelled!

I think the show is aimed for the younger group of viewers (late teens, maybe early twenties). Brains go on hold for this one.The premise it takes place in DC is ludicrous. Names, places, streets are mythical.Character are stock people and reality is left at the door. And I do not like "religion" brought into it. POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT In one episode, the suspect was mentally slow and they grilled him unmercifully to get a confession, which would have been thrown out of any court since he asked for his sister and they refused. No lawyer present anywhere. They got Sue to get a confession out of him which he recanted. Had he really been the killer, he would be walking through all those errors. And Sue was kind of slow to respond to her being used for political purposes.END OF SPOILER ALERTBut Levi steals the show. I love Goldens and the opening where he jumps in the tub is too cute for words.Strictly for the teenybopper set.

...so it's time to reflect on what the series has meant to its fans. This show truly has something for everyone. For the deaf, Sue Thomas has been someone to identify with--and about ten percent of the episodes have dealt squarely with Sue's deafness, how she works around it in her dealings with "the hearing world," and how she can work effectively with deaf witnesses and even a deaf suspect. (The episode in which Sue takes her hearing roommate to a deaf club is one of my favorites, and I'm a hearing man!) For all you dog lovers out there, Levi has warmed a lot of hearts, I'm sure--like the time that Levi, under the influence of the wrong medicine, first used SA Leland's leg as a lamppost (ROFL!) and then got lost in the city. And for people interested in good crime drama--or hard-hitting treatment of controversial subjects like international terrorism--the show had that, too.Unfortunately, the show will now fall victim to one of the hallmarks of its own success, which is the diversity of its fan base. From my personal observation, the fans of the show now seem unable to lay aside some of the differences that divide them--often bitterly, especially that old divide between the deaf and the hearing--long enough to develop a coherent strategy to save their show from the near-oblivion of syndication in obscure markets and even more obscure time slots. If that is what will happen to this show, I, for one, will deeply mourn its passing--and I will also mourn the loss of a common point-of-reference that, while it was on, allowed the deaf and the hearing to have a reason to talk with one another. (To reply to one persistent sore point with the deaf fans of this show, maybe the producers emphasized a little too much the inter-office romance between the title character and SA Jack Hudson. We all know that the real Sue Thomas did not have any such entanglement, and indeed did not stay in the FBI long enough for any such thing to develop. And maybe the show could have had more episodes in which the title character's deafness was central to the plot--and not just shows in which she uses her special skills during surveillance, interviews a deaf witness or suspect, etc. That said, any show with a team of regulars needs to focus occasionally on various members of the team, not just the title character. Furthermore, any show needs a diverse pool of script ideas, or it will die very quickly.)I understand that Gary and Dave Alan Johnson, the producers, are trying hard to find another venue to allow them to continue to produce new episodes. I wish them every success. But if they fail, I would hope that they could try again. They are two of the finest producers that this industry has known at least since Desi Arnaz--and probably since Marconi first built his original prototype television receiver, before the Depression delayed the introduction of television to the mass market. More importantly, I would hope that new friendships that might have developed between the deaf and the hearing because of this show, do not dissolve when the show is no more.PS: I can understand the hostility that the deaf often feel toward the hearing. Of all the handicaps that a child might get teased about, deafness is second only to dyslexia in the unmerciful quality of such hazing. If the Johnson Brothers do manage to get another lease on this show, then they ought to do more scripts showing Sue Thomas reaching out to deaf people who have had their feelings hurt just this way--and not necessarily as part of FBI "business," either. I'm sure the real Sue Thomas would definitely approve.