Review: Moonbeam City “The Strike Visualizer”

Spoilers Below

One of the station’s longest serving employees, Flash Delaney, is smashed to death along wit a handful of other people, and we’re trying to find out who the perp is. In the meantime, Dazzle becomes distracted by his infatuation with a local cartoon artist named Von Groff that specializes in producing the cartoons that are showed at bowling alleys after you hit a strike, spare, or a perfect game.

Pizzaz wants this case closed ASAP, so Chrysalis and Dazzle head to a concert that features a bunch of the cartoon producer’s original work which is the exact opposite of solving a crime…or is it? Chrysalis seems to think that this cartoon guy is the murderer.

Rad, Pizzaz, and the rest of the station are sold on the fact that Von Groff is the perp, but Dazzle’s having a hard time accepting this. Even when Dazzle tries to convince himself that Groff isn’t the guy, Groff admits guilt and threatens a final act before taking off. Chrysalis and Pizzaz figures that Groff’s finale will happen at the end of a perfect game, so the police chief orders stake outs at all of the bowling alleys until they find the candidate most likely to hit a 300. The random player does just that at Rad’s gunpoint, and Groff shows up with a bomb strapped to his chest. Fortunately, Dazzle is able to chuck a bowling ball his way before he’s able to press the button, and is killed on the scene.

Our Take

It took me a while to get over the bowling cartoonist fascination, but really everyone and their mother figured out who the killer was in the first five minutes of this week’s episode. Fortunately, the episode was funny whenever it had actual cop moments, so when Rad’s playing hockey at the crime scene or when Dazzle is flatly denying Groff’s admission. But, there was a lot of back and forth to the station that didn’t make a lot of sense, and when you figure out who the perpetrator is in a crime procedural (comedy or not), it kind of makes the trek to the end a bit of a hassle.