Blood and Treasure Review: The Lunchbox of Destiny (Season 1 Episode 8)
Revealing Danny McNamara’s back story, in theory, should be a very easy way to bring some texture to its cardboard protagonist; unfortunately, Blood & Treasure Season 1 Episode 8, “The Lunchbox of Destiny,” instead offers a rather pandering, lifeless take on the mysterious history of its protagonist.
The early reveal of Danny’s father as a cop-turned-convict isn’t particularly an exciting one, leaning on some rote daddy issues which never even materialize as defining moments in Danny’s life. Ultimately, it turns out he’s mad/sad at his dad because… he narced on him for committing a felony? Really?
Though the possibilities are endless to explore the dichotomy between estranged father and son, “The Lunchbox of Destiny” offers nothing but the most simplistic, laughably obvious back story for his father, who we meet while he’s dying of cancer in a Boston federal prison.
Where “The Lunchbox of Destiny” takes this idea is even sillier.
While the episode of the arc is arguably coherent — Danny and Lexi hunt down his old crime-doing buddies — the progression of scenes in the episode is driven by nothing but ludicrously silly plot devices.
By the time it gets to the FBI telling our heroes to illegally break into Cuba to get stolen paintings because his father’s suddenly (and vaguely) taken a turn for the worse, “The Lunchbox of Destiny” already feels like a manipulative slog, something the episode’s never able to shake.
There’s absolutely nothing about the story of the episode that feels organic.
Everything is obviously constructed as a temporary distraction from the inert main story, where everyone is still running around yelling about what the Nazis may or may not have done with Cleopatra’s inner sarcophagus.
Yes, it takes time to build intrigue, but Blood & Treasure‘s pacing during the first half of the season is wildly inconsistent, especially with its aesthetic (the contrast in show’s depictions of Boston vs. Casablanca is almost laughable).
It is inconsistent in its committal to being a Sexy Adventure (which is what it should be; it’s escapist summer television — have some fun! Be horny!).
These first eight episodes have mostly adhered to a simple formula (one where a key function is “Danny and Lexi get punched and run in circles,” because well, duh), but the pastiche of characters, emotions, and motives are never consistent enough to build any sort of emotional connective tissue between characters.
Blood & Treasure‘s most recent episodes offered the promise of a more focused interpretation of its characters, with some actual sense of surprise and adventure.
“The Lunchbox of Destiny” is a pure regression in this sense. Not only are this week’s events utterly boring, but they fail to illuminate anything interesting about its characters, aside from a couple trite Freudian nods to Danny’s upbringing.
What little joy “The Lunchbox of Destiny” offers is purely contained to Lexi’s one-liners and throwaway references, which, despite her charming nature, run themselves a bit thin as the formula gets increasingly repetitive during the episode.
Disappointingly, the rest of “The Lunchbox of Destiny” is a forgettable waste, whiffing on the emotional stakes of Danny’s family, and unable even to fulfill its most basic role as a narrative treadmill for Farouk and the other players in Blood & Treasure‘s web of treasure hunters.
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Blood & Treasure airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on CBS.
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Randy Dankievitch
Randy Dankievitch is a TV critic living in Portland, Maine, whose obsession with pop culture began as a child, watching reruns of The Muensters while listening to Paul's Boutique on repeat. A writer since 2011, Randy is currently the writer of TV Never Sleeps, TV Editor at Goomba Stomp, and a columnist for Up Portland, with previous bylines at Sound on Sight, Processed Media, TV Overmind, and many others.