Equalizer- Season 3

7/10

Former CIA agent Robyn McCall (played by Queen Latifah) continues to use her skill set to help the little guy with problems the system can't/won't help.

Not much has changed since the last two seasons. The episodes continue to be a bunch of fairly entertaining albeit not complex adventures, and the storylines remain varied. (Nice thing about the show is that McCall's mission is broad enough that the writers aren't limited to certain situations.)  There is more of a focus on McCall's relationship and past with the CIA which worked pretty well. 

And the same as previous seasons, you've got a sprinkling of "special message" episodes that feel too simplistic like they're talking down to the audience.

Though Queen Latifah is likable, she isn't always able to make the dialogue work. (She tends to talk in the same tone.)

I've been a fan of McCall's daughter Delilah (Laya DeLeon Hayes) and aunt Vi (Lorraine Touissaint) and though their stories often aren't connected to the main storyline, they've usually been good. However, half-way through this season, the stories started to bug me. It might be that there are a lot more isolated single-episode storylines, which start to show the same issues as the A-plots: social message stories that simplistically talk down to you and wrapped up way too quickly. The fact that the two of them keep running into these issues comes off as unrealistic. (However, when it comes to the racial-focused episodes, I apologize if I'm being white privileged about the situation. I'm not a black person in America and can't attest to how often you would run into these situations if you were.) Also, it feels that Vi has become completely right too many times and is starting to come off as sanctimonious. Don't get me wrong, Touissaint does a great job at both being at being caring but also bring on the righteous indignation when needed, and it's nice to see her fight against racists who'd wrong her or her niece, but in less high stakes situations it feels like she always needs to be in control of the situation and narrative. (The restaurant subplot is the best example of this.)

Kinda recommended. I know I've gone into the cons more than the flaws, but the show's still enjoyable, there's just no need for specifics for the positives. It's just you're average turn-off-your-brain and have fun CBS show.