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Global Telly Talk
Classic US TV
"You call this plain clothes…?" (Re)watching Cagney & Lacey
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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 31018" data-attributes="member: 23"><p><strong><em>SPECIAL TREATMENT</em></strong></p><p></p><p>So here's a different side to Mary Beth. This time it's political activism. I love how even <em>this</em> is done in Mary Beth style, with her ordering Harv Jr. and Michael to go along with her while they're eating dinner.</p><p></p><p>What I really enjoyed is how organic Mary Beth attending an anti-nuclear rally felt. Seven episodes earlier, in <em>Waste Deep,</em> Mary Beth had become very anxious after her awareness of the treatment of toxic waste was raised. But going even further back: in Season Two's <em>Burn Out</em> Mary Beth had talked about the Sixties and people out to change the world. Joining the force was her way of doing something. There's a long thread here that the show picks up and develops.</p><p></p><p>In <em>Burn Out</em>, Mary Beth's beach confidante, Maggie, had talked nostalgically - even romantically - about clashing with the police while protesting. Mary Beth experiences that here. Even more delightful is that the officer she starts butting heads with at the station is Dupnik from <em>Ahead Of The Game </em>(some five episodes prior to this one). So the history given in three unrelated previous stories comes together to enrich this one.</p><p></p><p>Mary Beth insists on not being given special treatment because she's a cop, and as a viewer I found myself a couple of times wondering where she crossed the line from commendably principled to self-defeating. Certainly her behaviour frustrates not only Dupnik - who doesn't want to be the cop who arrests other cops - but also Chris and Samuels.</p><p></p><p>With Mary Beth held in a cell as Dupnik procrastinated processing her hoping she'd change her mind, one thing that came across very strongly in this episode was a sense of how it feels to be confined with no information about when it's going to end. By the time Mary Beth was losing her cool, thrusting at Dupnik in an attempt to throttle him through the bars and then noisly overturning her cot, I could believe it.</p><p></p><p>The cell scenes in particular felt quite stagey in the best possible way. They were an opportunity for Tyne to get a little theatrical and work with her limited surroundings, interacting with her visitors as the scene required.</p><p></p><p>It's also great that Mary Beth now has an official nemesis. Chris has acquired a few over the run of the series while Mary Beth has mostly stayed out of such a dynamic. But here her relationship with Dupnik is a nicely balanced one of mutual irritation. I've so enjoyed Dan Lauria's appearances that I had to check IMDb and I'm very glad to see that Dupnik has another couple of appearances still to come.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 31018, member: 23"] [B][I]SPECIAL TREATMENT[/I][/B] So here's a different side to Mary Beth. This time it's political activism. I love how even [I]this[/I] is done in Mary Beth style, with her ordering Harv Jr. and Michael to go along with her while they're eating dinner. What I really enjoyed is how organic Mary Beth attending an anti-nuclear rally felt. Seven episodes earlier, in [I]Waste Deep,[/I] Mary Beth had become very anxious after her awareness of the treatment of toxic waste was raised. But going even further back: in Season Two's [I]Burn Out[/I] Mary Beth had talked about the Sixties and people out to change the world. Joining the force was her way of doing something. There's a long thread here that the show picks up and develops. In [I]Burn Out[/I], Mary Beth's beach confidante, Maggie, had talked nostalgically - even romantically - about clashing with the police while protesting. Mary Beth experiences that here. Even more delightful is that the officer she starts butting heads with at the station is Dupnik from [I]Ahead Of The Game [/I](some five episodes prior to this one). So the history given in three unrelated previous stories comes together to enrich this one. Mary Beth insists on not being given special treatment because she's a cop, and as a viewer I found myself a couple of times wondering where she crossed the line from commendably principled to self-defeating. Certainly her behaviour frustrates not only Dupnik - who doesn't want to be the cop who arrests other cops - but also Chris and Samuels. With Mary Beth held in a cell as Dupnik procrastinated processing her hoping she'd change her mind, one thing that came across very strongly in this episode was a sense of how it feels to be confined with no information about when it's going to end. By the time Mary Beth was losing her cool, thrusting at Dupnik in an attempt to throttle him through the bars and then noisly overturning her cot, I could believe it. The cell scenes in particular felt quite stagey in the best possible way. They were an opportunity for Tyne to get a little theatrical and work with her limited surroundings, interacting with her visitors as the scene required. It's also great that Mary Beth now has an official nemesis. Chris has acquired a few over the run of the series while Mary Beth has mostly stayed out of such a dynamic. But here her relationship with Dupnik is a nicely balanced one of mutual irritation. I've so enjoyed Dan Lauria's appearances that I had to check IMDb and I'm very glad to see that Dupnik has another couple of appearances still to come. [/QUOTE]
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Classic US TV
"You call this plain clothes…?" (Re)watching Cagney & Lacey
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