"SKIRT CHASERS" Hilarious Bits Make Up for Thin Story April 5, 1996

by
Gordon Hom

In this third episode, the humor between the various characters and in the bits of dialogue reveal a dark, wicked sense of outrageous and clever humor. In the opening sequence, a group of homeless men discuss which conglomerates own CBS, NBC, and ABC. Later, Inspector Nash observes that a prostitute named Flo knows more about what's really going on in the City than noted San Francisco columnist Herb Caen and the Mayor. In an interrogation of a very bogus suspect named Baby Boy Doe, Doe desperately tries every story known to cops:

OK, I'm going to tell you the truth, man. You ready? Here it comes. I'm involved in a covert CIA operation. Surprise! This has ramifications back to the Trilateral Commission. Of course, in a busted situation such as this, there's a total disavowal of knowledge of me. You've seen the Steven Seagal movies, everybody knows how it works.

Aside from the case of the week that the Special Investigations Unit is working on, an underlying theme emerging from "Skirt Chasers" is that of the state of post-matrimonial misery - from that of Nash's two broken marriages, to Joe Dominguez's separation from his wife, to another cop colleague Harvey Leek's seeking a marriage counselor. These often hilarious glimpses into each policeman's shattered personal lives are often more interesting and entertaining than the current case the Special Investigations Unit is working on.

This humor is most associated with the Joe Dominguez character (played by Cheech Marin). In Joe's date with a former flame, his first love Liz Braley, the humor derives from scandalous talk show content. Liz decides to be "honest" with Joe by confessing to him. Liz believes she has every known type of addictive and compulsive behavior exposed by afternoon talk shows from shoplifting to laxative abuse. Joe is driven back to his unlikely Nordic wife Inger, and compromises himself by agreeing to live in Sweden for his retirement. The incredulous look on Don Johnson's face as the episode ends compounds the outrageousness of this funny concoction for Cheech Marin.

With this kind of fun goings-on, the crime story of a new drug lord coming into town almost becomes a sidebar. A really uncharacteristic moment in any police show but NASH BRIDGES comes in a tender moment between Nash and his daughter Cassidy. Nash explains to Cassidy that marriages aren't made in heaven, and that parents are just ordinary people. Only Don Johnson can carry this un-cop like sequence off.

For more, see synopsis for Episode 3

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