"SMASH & GRAB" More Peeping Toms October 10, 1999

by
Gordon Hom

This week's episode is strictly routine, were it not for the re-appearance of guest star Dean Norris. Recall faithful Nash fans, that Dean Norris appeared in the season finale of Season 2, "Deliverance." Norris played William Robard, a vigilante Gulf War veteran killing off drug dealers. Nash shoots him dead at the end of the episode. No reason was given for why this hero had gone bad.

Now Norris appears again as Frank Madigan, the same Disadvantaged White Man Who Has Gone Through Hell. Norris is a more sympathetic villain this time. He's the same kind of fallen hero: a former fireman with two commendations for bravery, who pays off (with proceeds from robbery) his kid's heart surgery bills, and he saves a man from dying at the crime scene. Norris is called upon for these type-cast character types.

On NASH BRIDGES, it's usually clear-cut outright Bad Guys. There is rarely any room for the moral ambiguity of MIAMI VICE, or as in the good old days of Seventies TV cop, we had KOJAK exploring the how and the why of the villain. NASH BRIDGES dispatches Bad Guys coldly and cleanly, whereas in the past there was more of a build-up. In the past, the Bad Guys were minorities and ethnic types; now it's white guys who try to do the right thing (if we want to feel sorry for them).

Now as for Caitlin - this intrusion into Nash's life. We've got to be reminded of why we tolerate her - she looks fantastic in black lace undergarments. When things get bad (Nash is about to be penniless again, plus he's mad at her for lapsing his auto insurance), she strips off her clothes and sashays around in sexy lace. Yasmine Bleeth's got to dig back into her BAYWATCH mode, but instead of one-piece wholesome red bathing suits, its sex-kitten time in black bra and lace. We're all made Peeping Toms to this spectacle, and Nash gets to keep her.

For more, see synopsis for Episode 81

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