"GIRL TROUBLE" Saving the Daughter October 17, 1999

by
Gordon Hom

Whenever Nash's daughter Cassidy is threatened, you know it's killing time. Nash is going to track down these dogs and kill every one of them. When goons try to grab Cassidy the first time, Nash kills one of them in the street. At the end, Nash kills the head honcho. Nobody messes with the Man's family. Even Nash's goon, Officer Ronnie, gets a taste - he kills one of the kidnappers.

What's wrong with this? What's wrong with an angry Nash kicking a man through a plate glass door and bitch-slapping him in the face, demanding to know the whereabouts of his daughter? The Rule of Law be damned - rules are literally thrown out the window when it comes to Cassidy. The reservoir of all this is Nash's goon, Officer Ronnie. Officer Ronnie is always brought in when brute muscle is needed. And what's wrong with Officer Ronnie? Officer Ronnie is an uncomfortable reminder of the Good Ole Days of law enforcement, when Irish cops could bring a suspect in and beat the justice out of him. In the real world, Officer Ronnie is brutality waiting to happen. He's the cop just waiting to let loose on a Rodney King. So it becomes significant that the man Nash kicks through a plate glass door is not just a man, but a black man.

Nash also bears his fangs further when he pulls Evan off of his daughter, warning him: "You walk out the door, and you never set foot in this apartment again without my permission. Do you understand?"

Ah, the Man is brutal and firm when he needs to be, but he's also very smart. Nash's facility for Mandarin, and a surprising laxity in allowing Chinese suspects to converse among themselves - Nash has outscruted these inscrutable Chinamen. After a hilarious battle involving a cleaver, wok, kabob sticks, a fish, and kitchen utensils, Nash gets the best line of the week: "Rock breaks scissors." NASH BRIDGES is looking more like MARTIAL LAW each week, where the gimmick with star Sammo is that Sammo uses whatever items are at hand to slap the villains silly.

And he's wickedly funny, too, as Nash tells the gay Pepe "We broke up. You want him, you got him." while trying to stifle gut-busting laughter. You laugh one moment, kill a couple of goons the next, and save your daughter.

For more, see synopsis for Episode 82

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