"ROCK AND A HARD PLACE" Here Come the Boats October 8, 2000

by
Gordon Hom

So this sixth season of NASH BRIDGES begins with a bang, literally, as the opener is about a vengeful bomber. The plot has got more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese, but, hey, things gotta move along, right? Then there's the boats, those speed boats, or cigarette boats as they are called (made notorious by drug smugglers) that appear on the San Francisco Bay.

So let's step back a moment and see what these boats mean in NASH BRIDGES. The speed boats were certainly a central image to MIAMI VICE, with Sonny Crockett at the helm speeding towards Colombia for a showdown with a drug lord. With the boats come that dark world of VICE and corruption. So in this opening episode of NASH BRIDGES, we get a MIAMI VICE-like drug dealer with long pony tail, lots of attitude, and not without a certain kind of oily charm.

With the boats come an incredible chain of corruption in the prison and law enforcement system. There is a corrupt Medical Examiner who fakes a death certificate for the bomber Edward Strode, two corrupt SFPD cops (Frank McNally and Vera Peralta) who fake evidence photos, and a possibly corrupt Bomb Squad member who is found hanged from his ceiling fan.

And with the use of these boats, it seems they are miraculously easy to dock in the rough waters of the San Francisco Bay. Nash just parks them like they're Ferraris, and jumps out. You can even jump from boat to boat with no problem (like the drug dealer and his bodyguard do). And Alcatraz Island, though it's been out of commission (as a prison) for close to 50 years, has been kept in remarkably good shape because so many movies have been shot there!

We can't leave this season opener without mention of Cassidy, who over the summer hiatus, has gone through Police Academy training. She looks like a super hero in her uniform and cool blue sunglasses. And then she gets to go out on cases in cute CHARLIE'S ANGELS outfits. This sixth season of NASH BRIDGES is a retro-combo of MIAMI VICE with a smattering of CHARLIE'S ANGELS. Something did indeed die with Evan in the previous 100th episode, with more changes to come.

For more, see synopsis for Episode 101

Copyright © 1996-2022 Gordon Hom. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy