The Commish Takes a Darker Turn in Season Three

This year, thanks to my friend Libbie, my parents and I have enjoyed reacquainting ourselves with the 1990s cop show The Commish, starring Michael Chiklis as Tony Scali, a police commissioner in the fictional New York town of Eastbridge. Tony is a personable guy in his late 30s who’s a bit out of shape and overweight but won’t let that stop him from getting down to the nitty gritty on cases. Meanwhile, despite his rigorous schedule that often involves going out on calls in the middle of the night, Tony makes time for his beloved wife Rachel (Theresa Saldana) and son David (Kaj-Erik Eriksen), and in the third season, he also has a new baby, Sarah, to occupy his attention.

Season three, which at this time is available only as part of a full-series boxed set or for download on iTunes, begins with a conflict reminding me of the recently concluded drama Friday Night Lights. Rachel is just as career-driven as Tony is, and at the end of the second season, she gets an out-of-town job offer she can’t bear to pass up. Tony, meanwhile, is unwilling to leave his job as commissioner, so they decide to try a commuter marriage, only seeing each other on the weekends. That’s how season three begins, and it’s a pretty miserable situation for them both, but in the process of trying to fix the family, Tony finds himself without a job and sleuthing on the side, much to the disapproval of the new commissioner. How will he manage a return to the job he loves so much?

Like season two, season three has two major side characters at the precinct: earnest Stan Kelly (Geoffrey Nauffts) and clever Cyd Madison (Melinda McGraw). In this season, we see how dedicated both of them are to their boss, and they both deal with major workplace challenges and unsettling romantic entanglements. While other officers move in and out of prominence, these two are always near the forefront. Curiously, street-smart Carmela’s last episode is the season two finale, and if there was a reason given for her absence, I missed it. While Cyd continues to be a strong supporting player, I miss Carmela’s no-nonsense presence.

As with previous seasons, the third includes a mix of the serious and the silly, though it seems to tip more heavily in favor of the somber this time around, particularly toward the end, which takes a major turn for the tragic. It delves into some heavy topics throughout the season. For instance, in one episode, a gay officer is forced to out himself in order to fill out a report that will provide crucial evidence on a case, and the rest of the department, particularly his longtime patrol partner, has a difficult time coming to grips with this revelation. In another, Tony tries to help an elderly Japanese restaurant owner and a shopkeeper who fought in World War II overcome their deep-seated prejudices to work together to bring down some vandals.

In this season, David’s first serious romantic relationship is tested by the revelation of the violent activities of his girlfriend’s father. Called Romeo and Juliet, this episode marks a major turning point for David, as it concludes with his bar mitzvah, an event to which the series had been building up for some time. Equally iconic are the final two episodes, which mark the conclusion of the story arc of one of the series’ longstanding characters.

Despite all the darkness in this third season, there is still room for levity as Tony works to solve the most puzzling unsolved mysteries in town. Most of these episodes can be taken out of order, but the really powerful ones will lose some of their punch if you haven’t lived with these characters for a while, so I still recommend starting with season one. If you do, you should find season three of The Commish well worth the wait.

New Additions Make the Second Season of The Commish My Favorite

Over the past few months, my family has been enjoying The Commish, the 1990s series about an unassuming police commissioner in Eastbridge, a small fictional town near New York City. The second season is just as enjoyable as the first, with the same quirky humor and the sweetness of a guy who truly loves his family and cares about the citizens under his watch.

Tony Scali (Michael Chiklis) is a charming fellow in his late 30s. His love of good food is a running joke throughout the series, as he’s always sneaking snacks and sometimes uses culinary delights as a way to calm down victims or tempt suspects into talking. An incredibly hands-on guy, he dives right into the mysteries that come to his department, often going on the beat himself and getting into precarious situations. His degree of direct involvement with cases is not quite realistic, but it is one of the most interesting elements of the show, especially when he uses his noggin to “regulate human behavior” and talk down a lawbreaker with little muss or fuss.

Tony is married to Rachel (Theresa Saldana), a hard-working educator, and both are deeply devoted to their son David (Kaj-Erik Eriksen), a smarter-than-average middle schooler who is a good kid but is having a tough time adjusting to the changes in his family. Chief among these is the new sister who is on the way at the beginning of the second season. The new baby plays a big role in the season, particularly the episode in which Rachel goes into labor while Tony is dealing with his old mentor, who is threatening to jump off a ledge in the wake of his forced retirement. Her recent birth also informs Tony’s desperate search for a kidnapped infant with lactose intolerance in one of the season’s most intense episodes.

At the department, the most compelling of the officers on the force continues to be Stan Kelly (Geoffrey Nauffts), a rather naïve young man with a true passion for helping others. Tony seems to take a special interest in him and often uses him in an unusual capacity on cases. While he can be a bit of a hothead sometimes, Stan is mostly an extremely lovable character. New to the show in this season is Cyd Madison (Melinda McGraw), a street-smart detective with a real gift for going undercover but a surprising vulnerability when it comes to her personal life. She makes an excellent addition to the cast, and I love the dynamic between her and Tony.

This season is full of funny moments, many of them involving the dopey custodian who is always misinterpreting Tony’s instructions like a burly Amelia Bedelia. Tony’s unconventional methods of coaxing confessions and talking down the mentally unstable continue to bring chuckles, as do some of the absurd situations in which he finds himself. In one episode, what was intended as a romantic gesture spirals into absurdity when Tony accidentally releases a balloon to which he has attached an expensive ring for Rachel. His quest to retrieve it is hilarious, as is the episode in which the Scalis try to figure out what their rather obnoxious new neighbors are getting them for Christmas so they can reciprocate appropriately.

However, it also delves into very serious topics. Rachel is severely traumatized after witnessing an armed robbery that results in the death of a grocery clerk, and David faces a moral dilemma when his best friend shoots a middle school bully in his defense. Tony must put all his people skills to work when he discovers that an old friend has developed dissociative identity disorder and his alternate personality is murderous. Telly Savalas turns up for several episodes as a mobster who claims to be retired but who seems to bring big trouble with him to Eastbridge. The guest star who excited me most was Mark Pellegrino, best known to me as Island sage Jacob on LOST, particularly since Titus Welliver, who played Jacob’s nemesis, showed up in the first season. Both are ultimately sympathetic figures, though Pellegrino’s character spends his episode in a stand-off with the police.

Each week, Tony and those in his department must work to solve the crimes of Eastbridge. Some of them are fairly frivolous, but many are a matter of life and death. The addition of Cyd and of baby Sarah makes season two even more engaging than the first and probably my favorite of the series, and while it’s always best to watch in order, if you jump in at the beginning of this season, you won’t feel too out of the loop. I’m not usually too big on cop shows, but The Commish is one I will gladly watch any time.

Tony Scali Cleverly Lays Down the Law in Season One of The Commish

Back in the 1990s, one show that my family often watched together was The Commish, starring Michael Chiklis as a hands-on police commissioner in a small New York town. Knowing my mom would soon be laid up after surgery, my friend lent us the boxed set of the series, which we’ve enjoyed revisiting. The first season of the quirky cop show created by Stephen J. Cannell and Stephen Kronish quickly establishes the tone, which is dramatic but often light-hearted as 38-year-old Commissioner Tony Scali uses his empathy and ingenuity to keep things in the city running as smoothly as possible.

The primary focus of each episode is usually on one or two cases currently vexing the police department, though at times Tony’s home life moves out of subplot territory and into the spotlight. Theresa Saldana plays his supportive wife Rachel, while Kaj-Erik Eriksen is 10-year-old David, a pretty typical kid. While the series is mostly episodic, with little in the way of overarching storylines, there are a few that weave their way through the first season. On the home front, Rachel wants another baby badly, and the season deals with their heartache over her difficulty in conceiving and later their turmoil when she succeeds but learns that the baby may be born with defects. Additionally, David tries to get used to the possibility of no longer being an only child and struggles with the conflict between Tony and Rachel’s live-in brother Arnie (David Paymer), an eccentric entrepreneur who mostly serves as comic relief.

At the department, several characters stand out. Kimberly Scott is cool and unruffled as Tony’s sassy secretary Lucille, and Gina Belafonte brings a tough, street-smart presence to Carmela, arguably the toughest cop under Tony’s watch. Other distinctive side characters include Ricky (Nicholas Lea), a hotshot officer; Irv (Alex Bruhanski), Tony’s nearing-retirement right-hand man; and Paulie (John Cygan), a detective and childhood chum of Tony’s who joins his team midway through the season.

The clear standout, however, is Stan Kelly, played with jittery charm by Geoffrey Nauffts. He comes across as very green, an eager young man who brings 110 percent to everything he does but often bungles the job. Shy and nervous, he flourishes under the mentorship of Tony, who often entrusts him with special assignments. Sometimes the main purpose of this is to boost his confidence; at other times, the task truly is important, and it’s Stan’s dedication to the job that makes him the go-to guy. He is intimately involved in many of the investigations, but his most centric role is in a late-season episode in which he kills a woman after responding to a heated domestic dispute and must deal with both his own crippling guilt and the threats leveled against him by the angry widower.

The show is a drama, but the fun lies in Tony’s creative approach to his job. The kind-hearted commissioner has a true gift for diffusing tense situations, and no one on the force can match his finesse for talking down the deranged by playing along with their delusions. He often baits and confronts criminals directly, while also dealing with victims himself and putting them at ease, often distracting them with requests for common courtesies like coffee and cookies. He’s a man adept at getting into the heads of those he wishes to influence or apprehend, and he doesn’t mind sacrificing a bit to do it. In the pilot, he forgoes food for several days to help him deal with some prisoners on a hunger strike, knowing that when he is ravenous, they’ll be even hungrier and will find it hard to resist the deluxe sandwich he eats in front of them. If this seems a little mean-spirited, the meeting concludes with his ordering the warden to eat in the prison cafeteria at least three times a week and improve the menu if the food is as bad as the prisoners say it is.

Tony’s cleverness often springs from his compassion, but sometimes his desire to do the right thing leaves him in a true quandary. Never is that more apparent this season than in The Greatest Gift, an episode that finds him deeply troubled over two ethical dilemmas in which the law and his sense of ethics are in fundamental conflict. The Christmastime setting adds to his sense of malaise. This is probably my favorite episode of season one. This episode also delves into the fact that Tony grew up Catholic but agreed to raise David in Rachel’s Jewish tradition. In some ways it’s a more somber episode than most, but the conclusion is particularly satisfying.

The Commish lasted for five seasons. Some were better than others, but this first season is one of the best. If you haven’t had the pleasure of witnessing the distinct way in which Tony Scali upholds the law, this is the place to get acquainted.

The Thing is the Thing that Makes Fantastic Four Worth Watching

At the outset of the summer, I had a list of several movies I wanted to see in the theater – most of which I still haven’t. The Fantastic Four was not on that list, but when my uncle issued an invitation for me to go see it with his family, I was happy to accept. I tend to be a bit leery of films inspired by comic books simply because they generally tend to be very destructive, but this did look to be one of the more family friendly of those adaptation, an impression that seemed to be confirmed when almost all the previews were for films rated G or PG. So I settled in with my jumbo popcorn and an open mind. As it turned out, I liked it quite a bit.

I don’t know anything about the source material, so I can’t comment on how faithful the film was in terms of character and plot elements. I was warned ahead of time by my brother that watching the movie meant putting up with Jessica Alba, a name I was unfamiliar with. “And what’s so wrong with Jessica Alba?” I inquired. “She was in Dark Angel,” Nathan muttered darkly. “And you watched Dark Angel?” I persisted. “No,” he replied. “So how do you know it was such a bad show?” I asked. “Because Jessica Alba was in it!” he concluded triumphantly while I shook my head and decided not too rely too heavily on his circular logic. She plays Sue Storm, who I couldn’t help but compare repeatedly to Trillian, probably because I had just seen Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a couple weeks before. She serves a similar purpose, with the protagonist, Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), having dated her in the past and now being forced to see her with another man. This man, incidentally, is Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon), the former rival to whom Reed must turn for assistance in launching an experiment that could have earth-shatteringly positive consequences.

Joining them in this voyage are Johnny (Chris Evans), Sue’s hotshot younger brother, and Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), Reed’s paternal friend. There is considerable interpersonal strain inherent in the formation of this group. Reed is jealous of Victor, who in turn is contemptuous of Reed. Sue is angry with Reed because of the way their relationship ended, and she isn’t especially thrilled by all the advances the suave Victor is making on her. Meanwhile, Ben is furious that his former employee Johnny is now his boss, and Johnny is more than happy to rub it in. The clashing personalities hardly make for an ideal situation, but when they return to Earth with an assortment of bizarre powers, it seems Sue, Johnny, Reed and Ben are going to have to learn how to live with one another.

Victor, meanwhile, remains on his own, his rage festering as he realizes that his business is tanking thanks to Reed’s little trip. Oddly enough, it never seems to occur to any members of the quartet, soon dubbed the Fantastic Four, that Victor might have acquired strange attributes as well. Their focus is on figuring out how to undo the changes that were made to their DNA. Ben is especially eager. His transformation made him clumsy and intimidating, a rock-like giant so alarming that his wife left him. Being branded with the humiliating nickname “the Thing” didn’t help. But the other three have more useful powers: invisibility for Sue, stretchiness for Reed, and the ability to burst into flames and fly for Johnny. The latter is especially fond of his newfound abilities and is in no hurry whatsoever to give them up.

I imagine The Incredibles was informed a bit by this comic, as the film reminded me a lot of that recent Disney / Pixar venture. The invisibility and stretchiness were a particularly powerful reminder. As for the characters, Ben was by far my favorite, a very sympathetic man who provided most of the film’s heart. Johnny was amusing, though if was shut up with him for days on end I suspect I would find him very obnoxious. Reed and Sue were likable enough; again, they mirrored the relationship between Arthur and Trillian in Hitchhiker’s Guide. For whatever reason, this romance seemed a bit more believable, but I still wasn’t all that impressed with that element of the storyline. Victor was an intriguing villain, arrogant and out for revenge but still someone I could feel sorry for at times.

Predictably, there was quite a bit of destruction in this film, though there were, happily, few casualties. In the end, it’s a pretty good film with plenty of action, done in such a way that it is appropriate for younger audiences. No doubt there will be a sequel, and when it comes I would not be adverse to seeing it.