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.

Beatlemania Has Taken Over in I Wanna Hold Your Hand

My brother Nathan, the most avid Beatles fan in our family, was home this week, so the timing was just right for my latest Netflix delivery, a movie called I Wanna Hold Your Hand that takes place on the February day in 1964 when the Beatles played the Ed Sullivan Theatre. Though I wasn't familiar with any of the principal cast members, I'm certainly a fan of director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg, and the subject matter intrigued me, so when my friend Beth reviewed it here a while back, I stuck it in my queue. While I agree with her that it's a little excessively silly, a few laughs were just what we needed last night.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand chronicles the adventures of six teenagers who, for one reason or another, are determined to get to the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City for the Beatles' big show. They're from Jersey, and intrepid aspiring photographer Grace (Theresa Saldana), who is desperate for the chance of a career-making photo, has discovered that limousines are allowed to pull up to the hotel where the Beatles will be staying, so she sweet-talks the shy, awkward, not-yet-licensed Larry (Marc McClure) into commandeering his dad's limo and taking a little road trip.

Also along for the ride are reluctant Pam (Nancy Allen), who's about to get married and doesn't think her fiance will be thrilled about her spending her last night as a single woman out chasing the Beatles, and spastic Paul fanatic Rosie (Wendie Jo Sperber), who knows the answer to every trivia question on the radio and will risk life and limb to get to a phone in an effort to win a coveted pair of tickets. Janis (Susan Kendall Newman), a long-haired counter-culturalist who I'm guessing was named after Janis Joplin, wants to protest these artistically barren moptops in a place where she's most likely to get extensive exposure. The last to join the group is Tony (Bobby DiCicco), a Fonzie-like greaseball with a too-cool-for-school 'tude who tags along by pulling off one of the most reckless automobile stunts I've ever seen.

The chief attribute of this movie is that it is loud. My goodness, those Beatles groupies could screech. And it isn't just squealing and hollering, either; it's sobbing hysterically and trampling each other in an effort to catch a glimpse of their beloved Liverpool boys. If I were John, Paul, George or Ringo, I think I would be terrified. We don't really get to see the lads much, though we do catch a few glimpses of them thanks to Pam, who, despite not really wanting to be there at all, manages to get within close proximity to them on a couple of occasions. It's fun to hear their banter and to observe Pam's reactions, though her initial response to being in the Beatles' hotel room is rather indecent. I would have expected it of the ludicrous Rosie, but not the apparently level-headed Pam. But then this day is all about self-discovery.

While the teens arrive together, it doesn't take long for them to split up, so there's a lot of madcap action as their paths intersect and each faces different challenges in achieving the desired end. After her initial stalking efforts are thwarted, Rosie wriggles out of police custody only to hook up with Richard (Eddie Deezen), a bespectacled geek who is, amazingly, even more of a spaz than she is. An avid collector of Beatles memorabilia, this young man who insists on being called Ringo has been holing up illegally in one of the hotel's rooms. Though Rosie is still madly in love with Paul, she can't help but feel a spark of connection between her and this oddball.

Janis, too, makes a new friend in New York, a boy named Peter (Christian Juttner) whose father is holding his tickets to the Ed Sullivan Show hostage until the moptop gets a haircut. It's funny to hear the irascible father (Read Morgan) rant and rave about his son's girly hair when it's a style that, looking back, seems so natural and inoffensive. Peter is so attached to his look that he'd rather miss out on the Beatles than comply with his father's wishes, but with some help from an agitated Tony, Janis hatches a plan that leads to the boy going directly into the den of terror, complete with an intimidating one-eyed barber who reminds me of surly Mikhail from LOST.

Poor Larry does his best to accommodate Grace throughout the day, but she's so focused on getting her snapshot that it takes her a long time to realize what a gentleman he is. He strikes me as a prototype for Back to the Future's wimpy George McFly, particularly in one scene in which he utters a line that is given to George seven years later. He seems like the most normal one of the bunch, though he has his quirks, most notably very poor driving skills - though his unruly passengers don't help him out any on that score. If the hysterics of the young (and not-so-young) women in this movie are disturbing, the driving habits of the general teenage population are downright alarming.

Fans of the Beatles will enjoy bopping along to some of their hits, particularly the title song, which plays in the opening credits atop footage of the lads landing in New York. They'll also want to keep an ear out for references to later songs that are cleverly incorporated into dialogue. Meanwhile, if the 60s is your scene when it comes to music, it's fun to hear various characters discuss other musicians like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Peter Paul & Mary. Zemeckis fans, meanwhile, should be on the lookout for elements incorporated into his later films.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand is a silly movie, and most of its characters are so shrill that they can only be handled in small doses. There's some risky business going on behind closed hotel room doors as well as out in the streets, where obsessed fans will do just about anything to increase their likelihood of contact with John, Paul, George or Ringo. But the protagonists are likable even when they're irritating, and it's fun to watch the very different ways in which they come closer to their goals. I'm not sure if I could have braved a crowd in the throes of Beatlemania, but watching it all unfold on my TV screen is a pretty enjoyable way to spend an evening.