I’m currently enjoying re-runs of the classic ’80s cop show Hill Street Blues. I love it: the darkness, the humour, the craziness, the superb acting, the way you really care about the characters, the iconic images and theme tune. For those of you babies out there too young to remember it, Hill Street was ground-breaking TV, created by the talented Steven Bochco. He took TV drama into a new league, with intersecting multiple plot-lines, characters talking across each other, stuff in the background distracting from the main scene.
Now, The Waltons it ain’t, but I am struck again and again by the rough affection and tenderness the characters show each other. They are a real community. They protect each other, they grieve over their losses, they fight and squabble, they close ranks when they need to.
And the plot line over the last few episodes really made me think about the ongoing impact our actions have. One of the characters, Howard Hunter, has done something dishonest early in his career as a young police officer. It comes to light years later. By now he’s a respected senior guy and he thinks he can’t stand the scandal. He decides to kill himself. But a colleague suspects his intention and swaps live bullets in his gun for blanks.
Fast forward a few weeks and Lt. Hunter is on the scene of an attempted suicide. He talks to the woman threatening to kill herself, telling of his own experience and dissuades her: “Let me be your friend” he says. Which means that she in turn is able to give her children the mothering they need.
OK, I really DO understand that this is television, not real life, but like the movie Sliding Doors, it made me think about what impact our day-to-day decisions, small and large, have on ourselves and others. We can’t foresee where those ripples in the pond are going to spread, and we won’t always know the end result.
I’m not quite sure where I’m going with this thought, but that lack of knowing and lack of control just strike me as important in our lives. It keeps possibilities open.
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