Joan McMurtrey takes over as the newly promoted lieutenant in the wake of Town's exit. I wasn't prepared to like or dislike her. I just figured she would be a stock authority figure at the precinct. She's a very capable actress. It's interesting to see how women are portrayed in this genre, which tends to objectify females and focus on violence and action involving men. The Abby Marsh character is nicely set up in this episode and in some ways, she resembles Sharon Gless' character from Cagney & Lacey. She's feminine but not too feminine, she's tough as nails, and she's not afraid to use her power-- but she does play fair. My gut feeling is that they will soften her over the course of the next two seasons. What I do like right out of the gate about her is that she's not as immature as Town was sometimes. I think she comes into the show and sees the Simons, including their mother, for what they are-- and her judgments seem sound. So, as I finished the first episode, I was rather impressed with the introduction of this new main character.
The story itself is not bad either. The boys have been doing some sort of surveillance and have apparently broken the law, by invading a dead man's privacy. Stanley Brock appears as a lovable shyster lawyer who helps them get out of trouble on this issue. The boys play a game of cat-and-mouse with Marsh about a tape they recorded of the deceased before he was murdered. This all ties into a stolen car ring, and most of that is fairly routine.
I knew Dick O'Neill's character would be the villain the minute he showed up at the police station. The character had never been seen or even mentioned before. Suddenly, he's there working and chummy with Marsh. The Simons seem to know who he is. There is a backstory that he must have but we've never been exposed to any of it before. So I just knew he was there to be some sort of cop on the take that would be disposed of by the end of the episode. And that's exactly what happened.
Despite the predictability of the plot, I gave this episode a 10, because I thought the writers handled Marsh's introduction correctly. We got to see the vulnerable side of the Simons as relates to the law. And Dick O'Neill's running off and being captured at the end was very well played. He's a great character actor who made it look easy. I also liked Cecilia's immediate bonding with Abby. This was a good way to start the seventh season.
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