Blue Man Down (19 Jan. 1987)

A guilt-ridden police officer (Gail), who blames himself for his partner's violent death, is teamed with a young partner (McNeil) who seems invisible to everyone else.

Director:

Paul Michael Glaser

Writers:

Jacob Epstein (teleplay), Daniel Lindley (teleplay),

Stars:

Frank Doubleday, Richard Epcar, Mark Erickson

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Frank Doubleday	...	Beckloff
Richard Epcar	...	TV Reporter #2
Mark Erickson	...	Atwood
Max Gail	...	Duncan Moore
Charlie Hawke	...	Herrington
Tad Horino	...	Market Owner
Jay Ingram	...	Lieutenant
Lynn Kuratomi	...	TV Reporter #1
Kate McNeil	...	Patty O'Neil
Chris Nash	...	DeSoto
Debby Lynn Ross	...	Hostage
Michael Villella	...	Dr. Levin
Sal Viscuso	...	Captain Redmond
Eddie Zammit	...	Maurici

Storyline

A guilt-ridden police officer (Gail), who blames himself for his partner's violent death, is teamed with a young partner (McNeil) who seems invisible to everyone else.

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Genres:

Adventure | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Release Date:

19 January 1987 (USA)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

The Structure !

This is amazing story by all means.

OK, we have (Gail) a police officer who blames himself for his partner's violent death by the hands of serial killer who's never been captured. Now he is teamed up with (McNeil) a young partner with a golden smile but she seems invisible to everyone else. Of course (McNeil) is nothing but a kind supporting ghost that will help (Gail) out to bring back his self-confidence and arrest the damn killer.

There are a lot to learn from such a lovely episode : you need a partner to rescue yourself, to face your fear is to end it, and when you help others then you're helping yourself ; the way we understood how McNeil finished his own guilt complex at the end.

Speaking of which, that was the real peak of this episode's cleverness. I mean when we know that (McNeil) was here to forbid this cop of killing himself out of guilt the way her very partner did after her death is without a doubt the coup de maitre of this story's writer.

For instance, give the title a little meditation; it's surely a blue man, a cop, who was down (Gail's murdered partner). And it's a story about another cop, who needed help to fight being down out of his blues (Gail himself).

The most adorable moment is the last one when (Gail) was talking smiling to the unseen (McNeil) about his first partner : "you're better looking than him.. And you can tell him that too !".. as a hint how he just downed the "blue man" he was. Great line, great finale.

I only didn't like being kind of predictable with a partner that no one sees. The script could've made it better like epitomizing the whole others in someone, a cop, who doesn't want to give her respect by looking at her, or smiles sarcastically at her image, then we know that he doesn't see her at all. Or something like that.

For someone who's crazy about the buddy-cop movies (or TV shows) this case is unique and meaningful where its both leads unite to save themselves from pain. Actually not to wonder since it's directed by (Paul Michael Glaser) who used to be (Starsky) in (Starsky and Hutch). He already directed some of (Starsky and Hutch)'s episodes along with ones of another buddy-cop show (Miami Vice). In (Blue Man Down) he handled it simple yet smart, and when you watch carefully the adept performance you'd know that he got a hand in it.

I think the best thing about Amazing stories, or any amazing story, is when it makes you believe. The top among the reasons here is this fine dramatic structure.

It's the show if you want to read/watch memorable stories, as writing is the actual lead here.