Black Mirror

Watched part one just yesterday evening. Quite a different tone, compared with the other episodes, but this is possibly one of the best to date. An almost John Carpenter style score, as well. Kathryn Harrold brings so much to her role.

One of the worse Rockford Files ever. Originally aired as multiple episodes. Not even Angel could save this junk.

Who can believe that the Rockford we know could fall for this woman?

If there was one thing The Rockford Files did the best was introduce some endearing characters you never forgot. In addition to the second part of this two part story Kathryn Harrold as Megan Daugherty appeared in two subsequent episodes in this series.

A chance meeting on a beach where Stuart Margolin goes long and drops a football on a sunbathing Harrold is James Garner's introduction. The sight of Kathryn Harrold in a bikini would make any redblooded American not take notice of the fact she's blind.

She's also a working psychiatrist and very successful despite the fact that Harrold is robbed of one important diagnostic tool, the ability to see patient's reaction to questions. Still she has her assortment of fruits and nuts as patients.

We get to meet them all in this episode because one of them is putting on a campaign of terror and Harrold remembers she knows this private eye from the beach. Garner even gets Leo Gordon as a bodyguard for her.

It's a story with quite a twist which is resolved in part 2.

The title of this fine 2-part episode doesn't have to do with the current BBC series of the same name, other than it involves a thoroughly creepy character stalking a blind woman. And like Jim Rockford, who initially doesn't even realize that the bathing beauty he meets at the beach near his mobile home is, in fact, blind, I thought the famous '80s actress Kathryn Harrold was really convincing in this role. She totally won't compromise her professionalism or her patients' privacy (HIPAA before it was even a thing!) by providing Jim with a lead. But some of her clients (a couple in particular) are, indeed, either psychotic or out-and-out sociopaths. Jim tries following her for her protection, but her stalker rearranges her apartment furniture to unnerve her and throw her off her game. What sort of a psycho does that to any other person, much less an independent, professional *blind* adult? Is he a psycho or just a too-clever conman/hitman looking for an insanity plea? David Chase of Sopranos fame wrote this 2-part installment, & actor Allan Arbus as Myron, the ex-con whom Jim uses to analyze handwriting, is a standout. I rate the episode as a strong 8 out of 10 stars!

This double-length episode of The Rockford Files sees Jim fall in love with a sexy psychologist who happens to be blind. Kathryn Harrold plays the psychologists, four years before she appeared opposite Luciano Pavarotti in Yes, Georgio. This is Rockford Files at its peak, and it's a shame it ended the following season, way too soon.