Tuesday, March 12, 2019

TUBULAR KNELLS - REMEMBERING LUKE PERRY




Jon 'Jonny' Worth: 
I'm happy to help out. 
You just tell me what I can do 
and I'll have Kiki do it.

‘Major Crimes’
“Cutting Loose”

For several episodes Lt. Tao had been moonlighting as the police consultant on a police procedural “Badge Of Justice”, starring Jonny Worth.  With this episode, we finally got to meet the star of the show, and he was played by Luke Perry who passed away last week. 
 


It was a light-hearted episode, even with its gruesome elements, as it showed how much a celebrity can disrupt standard procedures during a case. (The hardened ADA lost her effectiveness because she was smitten by the star.)  
 


Perry was the leading suspect, which worried me because I could see the potential in Perry’s character for a spinoff. I always enjoyed ‘Major Crimes’ even if it could be unrelentingly grim at times, so this episode was a refreshing change of pace helped by Perry’s performance. 
 


I would not have been surprised had “Cutting Loose” turned out to be a backdoor pilot for a spinoff starring Luke Perry as Jonny Worth and Michael Paul Chan as Mike Tao. Hoping to get more experience for playing his role, Jonny always tried to get involved in the cases being investigated by the show’s consultant.
 


The overall tone would have been light-hearted but exciting, much like other shows in that vein like “White Collar”, “Monk”, “Leverage”, or “Psych”.

But that was five years ago, long past the shelf life of a concept’s viability. And even if that weren’t so, it’s too late now. 


Jon 'Jonny' Worth: 
My problem is... 
I try to be nice to everybody, 
especially in hot tubs.


Good night and may God bless Luke Perry.


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