"BAH"
bellsouth.net> wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:31:49 -0500, "Pravda"
yyy.com> wrote:>>Well, with all due respect to TV Guide, I strongly disagree. The "Lance
>>White" episodes made Rockford look like a chump, and that is not what
>>Rockford was all about. Sure, he took his lumps and often did not get
>>paid
>>by his clients in the end, but he was always smarter than everyone else
>>and
>>at least had the satisfaction, in the end, of knowing that he got things
>>right (solved the case) while everyone else got things wrong.
> That's almost a textbook definition of "tragic hero", which is exactly
> what Rockford was in the Lance White episodes. He solved the cases in
> each of these episodes, and in fact in White on White he actually got
> paid!
Yes, but Teasdale offers and then stiffs him on a well deserved bonus and
White ends up with the girl and a multimillion dollar company that he no
clue as to how it should be run ("Let's just give the Israelis the missiles
as a gift"). Rockford does all the hard work and solves the case while
White just gets in the way and mucks thing up yet he gets the big rewards
while Rockford is simply given his standard, contractual, bare minimum $200
a day plus expenses. To me, that shows Rockford being portrayed as a chump,
even in the end when he solves the case.
If we were to project this fairy tale of an episode further into the future,
Lance White would become the next John D. Rockefeller even though he doesn't
actually make his customers pay for the missiles he produces for them
because everything just magically falls into place for White despite his
pervasive miscues, misreads, and fuckups. Meanwhile, Jim Rockford, the far
better detective and a person actually grounded in reality, is always broke
and has trouble coming up with the payment on his tacky trailer every month.
Sorry, but I can't fall for this trite crap.
> I thought all of the Lance White episodes were great. And I think it
> was brilliant in Nice Guys Finish Dead to combine the biggest idiot of
> all (Beemer) with the guy who always seems to be on the winning side
> (White). Some of the White/Beemer dialogue reminded me of the
> Beemer/Rockford dialogue from Beemer's Last Case.
Like I said before, to each his own. We had a debate in this newsgroup a
while back regarding the Lance White episodes and it was divided almost
50-50 between those who loved them and those who hated them with almost
nobody in the middle. I guess these eps provoked a strong reaction one way
or the other.
