Once upon a time mistakes were only stumbles on the path to restoration.

Click to enlarge:Top: Hill Street Blues’ Phil Esterhaus, played by Michael Conrad, was one of those cops that confronted a bad guy from his earlier days and instead of a confrontation, was gifted with a bible (IIRC). Sheriff Taylor (Andy Griffith) played out the same storyline. In both shows the cop was wary and guarded for the entire show, then speechless at the unexpected actions of the reformed criminal at the end.

There’s is an old TV drama/sitcom plot that goes something like this:

• A cop once arrested a really bad guy and sent him to jail for a long time.

• Many years pass, and the bad guy is out of jail, back in town, and looking for the cop.

• The cop watches his back the entire episode, certain the bad guy is out for revenge.

• The cop and bad guy finally meet. The bad guy puts his hand in his pocket like he’s going to pull out a gun. Instead of a gun, he pulls out a bible.

• The bad guy says something nice about how the cop changed his life, and the cop’s faith in humanity is restored.

This plot line works for westerns and other genres that feature outlaws and peacekeepers.

This never happens on TV anymore unless you’re watching old reruns, snapshots of a time, not too long ago, in which mistakes were only stumbles on the path to restoration, not accumulating layers of tragic flaws that would eventually destroy the stumbler.

Sure, there’ve always been anti-heroes that invite a sort of reluctant admiration for being irredeemably evil (eg, Milton's Satan), but they have no quality outside of the reflection of Good they’re standing in.

We've lost the reflection, like silver backing rubbed off a mirror, or a pond so turbid all you see is undulating mud.

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Click to enlarge:Demon thing from the movie Spawn. I saw the movie in the theaters and couldn't tell you what he was or why I should care.

This isn't just about an aging product of the 70’s (me) reminiscing about how things used be and isn't it a shame tsk tsk kids these days you’da never seen that on TV in my day.

It’s rather a deterioration in decency and moral bearings. Kindness, patience, tolerance have become quaint and naive.

I first experienced this with the film Spawn. I cut work with some colleagues and we went to a matinee showing. One of my coworkers idolized the graphic novels it was based on.

I didn't get it. Evil vs. evil? That’s like flavoring salt with salt. Yeah, you can do it, but what’s the point?

The same coworker was fond of Korn, two members of which have since become Christians.

(No connection, just an interesting aside. Sometimes those you think are utterly lost are just walking on the berm for a while.)

[2013-02-28]

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