Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Mondays, I will be reviewing Crime Story, which ran on NBC from 1986 to 1988.  The entire show can be found on Tubi!

This week, the Torello marriage falls apart.

Episode 1.7 “Pursuit of a Wanted Felon”

(Dir by Aaron Lipstadt, originally aired on October 28th, 1986)

Last week, a recently acquitted man named Hector (Ving Rhames) was arrested after murdering his landlord.  Torello, Danny, and David Abrams were all upset.

This week, they’ve all moved on.  Sorry, Ving Rhames, you were only a one-episode guest star.

David is pursuing his relationship with Suzanne Terry (Pam Grier).  At a cocktail party, Detective Walter Clemmons (Paul Butler), the black member of the Crime Squad, approaches Suzanne and warns her that she shouldn’t be pursuing a relationship with “that white boy.”  Seriously, this is the first time that Walter’s gotten any real dialogue since the show began and it’s basically to tell Suzanne not to pursue an interracial relationship.  “We’re only seven years out from integration,” Clemmons says, an awkward piece of dialogue that is meant to remind viewers that this show takes place in 1963.  The show actually deserves some credit for being realistic about how many people would have viewed David and Suzanne’s budding romance in 1963.  I just find it interesting that the show’s only regular black character is the one who is shown objecting while all of the white Chicago cops don’t have a problem with it.  Who knew the Chicago police force was so progressive in the early 60s?

(I really want to like Stephen Lang’s performance as David but something feels off about it.  It’s not a bad performance.  I stand by my earlier praise.  It’s just that David is such a caricature of an early 60s liberal that it is sometimes hard for me to tell if his character is supposed to be satirical or not.  In episodes like this, where David is portrayed as being a cool hipster, Lang can seem a bit stiff and miscast.  He’s much better when he’s giving an emotional speech in court.)

Luca continues to prove himself indispensable to Manny Weisbrod.  In this episode, he blows up a union leader who doesn’t want to take orders from the mob.

Finally, Mike and Julia Torello split up in this episode.  It’s not really a shock.  Mike Torello is extremely intense and obsessed with his job.  He’s tightly wound, to the point where he seems like he might just randomly shoot someone at any given moment.  An attempt to take a relaxing vacation with Julie is a disaster.  (The motel is tacky.  The service is mediocre.  Mike spends the entire time threatening the staff and complaining.)  As soon as Torello returns to Chicago, he hops on a plane for Cleveland in an unsuccessful attempt to capture Frank Holman.  When Torello returns home, he finds that Julie is preparing to go out with another man.

“You are not going to watch my TV,” Torello says, before grabbing the TV and leaving the apartment with it.

Does that scene sounds familiar?  That’s probably because Michael Mann later reused the scene, almost word-for-word, in Heat.  It’s a good scene.  It’s certainly the most memorable moment in this episode.

Otherwise, this episode felt a bit bland.  Torello’s doomed marriage isn’t really that interesting and I actually kind of got annoyed with David and Suzanne going to a cocktail party when they really should have been trying to get Hector out of prison.  I laughed at Torello’s irritation at the hotel and his line about the TV.  Those were the highlights.  The rest of this installment was forgettable.