There are four characters other than Jim who are major recurring figures at this point of the series. Rocky and Dennis, Beth and Angel. And I am here to tell you that the only one I’m not interested in seeing a full show of is Angel. As I mentioned the other day, Angel is a sociopath. Stuart Margolin is so great at the role that you forget how sleazy Angel is and how toxic he is to everyone around him. A whole series of Angel and you’d have that in mind all the time. He wouldn’t be the quirky little guttersnipe. He’d be the villain of his own show.
Jim has been asked to be Angel’s best man. With an hour and a half notice that he’s getting married at all. He’s marrying Regine Boyajian (Elayne Heilveil). Only he freaks out and spends the wedding night avoiding having anything to do with her. She runs off to the bridesmaid’s apartment, where Jim finds out he’s been posing as a doctor and has stiffed the bride’s family for $5000. It turns out he’s been running a con, and he put Jim’s name in as part of it. He was going to marry Regine in the belief that it would keep him from getting murdered by her family.
Regine is an incredibly sweet woman. She deserves so much more than . . . well, Angel. I mean, there aren’t a lot of people who don’t deserve more than Angel. Regine is genuinely interested in Angel. Now, I admit that’s because he’s lied about who he is, but that doesn’t make it better that Angel treats her the way he does. He’s a sleaze. He’s an inveterate con artist who buys a wedding ring for under twenty bucks—that’s under a hundred bucks today—and tells her that it was his mother’s, and her mother’s before her. If Angel were to marry, and I submit to you that he should not, it should be to a woman who is willing to go along with her.
It’s brought up at least once that Jim has a lot of charges filed against him and then dropped. It’s true. Hard on him but true. I can see how it makes him look a bit off, if you’re just researching him. What happens, mostly, is that he gets tangled up in open cases despite his plan not to, because people do start commiting crimes around him. Sometimes, it’s an active frame. Sometimes, it’s because he’s a private investigator, and cases gone cold heat up around him. Combined with his pardon, I can see as how it might look fishy.
California for Tourists: Armenians don’t come up much when people are talking about major ethnic groups in California. However, they’re a prominent part of the state’s history. Los Angeles has the largest population of Armenians outside of Armenia. Prominent Armenian-Americans include Cher, author William Saroyan, and the Kardashian clan. Quite a lot of Armenians settled in Pasadena—which is where Stephen J. Cannell grew up and apparently lived as an adult. Once I found out that detail, a whole lot of things about the series made more sense.
Take Care of Rockford Files: Fight with the bride’s brother. Attacked by the bride’s brothers and father. Narrowly escapes the bombing of Rocky’s neighbour’s camper. Gun fight.
Weirdly, 70s stand up comic Avery Schreiber is a guest star. Less weird are appearances by Gerald McRaney beofre Simon and Simon, and Stacey Keach Sr. Script by David Chase, though this one doesn’t feel very Chase-y.