On Dragnet Disc 2

I bought four of these DVDs in Nixa this summer and watched the first last month. They comprise 4 30-minute episodes per, so I could feasibly watch one whole DVD a night, but I break them up more than that–the first I watched over four non-contiguous nights, and this one I watched on two consecutive nights.

Not that that matters, but maybe it will when it comes to binge watching them–if they’re too formulaic, I’ll get bored with them. But they’re not formulaic. Friday and his partner are working different details in different episodes, so they’re working on different crimes. Although many of them are still based on radio plays, the structure of the episodes differ as well–some take place in the interrogation room, some have different sets and different structures to them. I dunno how different any of the Law & Order subseries are episode to episode–perhaps I’ll be pleasantly surprised in two or three decades when I stumble over a DVD copy of early episodes and plop them into the only working DVD in southwest Missouri in my nursing home senior living facility.

At any rate, the back of this DVD has the titles for the episodes, although they do not appear before the episodes themselves.

• “The Big Phone Call” deals with the interrogation of a jewel salesman who might have helped stage the robbery of a rival.
• “The Big Cast” deals with a fugitive who shoots Friday’s partner and Friday’s efforts to find him.
• “The Big False Make” shows the story of a local gardener who confesses to a robbery, but his story doesn’t add up.
• “Big Frank” features Lee Marvin as a suspect in a murder whose story breaks down.

So I enjoyed them, but I am old enough to have watched black-and-white television programs on black-and-white television shows. In the days before Facebook slop was black-and-whiting stills from television shows in the 20th century which were broadcast in color. So I’m of a certain age. And, to be honest, I’m glad of it.

Oh, and one difference between this disc and the first: This disc includes the pitches for Chesterfield cigarettes that played with the program. Not the announcer coming into the station house promoting them, but rather Jack Webb pitching them ahead of the program. What a strange world we live in: Modern commercials are full of a couple of vices (drinking hard liquor and gambling) but not smoking any more.