"MANHUNT" NASH Becomes VICE November 4, 2000

by
Gordon Hom

An interesting Bad Guy unfolds in "Manhunt." Bobby Usher (played by former steroid-pumped football player Brian Bosworth) is an ambiguous character, not the usual generic NASH Bad Guy. Bad Guys aren't interesting when they are clearly bad, so bad that they are truly unredeemable. And there's been too many of those types on NASH. But the soldier types, the fallen hero types, which occupy a shade of gray, are more ambiguous (they're both bad and good), and therefore more interesting.

Usher has the opportunity to kill Antwon twice, but each time, Usher inexplicably does not, even to the point of saying "Sorry, buddy" while Antwon has an epileptic seizure. Usher has a knife to Rachel's neck, but he appears not to be a killer, preferring much more to escape than killing Rachel. Even in a mini-market, Usher tells his partner not to drink beer because they "have a job to do." Usher is mistaken for a hold-up man by the store clerk, and in comes Antwon, with Usher (having just taken away the gun from the clerk) with a gun in his hands. Usher has just paid the clerk, clearly with honest intentions. So we have a black cop (Antwon) pointing a gun at a white suspect (who has no intention of robbing the store). The stereotype role reversal here could not be more stunning. Later, Harvey ends up chasing Usher's black partner, Willie Rushton - but no such situation evolves (white cop shooting a black suspect) as Rushton is run down by a truck.

In this sixth season, with the character of NASH well-established, with MIAMI VICE as something from the far away past, Don Johnson seems comfortable with returning to VICE-related themes, most notably with the cocaine, DEA, and the speedboats. And so even the Bad Guys become VICE-like, exhibiting good qualities as well as bad. Everything becomes a shade of gray, blurring the distinction between good and bad. Bobby Usher is one such character (and he seems to be readying for a return in a future episode), Tamara Van Zant is another. So NASH becomes more like VICE this year...

For more, see synopsis for Episode 105

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