The Broken Badge

Like all other episodes of "Police Story" from season five, this one is a two-parter. And, while you might assume that this will mean the episodes would be heavily padded or subpar, this is NOT the case. They are dandy episodes...well worth seeing. And, while I don't think "The Broken Badge" is among the very best of these, it's still quite good.

Officer Stacy (Claude Akins) is a long-time patrolman who has excellent instincts but he's also a dinosaur...a cop from the old 'slam 'em around so they respect the law' school! So, when he ends up in deep water and is accused of killing a prostitute, few people are lining up to help him...particularly because he had a previous complaint for harassment by this same prostitute. Eventually, he's convicted of murder and sent to prison...where he doesn't seem to have a prayer because so many inmates know and hate him.

So what REALLY happened? The Internal Affairs officers investigating begin questioning the facts and wonder if they, too, were fooled and someone else was responsible for the murder. What's next? See the show.

The best thing about this episode is Claude Akins. While perhaps not the most versatile actor in history (I cannot picture him doing Shakespeare, for example), he was GREAT at playing a hard-nosed bulldog type. Additionally, the story is very interesting and never bored me in any way. Well worth seeing.