A Way to Dusty Death

There is one other review for this episode and they hated this one. I could see some mistakes here and there but didn't think it was that bad....but I can see what the other reviewer thought.

When the show begins, Mannix has gone to a very small town and everyone is nasty and wishes he'd leave--especially the sheriff. If this sounds familiar, the same situation presented itself twice in season one. In this case, he's looking for a young man who was just released from prison but mysteriously disappeared...and his mother is worried about him. As far as prison goes, he'd been there after being convicted of rape and murder...but he was let out by an appeals court due to a technicality. Now, folks just want him to go...especially the biker gang that attack him when the show begins. Eventually Mannix works it all out...but not until he's lost two cars and nearly been killed.

So what doesn't work about the episode? Well, the familiarity of the situation isn't good. Most readers will automatically assume the sheriff is somehow in on it...and this aspect of the show was handled poorly. What didn't work for me most, however, was when the discussed what the technicality was that set the man free-- apparently he was picked out by a witness but there was no official police lineup. This would be a great reason for an appeal...except that this occurred in a small town and the surviving victim knew her supposed attacker very well! So this technicality makes no sense...and our courts aren't THAT dumb to dismiss a rape and murder conviction because of this. What I did like was...well, okay, I'll admit it, the show was just okay otherwise. Exciting, worth seeing but a bit of a disappointment.