Posted: Dec 17, 07 7:04am
Stnaley Fish wrote a nice piece in today's NYTimes that references that all time favorite TV show, The Fugitive. Excerpts below. The full piece can be found at http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/?th&emc=th
"It might seem that “The Fugitive” is the antithesis of “Starting Out in the Evening” because it is apparently so plot-driven. Everyone knows the story: Richard Kimble, a pediatrician, has been convicted of killing his wife. He alone knows that the real killer is a one-armed man he saw running from his house on the night of the murder. He is reprieved from execution when the train taking him and his detective-guard, lieutenant Philip Gerard, runs off the rails allowing him to escape. Gerard pursues him relentlessly and he, not quite as relentlessly, pursues the one-armed man.
But this double-pursuit plot does not give the drama its energy; it is merely a device for getting Kimble in and out of the many small towns where he encounters men and women in various stages of moral and psychological distress. The story really belongs to them and to the moments in which they must respond to the opportunities and dangers Kimble’s presence in their midst produces. Will they betray him? Do they believe in his innocence? Do they trust in the workings of blind justice?
While the decisions they make and the actions they take often affect Kimble (who is always a second away from capture), the real significance of what they do (or fail to do) resides in the lives they will live when he is long gone. He is the catalyst who precipitates a self-examination and a taking of stock he never performs; and it is only when his work is done (or turns out to be impossible; some people are just too far gone) that the plot kicks in – someone recognizes him – and he has to get out of town, often hiding in the back of a truck or in some other ignominious posture.
In short, “The Fugitive” is about character and moral choice and not about plot, even though it is through the mechanism of plot that Kimble moves on to the next place where people need his help more than he needs theirs. All the action, such as it is, takes place in small, usually dark rooms where a troubled soul is forced to confront his or her aspirations, doubts and demons."
