This show seems to be alternating not-so-great episodes with great ones and this was a great one.
On the surface, it's a cliché, although it may not have been a cliché at the time. It's a show dealing with the law in some capacity. There's a prison riot and the hero winds up in the middle of it. He/she and other hostages are being threatened by a group of convicts that include a psychopathic killer, a more logic inmate and a weaker one. The hero/heroine has to create doubts among the rebelling inmates in their leadership and the methods they are trying to use to obtain their goals. Eventually he/she breaks down the situation and avoids further violence.
That's what happens here but it's so well done it works better than the ones you've seen in all those other shows. E. G. Marshall's clam but relentless logic, his reading of the personalities and his understanding of the situation, (most of the inmates are not lifers but their leader is), carry the day in an impressive show.
On the surface, it's a cliché, although it may not have been a cliché at the time. It's a show dealing with the law in some capacity. There's a prison riot and the hero winds up in the middle of it. He/she and other hostages are being threatened by a group of convicts that include a psychopathic killer, a more logic inmate and a weaker one. The hero/heroine has to create doubts among the rebelling inmates in their leadership and the methods they are trying to use to obtain their goals. Eventually he/she breaks down the situation and avoids further violence.
That's what happens here but it's so well done it works better than the ones you've seen in all those other shows. E. G. Marshall's clam but relentless logic, his reading of the personalities and his understanding of the situation, (most of the inmates are not lifers but their leader is), carry the day in an impressive show.
