The Smoke Screen

My latest court case for DVD Verdict involves season 1, volume 1 of "The Fugitive," the original 1963 television series that inspired the sweet Harrison Ford movie. The show shares the same basic story as the movie, with the same characters and the same motives, but is vastly different in terms of storytelling (of course, this makes sense, since the original ran for four seasons and the movie ran for about two hours). While the review won't be finished and online for another week, I couldn't help but write about a specific episode of the show; an episode called "The Smoke Screen."

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, the television show "The Fugitive" finds Dr. Richard Kimble running for his life after being falsely convicted for murdering his wife. He's on a hunt for the real killer, the one-armed man, while trying to evade a very dedicated detective who's always one step behind him.

"Smoke Screen" finds Kimble working on an onion farm in California, posing as a migrant worker to evade detection. While on the job, the workers are informed of a raging forest fire in the California hillside, and they are called to help put it out. Kimble has no choice but to join his Mexican co-workers in fighting the fire. What he didn't realize, was that the pregnant wife of one of the Mexicans tagged along!

You can probably tell where this is all going. Just as they begin to fight the fire, and quickly realize that their camp is being surrounded by flames, the woman goes in to labor. There's a nurse on staff, but she can't deliver this baby by herself; although she is able to conclude that the woman needs a cesarian in order to survive the birth. Despite the fact that he's trying to remain incognito, Kimble reveals that he isn't just some day-laborer, but in fact a pediatric surgeon! They set to work delivering this child amidst the raging forest fire... and it's ridiculous.

The episode actually touches on an issue still plaguing the country today: illegal immigration. Many of the workers in this onion farm hate Kimble outright because they assume that he's an undercover police officer, working there just to weed out the illegal workers. The husband of the pregnant woman is the first to find out that Kimble is quite the opposite of a police officer (he's... the Fugitive), and passes the word along to the rest. It's made clear that this Mexican couple really just want to have their baby in America so that he/she will become a citizen upon birth. It's an intriguing premise made all the more interesting when watched today.

In the end, in order to protect Kimble from the inquisitive press, the Mexican laborers and the nurse lie about who performed the surgery. They credit one of the workers, saying that he was a vet in a small village in Mexico. Kimble escapes, leaving his job, and the glory of being a hero, behind.

I still have a disc-full of episodes to watch before I start my review, but thus far this has been the most intense story yet. Volume 1 Season 1 will be released in stores next Tuesday.