The general reason remains the same:  hopelessness and rage.  America isn’t decaying toward death, it is decaying due to death.  My country is dead and its burial continues, under mountains of lies and hatred.  Why blog about it when I’m angry enough already?

The specific reason is that after finishing Psych I watched Breakout Kings.  Those first (free) 13 episodes were very good.

The common factor of the two shows is Jimmi Simpson.  I’d never heard of him, and he plays essentially the same character in each.  Maybe it’s less statistically weird than it feels, and Netflix suggested Breakout Kings because of the Psych connection.  But Simpson only appeared in Psych a few times.

Anyway.  There are three (main) convicts in the B.K. crew:  a black guy, a white woman, and a white man.  That’s also their dramatic order, from most boring to most interesting.  Is this the judgment of a racist white guy who dabbles in sexism as a hobby?

Before you decide, let me plead “storytelling geek!” and give narrative reasons.  Each convict brings different skills to the manhunt team.  Jimmi is the psychological profiler, Serinda is the bounty hunter, and Malcolm is…the entrepreneur.

Thus character archetypes are “why”, “where”, and…“how much?”  See the problem?

In fact, as I was writing this, the wheeler-dealer gave a briefing that belonged to the bounty hunter.  Why?  Because Malcolm’s character was being marginalized.  But what did the creators and producers expect?  The show is an hourly drama of one-off prison breaks.  Thus profilers and hunters are useful 100% of the time.  Street-smart businessmen?  Good grief, no.  They need continuing relationships impossible in this format.

Every actor/convict is fine, but Malcolm got the short straw:  the marginal job and the normal personality.  Meanwhile poor Jimmi plays a genius psych evaluator with a gambling addiction and mommy issues.  It’s a scenery-chewer’s dream.