"Hard Rock Brown" is a most unusual episode of "Police Story" in that the private lives of the cops involved aren't mentioned. It's also unusual because the story is about a joint US-Mexican anti-drug task force.
The 'hard rock brown' from the title refers to Mexican heroin and the story focuses on stopping the flow by trying to get the higher ups in the drug cartel, not just the pushers and users. To get a good arrest, the two American cops in the story work with a Mexican Federal Policeman (Ricardo Montalban). The story is essentially a step-by-step story from start to eventual arrest and is quite informative. I also appreciate how the Mexicans alone are not blamed for the drug problem, as the importation is fueled by American drug use. Overall, a very interesting episode...though how much this sort of cooperation has actually helped over the years is debatable.
By the way, one thing they did NOT get right in this episode was the use of a lip reading (also called 'speech reading') expert who could watch folks through a telescope and ACCURATELY understand everything the folks are saying if they are facing her direction. This is a myth, as very, very folks are THAT proficient...in fact almost no one is THAT proficient. Even the very good ones are far from infallible.
The 'hard rock brown' from the title refers to Mexican heroin and the story focuses on stopping the flow by trying to get the higher ups in the drug cartel, not just the pushers and users. To get a good arrest, the two American cops in the story work with a Mexican Federal Policeman (Ricardo Montalban). The story is essentially a step-by-step story from start to eventual arrest and is quite informative. I also appreciate how the Mexicans alone are not blamed for the drug problem, as the importation is fueled by American drug use. Overall, a very interesting episode...though how much this sort of cooperation has actually helped over the years is debatable.
By the way, one thing they did NOT get right in this episode was the use of a lip reading (also called 'speech reading') expert who could watch folks through a telescope and ACCURATELY understand everything the folks are saying if they are facing her direction. This is a myth, as very, very folks are THAT proficient...in fact almost no one is THAT proficient. Even the very good ones are far from infallible.