‘Hangin’ Falls Short In Addressing Handgun Violence
ABC’s “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper” at 9:30 is the latest family sitcom to address handgun violence, but the results are mixed.
Earvin (Omar Gooding) falls for a beautiful honors student (Karan-Ashley) but by coincidence offends her gangster brother Eddie (Bumper Robinson) on the very same day. Cooper (Mark Curry) does his best to sidetrack Eddie, but the episode still ends with a shocking development.
What the overly simple half-hour does best is show the randomness of gang violence. It should give some kids pause.
But I wonder if this message doesn’t have an opposite effect in many cases.
Part of the mentality of gang violence is that kids live in a violent world and must arm themselves to survive. One way of interpreting what happens on “Cooper” is that a tragedy occurs because someone isn’t “watching his back.”
In real urban schools, kids don’t see the solution in upbeat slogans such as “increase the peace.” They see security in carrying a gun and belonging to the toughest gang.
Give “Cooper” credit for trying. Perhaps it will work in some marginal situations. Guns in schools is much too serious a matter for TV comedies to solve. Then again, it’s too serious for them to ignore.
Highlights
“Due South,” CBS at 8: Fraser and Ray (Paul Gross, David Marciano) head North to attend to Fraser’s late father’s cabin. But a plane crash figures into the journey, and the two lawmen get help from their fathers’ ghosts to survive.
“Unsolved Mysteries,” NBC at 8: Speaking of ghosts, “Unsolved” reports on the alleged appearances of the ghost of Grace Brown, drowned by her social-climbing boyfriend. The turn-of-the-century murder inspired Theodore Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy,” later made into a film titled, “A Place in the Sun.”
Also, the search for a Philadelphia man who jumped bail after being charged with murdering his girlfriend and keeping her corpse in a trunk in his apartment for two years. He claimed he was framed by the CIA.
“Step by Step,” ABC at 9: Two of the oldest story lines in comedy are combined in one episode: Dana (Staci Keanan) poses for an artist (Melanie Wilson), only to find the painting displays her in the nude; JT (Brandon Call) fears reprisal from the “family” of a mobster’s daughter (Robyn Bliley) he dumps.
“The X-Files,” FOX at 9: This week’s strange case involves the deaths of three persons found covered with cockroaches. This is not for the squeamish, and certainly not for anyone who has a pending complaint with his or her landlord about being overrun by roaches.
“Dateline NBC,” NBC at 9: Jane Pauley reports on three people who, for the past three years, have been taking part in clinical tests of a new AIDS drug called Drug 241.
“Picket Fences,” CBS at 10: The son of a persecuted Jew (Ronny Graham) is accused of the 1943 murder of a Nazi sympathizer. Douglas Wambaugh (Fyvush Finkel) takes the case, facing off against prosecutor David Wambaugh (Mark Harelik), his estranged son.
“Homicide: Life on the Street,” NBC at 10: A two-part episode finds the detectives searching for a rooftop sniper who has killed nine people in 24 hours.