There’s are two things I’ve learned recently:
1) The big reason that the Arts & Entertainment Network tends to downplay its name these days and simply refer to itself as A&E may be because they’re loaded up with reality shows that don’t exactly qualify as art.
2) Art ain’t everything; sometimes, all you want is the entertainment, anyway…and, on that count, “Dog the Bounty Hunter” definitely makes the grade.
Truth be told, I’d never seen an episode of the show until we scored copies of the first few episodes of the new, fourth season, but when I asked my wife if she was interested in checking it out with me, she said, “Sure. I’ll watch that show just to see his hair.” Well, once I saw Dog’s coif, I couldn’t really argue with her; that’s some kind of look Dog’s got going on…but, hell, are you gonna tell him how ridiculous it looks?
Alas, we didn’t get the season premiere, but we did get the pair of episodes that follow – “Rusty Cuffs” and “The Mystery of Mona Lisa” – and they’re both examples of great reality television. You take someone with a unique profession…in this case, a bounty hunter…and you delve into both their career and their family life. Dog’s dealing with the repercussions of his activites in Mexico, but he’s trying to get back into the swing of things in Hawaii, searching for fugitives and trying to bring them to justice. You get a lot of Dog’s personal side, including his tendency to pray before his assignments and, in “Mona Lisa,” his continuing grief over the death of his daughter, Barbara Katy, but don’t mistake emotional for soft. Dog’s clearly a badass (maybe we should do a real-world Bad Ass Bracket, huh?), and if he doesn’t get the job done, he gets angry.
Any time a season premiere makes you want to go back and investigate previous seasons, a show’s doing something right. If you’re bored with reality shows like “The Apprentice” or “Survivor,” you’re not alone…but “Dog the Bounty Hunter” is anything but boring.
