‘CHiPs’ Retro Recap: ‘Sharks’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Over the course of the past four seasons, these Retro Recaps of CHiPs have covered some unique crime scenarios. We’ve seen people try and steal construction equipment, some have committed their crimes on skates, and there’s even been crooks who work to steal from children during the Holiday season. Which means that four years in, the show should be running out of ideas when it comes to how people are doing to do criminal things in this fair city. But this is a series that prides itself on making the impossible, possible, allowing for wild scenarios to continue to appear. But from time to time, this saga would indeed offer something up that felt incredibly real life, as was the case with the next episode in this saga.
 
For ‘Sharks’ finally brought Ponch and Jon face to face with a brand of criminal that we didn’t really see all that often on the series; drug dealers. Which makes sense, since the CHP’s job is to handle the highways and drug deals and all the nasty stuff in regard to them would have been handled by the LAPD. But this particular story found a way to bring drugs into the fold by having Ponch and Jon notice something suspicious while coming in from a scuba dive. Because while they got their gear off, they spotted a man signaling a boat, and said signals prompted the boat to move off, and before Ponch and Jon were able to question the mystery man, he drove off in one souped up car. Causing a hit and run along the way and that prompted the CHP to team up with the LAPD on what looked like a drug deal gone wrong since Ponch had a hunch the boat was bringing something in.
 
But he LAPD’s liaison, a Detective Sergeant Aikens, didn’t think the boys had all that much to go on. Which motivated the dynamic duo to go undercover and dig deeper into this dude’s dealings. And since the Creep of the Week in question, a man named Rodney Cameron III, didn’t hide his car in the slightest, the boys were able to get all kinds of information on his life and his habits and that allowed for one wild chase scene to take place, as they tried to catch him in the act. But while all of this sounds pretty by-the-numbers, as though you’d see it on any police themed series now, this particular show’s creativity came into play in the final act. Because Ponch and Jon were forced to go underwater to complete the bust since Cameron’s cohorts were tipped off to the fact that cops were near and sank the boat. Which meant we were treated to an epic underwater showdown between our dynamic duo, Cameron and sharks as our COTW tried to save his precious drugs.
 
Which sounds pretty silly, but this is CHiPs we are talking about here, a show that always knows how to balance the over the top with straightforward drama and honestly, this finale works and so does everything that comes before it. Because this was just a tightly woven story, one that oddly enough feels like an everyday police serial since we are treated to a quality back and forth between the LAPD and the CHP, and one element that helps that play out nicely on screen, is a guest appearance from acting legend Richard Roundtree. For Richard played the iconic private investigator John Shaft back in the 1970s (and beyond for that matter) and the no nonsense attitude that he brought to Shaft is present here, in a more formal fashion of course, and watching he and Ponch go at it, is a true delight.
 
Yet while we’ve talked about some heavy elements, and a goofy one, there were still plenty of lighthearted moments to be found in this one and most of those involved the pair of ladies that Ponch and Jon helped after Cameron hit their truck. For they were kale farmers, and while it’s a popular food now, it sure wasn’t back in the 1980s and that allowed for some funny moments to take place. In the end however this was just another wonderful episode from this magnificent series. Because it took a risk in toying with traditional police serial storytelling since it could have alienated the audience, but it pulled it off nicely, all while staying true to what makes this series great and once again, this is proof that season four is on fire right now and hopefully we can expect more of the same as year four rolls on. Until next time.

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