John Harney, PhD

Take a knee, everyone. It’s time to reflect on an important aspect of the author’s childhood.

Once upon a time, the father believed in enlightening his son on the topics of the day. Or the topics of the 1970s. Or the son would watch films and television he probably shouldn’t have while the father was out. Whatever. Either way, the son was left with a profound distrust of the legal system of the United States (a place about which he knew next to nothing back then) but that is was ok because good-hearted vigilantes were there to balance things out. To put those stuffy bureaucrats in their place.

This could have been a brief blog post about Dirty Harry. Perhaps it should have been. But it’s not. It’s about Dark Justice.

I don’t speak German, but frankly I enjoyed this more than the English language version.

Dark Justice was one of my favourite shows as a child, and a show that I would dearly love to sit down and watch today. Or rather, a show I feel like watching but would likely last about three quarters of an episode. What was there about this show, despite its marvelous title, that so enraptured the younger me?

It was a very simple show. The protagonist was a judge by and Lorenzo Lamas by night. In that way at least, it was ahead of its time, as we wouldn’t enter the true Lorenzo Lamas Golden Era until later on in the 1990s. At the beginning of each episode some relatively featureless fiend and leech on society would escape incarceration thanks to a technicality. This process would of course include an awful lot of smirking. The judge would then look down on him and utter the show’s catchphrase: “Justice is blind, but it can see in the dark.”

Then he would throw on his leathers, ride around on his bike, and catch the guy I guess.

Also, this show had Dick O’Neil.

Q.E.D.