Spoilers

“Frank, the Potato Man”

Frank the Potato Man was one of my favorite recurring characters on Picket Fences. He had been mentioned earlier in the first season, but had not made an actual appearance. So now, we get some good people directing their biases toward poor Frank.

There is a serial bather running around Rome, breaking into houses and taking a bath. As silly as it sounded, it planted worries about sexual deviancies and sexual predators. And Frank, who had been watching high schoolers from across the street, becomes a prime suspect.

Because Frank was strange, odd… he became an easy target and Maxine and Kenny went out of their way to prove that Frank was the serial bather. They had no evidence except some of the slightest circumstantial evidence.

Still Rome gets stirred up into a craze. Even Jill, in worry over her children’s safety, was reacting in such a bigoted manner, all because Frank was different.

Douglas Wambaugh stepped up this episode though. His confrontation with Maxine over her tactics in trying to arrest Frank was an episode highlight. Any time Wambaugh drops the clown act and speaks truth, he is powerful. His reference to his parents dying in the Holocaust and that he knows about bigotry and oppression was an amazing moment. It is why a character who is seemingly as over the top as Wambaugh is, truthfully, a compelling and complex person.

Actor David Proval does a great job as Frank, the Potato Man. The sadness in his eyes is just painful as he takes the bigotry from everyone around him.

The ending of this episode was sad as we, once again, see that our main characters are just as likely to make mistakes and be bad as anyone. This show was truly ahead of its time.