A few weeks before she left Euroffice, Gretchen told me about this crazy American TV show called "Dog, the Bounty Hunter". As far as I was concerned bounty hunters were things seen only in Star Wars and I didn't think any more of it.
A few weeks later, whilst doing my usual, annoying flicking through the channels on Sky I found Dog the Bounty Hunter was on and decided to watch it. Basically it's a fly on the wall documentary about a bail bond office in Hawaii. It features Duane (Dog) Chapman, a reformed criminal, and his wife Beth plus an assortment of family members and friends who act as bail bondsmen and bounty hunters. Their job... lend cash/post bail to help people get out of jail and then hunt down those who fail to turn up at court as promised. Dog is a cross between an aging eighties rocker and a Christian preacher, and at first I thought "Oh God... I can't watch this."
But this show grows on you. The relationship between Dog and his family is endearingly messy. Beth spends most of the show feigning contempt at Dog and his school boy enthusiasm whilst secretly loving it. Leland (Dog's son) appears at first to be lovably stupid but is in fact sharp as a tack. Tim, Dog's "bra", is the wise old man of the group. Dog... Dog spends a quarter of his time praying, a quarter of it preaching about the evils of drugs to his prisoners (mainly "Ice" which is crystal meth) and half the time kicking criminals butts. He's awesome.
Plus it gives you an insight into a much ignored part of the USA, Hawaii and it's culture and inhabitants. Honestly... this show is deeper than it first appears.
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