Uhoh.

I finally got the next chapter of The Malevolent Mugging up. It’s more transitional, but does get into the beginnings of the next problems for everyone. Some parts are summarized, but only because I feel like that works best when taking into consideration my other ideas for the rest of the story. Normally I try to avoid a lot of summarizing.

And wow, I made quite an epic fail. I fully thought that Barbara Hale’s birthday was on the 22^nd. I totally mixed up the day with the year. Her birthday was on the 18^th. She’s 91 now. That is awesome! I hope she had a wonderful day.

I still hope to start a fanfiction story that would put Della in a central role, but I really want to finish The Malevolent Mugging first. And I worry a bit whether I’ll be able to carry a story with Della front and center, since I find her a bit more difficult to write than some other characters. But I have hopes that it will work out and do justice to my friend’s initial idea.

I haven’t seen Barbara Hale in anything new recently, but I’ve been trying to think of the Perry episodes where Della plays an especially important role. Sometimes it almost seems a bit like she and even Paul are taken for granted by the writers (and perhaps the viewers too) and not used a great deal in some episodes, yet even in reduced roles they add a great deal to scenes. I think the fact that I love oneshot characters so much and study them also lends itself to a fascination with observing the main characters in all types of scenes, even silent ones.

I always enjoy watching Della’s expressions as things unfold in court. It’s interesting to see her reactions to puzzling witnesses being called or Hamilton glancing at the defense table or Tragg making a gently joking comment between court sessions. It takes great actors to get involved in the part enough to react to even smaller things going on around them, things that the audience may not always notice until taking a closer look, and Barbara definitely always does that.

Then there are times when Perry uses Della to help with a particular clue or suspect in a scene or two, or when they share a bit of banter before or after a case. Oftentimes, the little scenes are just as or even more enjoyable than longer ones. Perry and Della certainly have a lot of memorable interaction throughout the series, often in small doses. Some of my favorite bits with them are in the epilogues, as the cases are wrapped up and Della is hungry from working so long and so hard.

I think I may have already tried to list episodes in which she played larger roles, perhaps even as recently as a couple of months back. So instead of possibly repeating a subject I will say that pretty much any episode with Della is sure to have some content with her that’s very enjoyable to watch. Even if for a lot of it she just observes.