Miriam still lives in the family’s respectable mansion in Los Angeles but she works for money as a clerical assistant at the Mayor’s office in Los Angeles. Because of her language skills, she’s well acquainted with the Sheriff’s department & is often asked to interview suspects & act as an unofficial interpreter.

Miriam has a streak of black humour, she views Sheriff Cuddy with a tired cynicism, his money- making interests are a source of endless jokes. She’s a deeply unorthodox person, a rebel in a very straight world. Also in her dress code, which is sober and professional & somehow a bit unusual. There are no ribbons and bows, although she can also be elegant when the occasion is right. Despite her apparent cynicism, Miriam Green is passionate about probity, justice, law and order. She can talk anyone under the table, especially AJ King, the DA, whom she hates – and it’s mutual. She also hates the fact that Los Angeles is buckling under a yoke of bribery, grift, and racketeering. If she could change things she would – but how can she? She’s a highly capable woman stuck in a lowly clerical position.

To her peers, Miriam is a source of wonder. Prosperous, living in a fine house with servants, she actually chooses to work with the other clerical assistants – because, she says, “otherwise I’d get bored”. And yet Miriam Green is not only an important member of the Los Angeles Benevolent Hebrew Society, but also a prominent campaigner for women’s suffrage.

When her father passed away, Miriam had to take over the running of a ranch co-owned with a prominent Mexican family – land that is now being targeted for acquisition by a holding company in San Francisco. She first runs into Emil Harris after he is sent by the LAPD to investigate some killings on this ranch. He is not a man she appreciates so very much at first – she’s sceptical about anyone who works for the LAPD. Only when she begins to see that he is intent on establishing new routines at the Sheriff’s office does she develop an interest in him & recognise his quality & also his Jewish credentials, which are a pleasant surprise to her.

After the abduction of Yut Ho and the subsequent shoot-out between rival Chinese tongs, Miriam takes Emil aside and tells him that from now on she’s going to keep him fed with real information on what’s going down in the Chinese-run underground. She knows things because of her ability to speak Mandarin, she says. None of the other members of the LAPD care, in fact all they really want to do is cash in. The information she gives him helps Emil penetrate Chinese organised crime in Los Angeles – and the sheer scale of the corruption in the LAPD.

Even though she’s a property-owning Jewish woman, Miriam Green is quite an old woman to be matched with a young man like Emil Harris. His mother is concerned that she won’t bear him any children. Meanwhile, Miriam’s family does not like the humble circumstances of Emil Harris – althought they brighten up in Season 2 when Emil is promoted to Sheriff.

After initial push-back from their families, when Emil had to constantly go for tea at the Wartenburgs (a prominent Jewish family in Los Angeles) to be introduced to an endless array of nubile young women (supplied in certain cases by Miriam’s family), Emil and Miriam stand their ground. Emil takes considerable flak from Miriam’s family, and the rabbi, when his engagement to Miriam is announced.

Miriam Green is his fixed point, his voice of conscience. She presses him to do what’s right – which is not always easy in Los Angeles. She does this by constantly punching through all the bullshit in the news, all the crap being fed to the LAPD from the Mayor’s office. Miriam always knows what’s really going down. She talks to everyone, she knows things… Emil feels that it’s his job to act on her information. However, Miriam is also one of the main reasons for Emil’s successes as an investigator in Season 1. There’s an unmistakable passion between them, sometimes also fierce disagreement. But they get things done.

When in Season 1 Emil learns from Yo Hing that Miriam is on the payroll of Sam Yuen, who’s using her to help him win his legal battle against his rival tong in Los Angeles, it changes everything for Emil. Or does it? Should he break off his engagement? Miriam explains and explains… and now Emil must decide what to do about her… is she the love of his life or the biggest disappointment ever – just another person in the city who’s been bought?