Well, this episode sends Hutch undercover yet again to impersonate a hit man to see who's being targeted by whom. And yet again, because of this set-up, PMG and DS don't spend much time in scenes together. Near the beginning when they are together trying to convince Dobie of their plan, there is a small inkling of the dialog and energy that they initially had......and then it's gone.
The story is not bad and we can get caught up in the drama of whether Hutch is going to be found out or get away with the ruse. But David Soul has forgotten how to smile and he is wound so tightly that he can barely function. I could speculate all day on what had caused this change, but it's basically irrelevant now. It's just a real shame it didn't work out better for both PMG and DS, because so much of what they did was so good.
The scenes with the teen girl who is crushing on Starsky are confusing and rougher than we would have seen in previous seasons. Instead of sitting there LAUGHING at the girl and Starsky in the situation, previous Hutch would have shown sympathy and offered helpful advice. And he would have been gentle with the girl. Previous Hutch was kind to the weak and unfortunate. Season 4 Hutch is not the same man.
In the old days, Starsky would have had some choice words for Hutch about pretending to shoot him, and there would have been some fun banter around that. These aren't the old days.
The story is not bad and we can get caught up in the drama of whether Hutch is going to be found out or get away with the ruse. But David Soul has forgotten how to smile and he is wound so tightly that he can barely function. I could speculate all day on what had caused this change, but it's basically irrelevant now. It's just a real shame it didn't work out better for both PMG and DS, because so much of what they did was so good.
The scenes with the teen girl who is crushing on Starsky are confusing and rougher than we would have seen in previous seasons. Instead of sitting there LAUGHING at the girl and Starsky in the situation, previous Hutch would have shown sympathy and offered helpful advice. And he would have been gentle with the girl. Previous Hutch was kind to the weak and unfortunate. Season 4 Hutch is not the same man.
In the old days, Starsky would have had some choice words for Hutch about pretending to shoot him, and there would have been some fun banter around that. These aren't the old days.
