Targets Without a Badge, part I

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S4 (Targets Without a Badge, part I)

Rigger signed his own death warrant. Not by taking the straight and narrow path and daring to stand up, but by the way he was made such a nice guy, the way he's introduced, jammin' on the drums in the open air at friend Huggy's suggestion, to having a dark room hobby, a pleasant wife and little girl. And for this guy to be up against Judge McClellan (the same guy that played the baddie in 'Class in Crime' I believe), a silky smooth operator, with contacts everywhere and something on everyone, the scales were going to be one-sided.

It did feel a little drawn out, a sign of a two-parter, or in this case, the series' first and only three-parter, with glamourous stock footage of the Vegas casinos. There are things that make it dramatically different however: Huggy's anger, the dramatic explosion and assassination (though Hutch's spider sense should really have been tingling at that guy in the white Chevrolet pickup, bald head and silver jacket!), and the symbolic action of throwing their badges into the sea. But it ends on a high with the cops unemployed and targets... without a badge. The title does kind of give it away. Whether there's enough story to carry across three episodes is debatable, but this was not a bad start.

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