Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Running
DVD, Starsky & Hutch S1 (Running)
This is one of those Season 1 episodes I've returned to more than many others of the season. I have a handful of them that stand above the others and this is one of the elect. It's not fantastic or incredible, but for the series and the season it is one that has depth, a thematic link running through. I can't exactly pin down what the theme is, whether it's that people aren't the same on the outside as they are inside, finding out who your true friends are, or realising that some things you can't wait until you're ready for, you just have to do. It's a serious story, far removed from later seasons and their acting up, disguised tomfoolery (the one where they go undercover as hairdressers always comes to mind as the most ridiculous and parody-heavy of them all!). It's Season 1 at its best.
I have to wonder how S&H know so many people. It's the old rule about episodic TV that they can never build bonds with others because that would necessitate a reliance on a wider cast of actors to recur, and that means more money, which is a big no-no. Saying that, the acting from the two leads unquestionably makes us believe in the people they're trying to help: Kiko for Hutch and Sharman for Starsky. But then they bring in someone completely unnecessary for the plot for no definable reason: Orange and her dog, Sandy. Did they think when they saw her in 'Losing Streak' she had to be used again? What was the thought behind it, I'd love to know? They did that now and again, bringing in a character who'd been in another story, I suppose to help Bay City become a living place where there weren't just different faces all the time.
One face that did recur was the young girl, Joey, and I had believed this to be her first episode. It's soon very apparent that it's not. It was partly Kiko being there, as he crops up again in her episode, but also the title. We'd never heard of him before, but we find that Hutch has been like an older brother for him, but now he's growing up with friends who have an anti-cops attitude, he has a knife (though it may have been only a penknife), and he's found his divided loyalties can only be resolved by ditching the good guy for what could become a gang. From the opening you could assume this is going to be all about Hutch and how he tries to talk Kiko round or get him out of a scrape, but in fact the episode turns on its head and morphs into a very personal story for Starsky, dealing with someone who needs his help. The two men's noblest side comes out: it bugs Hutch that Kiko seems set down the wrong path, but it's Starsky that goes one step further, risking his badge to help a woman who's modelling career he's been proud to have a small association with (perhaps kept informed of developments by his Mother!), in that he was at school with her.
Starsky didn't need to put himself on the line to protect Sharman from public humiliation, but he did. Against his better judgement, Hutch covers for him, and further up the chain Dobey makes it clear he doesn't want to hear about what's going on, sensing trouble. Sometimes closing his ears is the best Dobey can do for them, and as gruffly as he does it, he still does it. It's a crazy thing Starsky undertakes, practically kidnapping Sharman, a witness, taking her to his own home and forcing her to go cold turkey on her alcoholism, desperately trying to protect the achievements she's made and pull her back from the edge. He never shows disgust at her low situation, encouraging her to keep trying, and with that love she does come round and understand her position, facing up to her parents and moving on with her life. Of course that life can't include Dave, they move in different circles, and to be brutal, episodic TV would not allow it. I reflected that many of the best episodes of the series revolve around Starsky grappling with tragedy or adversity: 'Pariah' and 'Starsky's Lady' come to mind. I don't know why his personality is so suited to going through the wringer, but maybe it's because he's usually so upbeat and positive, while Hutch remains more cautious and sensible.
This is the first time we see Starsky's place, and a long time it's taken to get here. We'd already visited Hutch's riverside bungalow many times, and as clean and tidy and full of art as that, Starsky's is as cluttered and joyfully unique as you'd expect from a character like him. His walls are covered in pictures, tabletops full of statues, there's a flashing set of traffic lights hung up and the well-known Indian bamboo chair sits prominently. In short it's a fantastically inviting location that you want to explore. Fortunately there are a lot of scenes there, and we know he's at home and relaxed when the old cable-knit comes out for the duration! Hutch's place also features (just as both their cars do), at the end, with him plucking his guitar as Starsky phones his Mum. Kiko arrives and shows he really has grown up when he confesses he made a mistake in turning away from Hutch, a warm cap to the story, though we never saw how he came to his senses. The funny end sequence is taken further than I expected. It could have stopped as the three laugh at the trick they've been playing on Dobey: handing out cards for a snack bar with his number on it, but no, they go all the way and show the Captain answering the phone and getting agitated once again!
I was thinking as the episode neared its end that there hadn't been any weird people this time. Then I remembered Orange, and there was The Texas Kid, an associate of Huggy's who wants to make a deal with Hutch ('can you tell the judge we're old friends or something?'!). For one thing it's a scene that gets Hug inside police HQ in a rare moment for him, and for the other it gives Hutch the lead on Vern, the nasty piece of work that gets caught up in Sharman's story. Vern, now he was scary. His eyes were dead, he never displayed any emotion, even his burst of anger at Packrat or his girlfriend was more like a hot tap being turned on than a natural boiling, as he shouts that Sharman has seen his face. Who could live with a man like that? The girl (Ella?), that's who. She seems pretty normal until you realise she didn't even bat an eyelid at Vern's MO: he never leaves a witness alive. And then she shows herself quite capable of killing when she attempts to gun down Sharman at the end. But she still wasn't scary like Vern was. He was a psycho, as cold as ice - he tries to break into an apartment only for a lady to come to the door and he just mumbles an excuse, wanders down the corridor and picks another door! Then he comes back to the scene of his crime to finish Sharman off, never changing his appearance of scruffy hair, moustache and shabby jacket: chilling.
It's not quite true that his appearance never changes. It does when the stunt man takes over for the long shots and wears a very false wig! And the stuntman is in a lot of scenes. The only time I thought I spotted Starsky's double was in a long shot of him and Hutch driving over the bridge at the beginning, but S&H don't do a lot of stunts, except they have plenty of rolls to the ground, Hutch pulling off a particularly smooth one out of the Torino's door in the shoot-out at the end. That location, a sort of small, hilly road with a low wall and bushes on one side looked very much like the place they used again in 'Targets Without A Badge': one of the episodes begins with someone kicking a can along and I think it was that road. That wasn't the only filming location I spotted: the first shot of the episode, a city street with close buildings may be the same place they used in 'Huggy Can't Go Home' outside the poker den; the mansion of Sharman's parents may have been used this season at a bust or something; and the river Kiko hangs out by could be the same as that in front of Hutch's place - even the buildings there had a similar style.
Some of the terror of 'Captain Dobey, You're Dead!' came through when Vern is on the way to Starsky's place. Why is it that people are often in the shower when evil comes to call? I suppose it's because you're at your most vulnerable and relaxed in the false security of your four walls. But that doesn't stop a man like Vern, who smashes through the door (a lot of doors and windows get burst through in this episode!), leading Sharman to grab something and batter the guy's encroaching arm, just like Dobey's wife did. The other shower scene brought to mind a similar moment from 'Casino Royale,' though the context is different: they're both sitting fully clothed in a shower with the water coming down, but for Starsky he's not so much comforting Sharman as shocking her for her own good. It's a dramatic moment and is the best example of his forceful interference in her best interests. Only his charm and dogged good will, the desire to see her recover, stops her from screaming at him and recoiling from the mad situation. I thought she was going to put the phone down as soon as Starsky had left, instead of calling home, but she went through with it, acting on his advice.
But who is Abby? Hutch appears on his partner's doorstep with clothes that 'Abby' had picked out. Is she someone at the station or is it a girlfriend of his? Could it be Abigail Crabtree from 'The Deadly Imposter'? It's difficult to keep track. And who's 'Du Bois'? A main character in the end credits, he can only be Vern, but we never hear of his surname so it seems to be one of those scripting oddities where they called his character Du Bois, but it was lost in the actual episode. The only references to pop culture this time are Barbie dolls, Mother Cabrini (the first American saint), whom Sharman sarcastically likens Starsky to, and Hopalong Cassidy, which must be a cowboy. But aside from the important moment of getting to see Starsky's place, we also see his exact address on screen: 2000 Ridgeway Avenue, B.C. 90023, with the B.C. obviously standing for 'Bay City.' It's detail like this that we like, but it's the strong feeling of goodness coming from the characters, and the careful portrayal of people in physical and mental danger that makes the episode better than the usual.
***
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