Terror in Times Square

DVD, The Incredible Hulk (Terror in Times Square)

New York, New York… Whether it's the Big Apple or not, this is back to form as the series goes, and makes for a better viewing experience than the last two. By the end, when David resumes his long walk to the next lonely port of call it has more meaning than usual. He can't be too sad when he moves on because he always knows he'll effortlessly make new friends wherever he goes - maybe I don't give him enough credit and he puts a lot of effort into finding people to stay with and work for, but I think the effort comes in helping people. He may be on a quest for personal peace, but he's found a measure of it in the good deeds he's done, the lives he's mended and the wrongs put right. Maybe that's the theme of The Incredible Hulk, or this version of the famous comic character - solace is found as a result of making the best of the hardships he deals with, and in a strange way that makes the burden lighter. Not easier, but he finds purpose beyond his life's mission to learn about and cure his problem.

Someone with his own problem is Jack McGee, or 'Newspaper Man' as I'd like to call him - his is not physical, but a mental obsession, something that gets referred to by a friend or colleague of his. We don't get to visit his paper, as the guy he chats to talks about the paper in a detached way so doesn't belong to it, but he does highlight the fact that McGee's been chasing the green creature for six months! It's useful to know how long the series has been progressing in real time, but I don't think his character has been given enough development to make him fully part of the series. He's more like a recurring menace at the back of the action. Case in point: when he starts to run after Hulk in downtown New York, it's another level of events conspiring to put us on the edge of our seats as Hulk races to get to where Norman and Leo, the associates of crime boss Jason, are set to attempt to kill him, amping up the drama as everything converges, but we don't see any more of Jack, except for another scene with his mate right at the end, saying how he was proved right.

The reason Hulk does what Banner and the audience want him to do is probably more like a subconscious urge left over from Banner's (or David Blake's, this week), own urgency - it's like going to sleep worrying about something, then dreaming about it. Because, as we've observed, Hulk has very simple, driving tendencies - he knows when he's threatened or challenged, hungry or sad, not the directions to get to a specific place for a specific reason. For the first time we see Hulk actually get injured, when a forklift's fork is rammed into his leg behind the knee. It's such an injury that it's sustained even when Banner wakes up, something he's usually seen to be immune from. Usually the worst he experiences from a Hulk hangover is the freezing cold thanks to his clothes falling away in the Hulk-out. It shows that Hulk would be vulnerable to extreme damage, such as bullets from a machine gun or a weight falling on him, so he's not as invincible from danger as he might appear.

We're down to two Hulk-outs this time, the average number for an 'hour' episode. The first has the aforementioned intrigue of damage to the giant, but the second is much more striking. It's the imagery of The Incredible Hulk storming through New York as if we're in the comics (I noticed he appears to have soles to his feet so it's a bit easier on Lou Ferrigno, running for so long on concrete 'sidewalks' and roads), that proves so powerful and memorable, far removed from dull country houses or identikit city streets. I half expected him to run into Spiderman, that being the web-slinger's stomping ground, but instead he only meets Clayface, except that's the wrong universe: villainous Jason's thrown into an unset bed of wet mix concrete for ultimate indignity. I wonder if an actor of the calibre he seemed to be was happy to be rubbed face first in grey mud? That's what made this episode superior - I didn't know any of the actors, but all provoked stronger reactions than most of the recent guest roles. Carol was loveable and naive, not seeing what was really going on between her Father; Norman, and 'Uncle' Jason, the local protection racket boss. It makes her trust in David more pronounced when he charges in with a cock and bull story about her Father and his friend Leo going off to murder Jason, but she gets there with the police anyway.

Norman was excellently played, an avuncular old man with a twinkle in his eye, but fear and trembling in his hands. He wants the best for his daughter, but it has become at the expense of his own manhood, the threat of her being mistreated or killed is more than enough to keep him toeing the line. It's Leo who stirs him up, surprisingly, because the man wasn't the strongest or most charismatic of rallying men, he'd just had enough of the bullying tactics of Jason and his cronies and was ready to stand up for himself. When the two of them go off together on their suicidal plan to take Jason on at his own game it's so effective in making us care - the way he talks to his daughter without her realising this is probably the last time he'll see her, the words about paying for what you love, and the solemn grasping of the hands as the two old men prepare to carry out their plan is all so much more subtle and thematic than this series has been so far.

The evil Jason is another old guy to have a sparkle in his eye, but his is a cold glint of malice. Even the hired heavy Banner talks to, the man that blackmails him to come and talk to Jason, had more personality to him than most of the goons we usually see, and one line really struck home when he tells David Banner, of all people, that David doesn't want to make him angry. That gets Banner's attention alright, he steps back like a tiger into the shot, his eyes pronouncing that this guy doesn't know what he's saying, and you sense the electricity of the moment. But he goes along with what he must, he doesn't go out of his way to get into a rage, it's the beating he suffers at the hands of Jason's men, and then later, the intensity of frustration he feels at being stuck in traffic - that's another excellent image when we see the green Hulk smash the door off and leap out of a bright yellow taxi cab!

David fits right in with honest people that see the good in his eyes, this time he's fixing machines at Wizard's Arcade. An example of a deeper level to the writing comes early on with the scene in which he meets up with Carol. We've seen her from the teaser, so we know she's going to be part of it (though this time I was pleased to find there was very little given away about the story, and actually it was played up as more about McGee tracking down Hulk in New York than anything else, something that barely featured), but it's written in a way that you don't quite get at first that they know each other, or how, or why. Is she a doctor from his past that he's helped? But no, that wouldn't make sense as she'd know of Banner's official demise, but it's a charming way to introduce the setup this time. I even felt the makeup in between transitions had improved, though the actual blurring into each stage still doesn't cut it for today's effects. As an all round improvement on the last couple of stories I'd say this is close to being my favourite now, but can the quality keep getting better?

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