Starsky's Lady

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S2 (Starsky's Lady)

It's difficult writing a review for the best episode of a series, you don't want to analyse it too much in case the magic disappears, but you want the review to match the quality when it's often harder to write about things that are so right than it is to pick apart or journey into the depths of less well put together episodes. This particular one works in almost all respects - the only thing that lets the side down is a dearth of action and excitement, but that's because this is an atypical example of the series' fare, and has more to it than the usual fighting and chasing thrills. From frame one it's got a sensitivity in direction and music that says 'this is going to be special,' and it is. The music throughout, though it didn't inspire me to want to hear it separate from the visuals as some themes this season have, was far from the seventies aural wallpaper we often get, and was truly written with care and subtlety to create a loving mood tinged with the air of tragedy, and proceeds throughout not to overwhelm, but to compliment the sad events and heartfelt sentiments portrayed on screen.

Initially I was thinking the title would have been better focused on the enemy, calling it 'Starsky's Nemesis' might have been more apt. But as the story played out I realised that George Prudholm, the returning villain from Season 1, actually had less impact and import for the episode and for Starsky than Terry, the 'Lady' of the title, so it was perfectly fitting after all. I'd forgotten that Terry survives the malicious attack only to have death hanging over her, the inevitable waiting in the wings, and it's how she deals with this that brings a whole new level to a series usually as simple as cops chasing robbers. To be able to introduce a new character, let alone have her injured and certain to die in the near future, and for the audience to care a jot about her is a lesson to the writers of other episodes. Every week we have new characters introduced, some live, some die, but most don't make much of an impact and we rely on the main two, and to a lesser extent the supporting two, to carry the story and make us care. Whether it was the actress they chose to play Terry, or whether it was Paul Michael Glaser's ability to make us believe his attachment to her was more than the usual girl of the week; direction; music; a combination of all those factors, I don't know, but we do care.

It helps that Terry is as much about internal beauty as external, always showing care for others, a selfless person, even after the attack when she's shot in the head at the drugstore, or later, when the bullet's moved and she's lying in a hospital bed again, she's more worried about the development of the disabled children she's been working with, than her own situation. She thinks of both Dave and Ken, leaving them presents to open after she's gone that will make them smile as much as anything else, a reminder of life and happiness and not wanting them to be downhearted. Contrast this with Hutch's most famous girlfriend, Abigail Crabtree who appeared in several episodes of Season 1 and 2 - it's unfair to compare her to this almost angelic person, and it was a perfectly natural reaction for her to leave after going through a terrible attack for being connected to Hutch, but she did leave, and Terry reacted differently. I wish Terry (surname not given), could have been in more episodes, but it may be that that impression of goodness would have been broken as it always is when we see more of a real person, all being imperfect creations. Perhaps the fleeting time she has with Starsky is what gives the episode its bittersweetness. She's given a lot of depth very quickly, more than most characters get in an episode (more than Abi got in all hers), and if she could get Starsky to talk about having a baby or marriage then she had to be something special as he never usually has such concerns!

As much as Season 2 is the lighter season, the more joyful season, the upbeat and comical season, it's known its share of tragedy and loss. As well as Abigail hightailing out of Hutch's world, he also lost Gillian to his enemies, so he knows what Starsky's going through. Though the episode is much more closely attentive to Starsky and Terry, it doesn't forget to include Hutch and to give Starsky someone to blow off steam to, that he controls himself over when with Terry - visiting her in hospital after she's made the decision not to be cautious and possibly have a year of bed-bound life, but to seize what little time she has left, whether a day, a week, a month, or longer, Starsky has to restrain his natural outrage, quickly realising it was her choice and she decided to make it alone, and all he does after that is support her. My favourite scene is at the fairground after the pair have been watching Hutch and his new girl, Christine (could she be the one he was making dinner for in the previous episode, whom we never saw?), having great fun on the dodgems, she shows Dave what she really wants to do: ride the giant slide with him. Initially defensive for her safety and condition she makes it a conditional thing, and seeing how much it means to her, he reluctantly agrees, knowing the danger, but that again, it's her choice. But that's enough for her, knowing that he would let her means she doesn't need to actually do it.

I could almost see this episode without Prudholm as the villain. They didn't need to bring him back, they could have stuck any murdering scoundrel in and told us about a backstory he had with Starsky, but that they chose to bring back the man who was probably the best villain of the first season, actor and all, showed they spared no creative expense in making this the episode it was meant to be - so often I watch and think about how it could have been better, what doing this or that, or changing something could have improved, but there's little I would change about this one. Prudholm might be the weak link in terms of characterisation; he's just a ball of hate that 'wants his head blown off' as Starsky so eloquently puts it, he's the motivating factor, the force that creates the jeopardy, and I can fully believe that the idea of bringing him back came first and then they thought about the best way to upset Starsky (when they weren't going to kill any of the main characters). They achieved it in 'Pariah' (probably of all the episode I most refer back to), by killing police officers, but they go further and make it even more personal this time which gives it an even more personal edge.

This has got to be the most continuity-heavy episode that isn't a direct two-parter of the entire run as we're reminded of the events of Starsky's first encounter with Prudholm, a vengeful Father of a criminal son who blamed Starsky for that son's death after he put him away and the son died in a prison fight. He's remained fixated on Starsky as the only solution to his anger and anguish, and he wouldn't have cared what happened to himself after Starsky was killed, even admitting that after it's all over he'll hand himself in and plead insanity again. How insane the man really is, is up for debate. He knows enough to have complex issues about his boy's death, and certainly knows right from wrong, even laughing that no one can touch him because he's 'crazy' and not responsible for his actions. Yet he clearly does have mental problems - he calls his associate (Woody The Magic Man), Gary, forgetting that his son is dead, so he's clearly not all there, and it takes a twisted mind to want to hurt an innocent to get to someone else, but it's difficult to denote the line between hatred and insanity, and we don't see enough of him to understand him better.

What Prudholm does give us is the ultimate test for Starsky in whether his professionalism can overcome his emotions. The direction allows time and space for the raw emotions to rise to the surface: after wise old Yoda, Dr. Quo, has given him the news about the bullet lodged in Terry's brain, Starsky walks closer to the camera and fights a battle on his face, and rather than play loud explanatory music over it, there's silence, and the scene fades quietly out. It's the same with the scene in which we're given a recap of past events, useful for new viewers, though this episode has nothing in it to really confuse those that hadn't seen 'Pariah,' Terry being the logical person to explain the connection to. As the three drive around in the Torino the music has an air of resignation about future tragedy because we know she's going to die, it's just a matter of when, as the car drifts off into the distance. These moments are full of mood without words, and where music is used it doesn't distract, but enhances. Through all this, however plain the reactions of Starsky are, at the end when he has opportunity to kill Prudholm, he's stronger than his own feelings and doesn't give in to revenge. It's what Prudholm wanted - either kill Starsky or ruin his life and career completely, but he doesn't count on Starsky being so strong.

It's not as if he's unaffected by what happened to those police officers that died before, or even more so by Terry's fate - he tells her he plans to quit the force so we know how hard he's taken it because that's not something Starsky would do. He's seen more than his share of a city in despair, of the people in the gutter living out horrible lives, of rapists and kidnappers and all manner of evil, and none of that has made him give up in disgust, he's just carried on doing his bit because he's good at his job and he enjoys being good at it. There's a conversation he has with Terry at the beginning during the basketball game, in which he explains his absences from her recently by talking of the crooks that do what they want if he's not around, but it's not in the manner of so much of Season 1, where episodes either seemed to fit into a category of positive, optimistic views on life in the city, all the stories of people helping each other or fighting poverty and crime, or into the negative where they were part of a 'toilet bowl' of corruption and hopelessness. Season 2 episodes have been very difficult to categorise as either, which shows that they'd become a little more complex, or perhaps a little less as the series capitalised more on the humour and joy between the characters and showed less negativity in style.

For Starsky to want to leave the job he's done for so long and so well shows the deep attachment he has to Terry. The only other person I can imagine him quitting for would be Hutch, if he were to die, although that might as easily turn into a workaholic need to punish as many criminals as possible. In the end, he still has his best buddy to shoulder some of the load after Terry's death - earlier in the episode Dobey's shown his own gruff brand of sensitivity by giving Starsky a leave of absence, though at that point it's the last thing he wants, as he needs to put his energy into tracking down Prudholm. Whether he wanted it or no, Prudholm's not going to let him become uninvolved. After Terry's death Starsky could have gone into depression, forgetting all responsibilities, but he knows that's not what she wanted. Neither does he become a revenge-seeking ball of anger, a credit to his well-adjusted nature. Hutch may be less involved in the episode, but he isn't any less Starsky's partner, something that Starsky forgets for a moment near the end when he wants to ride in alone on Prudholm where he's holed up at the grocery supply house, but Hutch reminds him that it's 'theirs' to do, not Starsky's alone. It wouldn't have made sense for Starsky to be allowed near such a volatile situation so close to a connected bereavement, but even that inconsistency is trampled by it being at Prudholm's insistence: and he has hostages.

The desire to leave the force and escape such problems plays out in the beautiful final scene. There was no death scene left to come at the end, and nor would that have suited an upbeat series to leave on such a sad moment, it happened in full grief before Prudholm was dealt with, them speeding in under 'this means business' music, and doing what they do. But it's the aftermath that we so rarely see, things laughed off so the episodes can end on a lighter tone and people will remember that they primarily had a good time and will want to tune in next week, or that's the theory I can imagine was subscribed to. This time we see S&H two weeks after Terry's death, playing a game of Monopoly, something she liked to do, while Hutch is drunkenly trying to sign him and his partner up for a Canadian football team because they're going to quit the force. They aren't really serious, they're just having a moment, and it is funny, but it doesn't finish like that - bittersweetness returns as they unwrap the presents Terry left for them, leaving them, especially Starsky, grinning sadly at her sense of humour and the loss of a special person. Probably the best ending of any episode of the series, no cheesy joke, just a meeting of minds in greatest friendship - so good it was one of the scenes used in a later clips show. Terry wouldn't be the last of Starsky's Ladies, but she was the most memorable.

I could joke that they should have brought Prudholm back every season to once again cause grief and chaos for Starsky, but though he still lived at the end, he couldn't have done anything more (in the confines of the series - killing Hutch might do it), to get at him, so his story was done. The failure of his scheme to get to Starsky so much that he would kill him showed that he was defeated and I can imagine him nonplussed and dismayed, retreating into himself so that he becomes fully insane. I don't believe they could have topped this episode, so I'm glad they didn't do another sequel. If I'm nitpicking, I would suggest that the fight with Prudholm was a bit of an anticlimax, though the motorbike smashing through the glass door was a great stunt (you could tell it was the stunt doubles doing their bit, just as in Starsky's spring on his enemy in the aisles), so good they showed it in slow motion for maximum effect! But the episode's use of Prudholm was secondary to Terry's impact on Starsky.

I do wonder what happened to the third man… The first time we see Prudholm, he's with Woody in a car, with a black driver, but we only ever hear about two men ripping off stores, this mysterious third man that must be in their confidence enough that he's allowed to hear the villain's plans and drive him around, yet remains unspoken of, though I thought I saw him with the police in the car park of the grocery store siege, so they may have picked him up or perhaps he called in the police as he didn't like hostages? You'd think that Prudholm would have heard the motorbike revving up right next to Dobey as they speak on the phone, and be suspicious, but his lack of imagination, despite shrewdness, and his single-mindedness, may have blinded him from anything around. Something else about the showdown was a continuity error that makes Starsky look like he's got Superman-like speed: he grips the collar of his nemesis with one hand while holding the gun, then the next shot we see he's got both hands on the collar, and it flicks back to another shot and he's holding the gun again, only one hand on the collar! There's little to find fault with in general, though Prudholm escaping Caballo Point, the maximum security hospital for the criminally insane because of a clerical error, has to be one of the weakest story points ever!

One moment of unintentional amusement is when S&H meet the informant, Freddie (they haven't been doing well with these people recently after Hutch's snitch set him up for an assassination in 'Survival'!), on the bridge - Hutch puts his hand on the rail, then Freddie turns and inadvertently puts his hand over Hutch's, who promptly recoils, moving his hand, though you can tell they did this scene in one take as you couldn't plan something like that, and they all continue the scene professionally which somehow makes it funnier. Something else I noticed was in the Memorial Hospital scene - the situation of the bed and the room Terry's in looked identical to the set in which Terry Nash, the guy who lost his memory in 'The Set-Up' was, so when two different Terrys, but same room, occurred to me, the connection was amusing. And talking of links to other episodes, Huggy gets beaten up again, this time for being a friend of Starsky's - he was also knocked around in Season 1's 'Kill Huggy Bear.'

References of the episode include Monopoly, obviously, though it's an American version, a Popeye cutout well in frame at the amusement park (a change to see an open funfair that's thriving rather than deserted and used for criminal meeting places!), Hutch's nickname of the blond blintz is back (during the basketball game), and the shot of him looking over, concerned at Terry, in his green tracksuit, would be used in later credit montages. You could also point to Pepsi being front and centre at the grocery store during the showdown, maybe a balance for the Coke bottle Starsky had last episode? Crazy golf had been seen before in 'Death Notice,' incidentally the episode right before 'Pariah' in Season 1, though I think this was a different place. And the bridge location over a busy road where S&H met Freddie with his snack van looked the same as the place they met each other in 'Tap Dancing Her Way Right Back Into Your Heart,' and there was a snack van there where a hotdog was bought, though it wasn't the same as Freddie's van. This time, Prudholm actor Stephen McNally is credited as 'Special Guest Star' which he wasn't in 'Pariah,' Dr. Quo is played by Beulah Quo, and the girl that played Sally is credited as sally with a small 's'.

I felt the disabled children seen in this episode weren't shown to be pitiable, but were seen having a good time. The moment Terry starts to break down and Sally follows her and Starsky off the court made the episode sadder because she doesn't understand what's wrong. For the time it shows a more progressive attitude to the disabled than perhaps was common, but then they had two black co-stars as well, so the series was, if not ahead of its time, certainly pushing the envelope to an extent. Violence was barely seen this time, but it didn't stop the impression of danger being there, perhaps because the real horror was from a force that could not be fought: the lodged bullet, and it was more about dealing with facts of life, not trying to prevent or undo damage. It was a good choice not to show Terry actually being shot because then we're in the same boat as Starsky as he rushes in to find out what happened, and is a quality common in this episode where so many others fail to reach this level. It didn't need to be action-packed because we're seeing deeper into the characters so that carries the story as much, if not more than stunts. I thought the shotgun trap had been used in 'Pariah,' but it's probably just me remembering this one. Interestingly, we don't go to Starsky or Hutch's apartments, the only home environment we seem to be in is Terry's, even in the final scene it doesn't look like the recognisable home locations of S&H, which makes it more as if Terry is there, or the connection to her life is still strong.

It takes time to build characters so that what happens to them means more than a new face that will soon be gone. By the time we see Terry die in bed, Starsky collapsing over her, we've come to know her, enough to understand what sort of person she is. The camera pulls slowly away and once again we're reminded that everything in this episode works as it should - Terry's fear that she admits to earlier in the episode vanishes just before she dies. Death, when played with care, is often the most affecting thing that can be shown, no matter how many times we see a romanticised version of the final passing. It's sadness comes because there is a little real pain there as we contemplate those we've known and who have gone, so we feel some of Starsky's pain, the happy times they shared something both to treasure and to make the absence keener. For this series to attempt, and succeed, in telling such a story, careful and crafted, is surprising. In a way it's a shame that such an atypical episode should be the series' best, but it's stripping out what's unnecessary and working up what is. So we care.

****