Hutchinson: Murder One

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S3 (Hutchinson: Murder One)

Hutch has been through a lot of tragedy in his life (I'm thinking particularly of 'Gillian'), as has Starsky ('Starsky's Lady'), so they both know what it's like to lose someone. This time it's a bit more complicated, though, as not only is it Hutch's ex-wife that gets burned, but he's under suspicion of pulling the trigger. The title sums it up and provides shock value to draw people in, bluntly put as it is, something that the series doesn't tend towards ('Murder Ward' and 'Satan's Witches' being a couple of examples this season). The titles, almost never appearing in episodes, were, I would imagine, for differentiation between scripts during shooting, and to give the TV guides something to list, so it's odd that they didn't make use of more provocative ones on a regular basis. This was another episode I was less than keen on, and which, perhaps because of low expectations, proved slightly better than I'd remembered. It reinforces the impression of Season 3 as 'the serious season,' with very little comedy, but the familiar buddy banter and laughs would have been somewhat inappropriate considering Hutch's ex-wife gets shot with his own piece in his own apartment, four and a half years after he last saw her. Not to say there is no humour, Dobey has a grand laugh at Starsky's stupidity in the bookend scene in which the hapless cop believes he's bought a chinchilla, the Captain pointing out it's merely a cheap guinea-pig, much to Starsky's chagrin, Louise having become his pride and joy, and the means, he thought, to make money! It's one of Dobey's funniest moments on the series, his jolly laugh booming into the end credits.

There's also a really good scene that is as heartwarming as it is funny: when Starsky, having stormed out of Dobey's office with the order to bring Hutch in, which he says he'll do, with his resignation, and Hutch doesn't take too kindly to his best buddy being the one to do it, missing the point that better a friend than an enemy - Dryden, one of the Internal Affairs men, has come along to make sure Starsky does what he's been told, so Starsky asks Hutch when has he ever disobeyed an order of Captain Dobey's? This tips us off that things may not be as simple as they appeared, confirmed by Starsky's insistence that he be the one to cuff Dryden to Hutch, proceeding to attach the unsuspecting man to Hutch's table and take off with his partner as fugitives from the police! Did Starsky plan that as soon as he was ordered to arrest Hutch, or was it something on the spur of the moment? Dryden's suspicions that made him come up instead of waiting in the car, were correct, loyalty a powerful motivator. The scene was preceded earlier in the episode by Starsky arriving at Hutch's Venice Place apartment after Hutch has called in the murder, his partner rushing to support him, reassuring him with his presence. The friendship of the two is the most important thing in the series, so to see it tested and found to be strong as ever, is very affirming. S&H aren't the only support each other has - when they go on the run to find the real killer they turn to Huggy Bear, and ring Dobey to fill him in. Good job IA weren't in his office at the time or, rather going over his head to the Commissioner to cause the Captain problems, they'd be going to get him arrested as an accessory!

Huggy's not exactly thrilled on the outside, but you know he'd support them all the way, as he does in the sting. This is where the story falls down a bit - although the villains aren't bad, we don't get much tension from S&H on the run, experiencing what it's like to be the bad guys is short-lived, and they hook the criminals in too easily, getting them on the line with the obvious bait (which turns out to be a peach stone!), agreeing to meet at a neutral location, this time a mortuary (a callback to older episodes where funeral parlours were used as a front, such as 'Bust Amboy,' or coffins to conceal, as in 'Captain Dobey, You're Dead!'), where Hug's hiding in a coffin - the scene where S&H shut the lid would be used in the credits next season). In opposition you have Cardwell, the muscle who just wants to get on with whatever has to be done; Boyle, a bad guy who's also patient, a dangerous combination; and Wheeler, the man at the top who reminded me of some of the old Season 1 villains, like Stryker, who live in a rich mansion and enjoy the finer things, but also control criminal elements. He didn't seem as well-rounded as some of his forebears (more well-rounded physically!), less interested in playing with his prey, he was only about the money and the jewel, and didn't seem like the head of a syndicate or big-time gang since we only see three of his goons. But he didn't have a red carpet, so maybe that was his mistake! Boyle, the man who actually did the killing of Vanessa, had more character, especially in his interactions with people, a cold cruelness to him where Cardwell was only the usual simple muscle.

I would have loved to have had a tense situation like 'The Game,' where they're so close to being seen by their fellow cops (they only have one moment in which they have to do a sharp turn to avoid a panda, although for once, Starsky's driving a different car, so they weren't likely to be spotted). As it stands, the drama isn't bad - as usual they rub up against authority figures very badly, Simonetti and Dryden pretty much the standard, by-the-book types, although Dryden is initially sympathetic, pointing out Hutch's great record, to which his partner responds that they'll "Give Hutch a good shake and see if his badge falls out," which was a good analogy. No doubt Dryden was a lot less sympathetic by the time he got cuffed to the table leg (though it looked like it would be as simple as lifting the table to free himself - not that we get a good view of the underside of Hutch's piece of furniture). S&H tend to put themselves in hot water, always railing against regulation because they operate in a more just way than following rules to the letter all the time, like latter-day Robin Hoods, almost. They have a strong sense of justice, and neither of them ever react well to accusation or suspicion because of their long history of cleaning up the streets. Their hot tempers tend to make these things worse, though, even if it was fun to see Starsky hold back his partner from hitting Simonetti, then doing it himself!

Dobey's hamstrung, however - he says regulations are regulations, and although he tells IA he'd bet his job on Hutch's innocence he doesn't have the luxury of interpreting the rules in the way S&H sometimes do when they're out on the streets. I think it's this stress, and trying to control two men that are probably close to what Dobey himself was like when he was in their position, that causes much of his bad humour. They're forever putting him in difficult positions and not making his life any easier, and they get all the fun, so I'm not surprised at Dobey's constant crabbiness! Dobey doesn't believe Hutch capable of doing such a thing but he has no choice but to ask for Hutch's gun and shield, and suspend him. It's always a big thing when one (or both), of them is suspended because it shows a lack of confidence in them by society - that it doesn't matter what good you've done in your life, you'll be treated the same as any common criminal. Although it's supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, it usually feels the other way round. And all because of Hutch's ex-wife, a deceitful, devious, manipulative woman that it's difficult to feel sympathy for even when she's murdered in cold blood, because she was the orchestrator of her own fate, thinking she could steal a million dollar, seventy carat jewel and get away with it!

The only reason we feel any sympathy at all is because we know it will hit Hutch hard. He's very wary when she suddenly appears back in his life, when the worst thing he'd had to worry about was getting Starsky to keep his expense receipts. He doesn't know what she wants, but, as he says to her, she still knows how to press all the buttons. I like the history that we learn, a peek into Hutch's life before the series. I don't think we learned how long they were married, but it was four and a half years since they split up, and Hutch was obviously so affected by it that only Starsky knows, not Dobey or Huggy - Hug didn't even know he'd been married at all. S&H's partnership goes back six years, Hutch had been with him ever since he came into the department, according to Starsky, although I don't know if that means Starsky was there before him, or they both joined at the same time, and whether the department means the whole force itself, or they had a previous career in uniform. But 'Van' left him because she saw no future in being a cop's wife, and they argued a lot. When she spun her story about buying and selling jewellery on the inter… I thought she was going to say 'internet,' but it was actually 'international market' - she'd have been way ahead of her time to be selling online! She was bad news, but Hutch doesn't realise at first just how much. He's distraught, because she'd told him she had cancer, so he was probably already in a whirl of thought and emotion, unsure what she wanted from him and how he could help, but ready to do what he could.

For once he's a gentlemen, claiming to be old-fashioned, and happy to take the couch when she wants to spend the night at his place, and you can tell he needs to do a lot of thinking. Except he's not given the chance, the callous ending of her life by Boyle when he and Cardwell enter during Hutch's morning run (a strict routine of early rising and a jog is something he's been doing since their married days), foreshadowed by the ingenious reprisal of the creepy human humming from 'Satan's Witches', signalling the approach of something wicked. Her despicable use of cancer as a cover to get into Hutch's life again, and her manipulation of his feelings for profit, make her look as bad as can be - it's not like she's shown to have any other interest than her own selfish criminal activities. If she'd had a child, or a friend she was helping, or myriad other scenarios, she might not have come out of it looking so terrible, but it also makes Hutch seem lacking in judgement to have married her in the first place when her character is so flawed. The episode could have been quite boring if they'd kept her around as I thought they were going to, so I actually like the shock tactics that turn the episode very personal in a good way, rather becoming bogged down, like 'A Body Worth Guarding,' or 'I Love You, Rosey Malone,' which makes this one slightly more enjoyable than those.

All he's been though, and Hutch still keeps his key above the door! It's hard to believe, especially of someone so deliberate - I could imagine Starsky continuing to do such a thing as he's more slapdash and relaxed, Hutch usually the one to be a bit more sober and sensible. He also doesn't wait, but wades in and thumps Cardwell, who's ransacking his place looking for the jewel, failing to realise Boyle is in a side room, who can then come up behind him and take him out with a blow to the back of the head. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise, really, as he wasn't at his most level-headed in the episode: meeting his ex-wife again; seeing her dead; accused of the murder; wanting to punch the IA man… Still, with a little help from his friends, he forges through, and a good thing too, as Starsky didn't want to have to show him the ropes again if he'd been imprisoned and released, which makes it sound as if Starsky was the guy who introduced him to the department in the first place, though he could have been simply having a joke. He does an excellent job of supporting Hutch, both in front of the department (Dryden, Simonetti, Dobey), and the crooks (he claims he wants no part in the police department, the city or this country, when roleplaying as a man ready to cut and run to Rio with Wheeler's payment for return of the jewel).

With no references, except to Hutch's past, we do see several familiar locations: a reuse of the brown, tiled walls of the hospital set (most used in 'The Plague' two-parter); The Pits, where Hutch and Vanessa meet up; Venice Place gets used more than any other time, I would have thought; Huggy's abode (not seen since Season 1, I believe, although this would appear to be, and make sense if it was, an entirely different place), even if this is a likely start for the police to begin their search for the fugitives; and Hutch's battered car. They don't use the striped tomato, as Hutch calls it in the episode - as he says, "Driving around in that is about as discreet as riding around in a homecoming float," which are sentiments that could be applied to every episode of the series, unless only the police can see it, and bad guys don't have that ability! The Internal Affairs duo were quite fun, and could have made good recurring characters, although in terms of cast we only had one face returning, Vanessa herself, played by Veronica Hamel who'd been Marianne Tustin in Season 2's 'Tap Dancing Her Way Right Back Into Your Heart.' Alex Courtney (Simonetti), would definitely be back next season, I think it was even the final episode of the series, but as a bad guy. And one fake moment that turned out to be real was the guinea-pig (I thought it was one when I saw it!), in the box - through the holes you could see it wasn't moving, so I assumed it wasn't real in those scenes, but Dobey picks it up and it's clearly real, so it must have just been a sleepy animal.

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