Sweet Revenge

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S4 (Sweet Revenge)

Should Detective David Starsky have died? It was the final episode, they weren't coming back (except for a tiny cameo in the reboot film, twenty-five years later), and it would have ended the series with a dramatic punch. But it wouldn't have been true to the tone of the series, which was, admittedly, all over the place from episode to episode, but was rarely heavy drama, and to sum up a series in that manner, that was in many ways quite lighthearted, would probably have done it an injustice. Plus, we'd have missed the delightful final scene in which Starsky's friends gather around him for an impromptu midnight feast, with Starsky toasting himself, Hutch, Captain Dobey, and Huggy as four very heavy dudes, a fitting climax to their partnership through friendship and enmity, anger and joy, ultimately the four of them had battled through so many cases and made the series worth watching through their great care and camaraderie for each other, and what could be more fitting than seeing the four together one last time. It was emotional. Whether the episode itself could be seen as a fitting climax to the series and the season, I'm not so sure. In fact I am sure: it wasn't. Almost a mere postscript to the three-part 'Targets Without A Badge' saga, I appreciate that they tied up the hanging threads by dealing with the villains left at large, dishing out 'sweet revenge,' or more appropriately, sweet justice, but I can't say they closed out the series in style.

Ironic then, that this is probably just what Director Paul Michael Glaser was trying to do, once again holding the reins and making ponderous work of it (directing himself lying down with his eyes shut, just like Leonard Nimoy with 'Star Trek III')! I do feel bad criticising his artistic nature (especially when some of it works, such as the ringing echo of Hutch's angry barks in the underground car park), but I've said it before, and will do again, that it wasn't suited for the tone of the series. He fills the frame with closeup profile after closeup profile, hangs on people's faces for long, lingering shots of several seconds, and loves a ticking clock. And I don't mean a countdown or the impetus to an action climax, I mean an actual ticking clock to make you feel you're in a dentist's waiting room or outside the Headmaster's office. I wouldn't even say that his directorial eye is bad, he likes to frame things, make you look at the familiar differently, but here I think we needed a straight up action director, and to fill the episode with edge of the seat antics, not focus on Dobey's sad face as he waits to hear if Starsky will make it. I don't even mean that showing the care the other characters have for Starsky is a bad thing, obviously it's not, but it's done in such a slow way that you're just itching for Hutch to get out there and do something, as much for the viewer's relief as his own. And that's one of the main problems with the episode: Starsky and Hutch, in their final story, aren't working together. We want the banter as they bounce off each other, we want the double-teaming, we want… well, what they'd been doing most of the series.

I'm not sure it's wrong in this case to want more of the same, because that was better, and although Hutch is a bundle of fury, not taking any obstruction well, and even having Huggy along as a halfhearted, semi-stand-in for Starsky, it's just not as enjoyable to see one of the dynamic duo go it alone. I see they were experimenting, presumably because it was the last ever episode and it didn't matter what they did, and perhaps they should be applauded for thinking differently, especially when you have Starsky's life hanging in the balance (gunned down by fake officers in a fake car in the midst of the HQ car park, putting him in a coma where he even flatlines at one point!), and I have to assume they knew this was it, as well as the audience, meaning he really could die - contracts were up, the series was ending… But to have one more episode with S&H speeding around the sunny streets, taking out perps, bumbling over the ladies, joking around, but getting the job done, would have been preferable to a morose slog against the machinations of the powerful. The crime is that the villains' organisation, Gunther Industries, seems to be falling apart all on its own, so it's not even that S&H were integral in taking down the man described as having turned down the Presidency because it was a step down in power, James Gunther! If it had been S&H actively ruining his day, getting shouted at by high-ups in the police force for disturbing such an important man, fending off assassination attempts every ten minutes, and finally, finally breaking through and unlocking the evidence to put him away for good, that could have been an exciting, pacey conclusion.

Instead, we see a board meeting at the beginning which talks of the state of the company in its various countries and operations, the representatives sat round like a meeting of SPECTRE from the Bond films (they should have given Gunther a white cat to stroke!), until we get to the area S&H have presumably had a hand in upsetting, which is why their deaths are ordered by Gunther himself, and why Bates is poisoned by his own boss for failing. But S&H aren't really doing much of anything now, in fact they start the episode playing Ping-Pong in the office at Police HQ because it's being repainted. That's about the only familiar set we get to revisit, because there's no Dobey's office (except a glimpse of it as the Captain walks out), no The Pits, no Venice Place or Starsky's pad, and the Torino is barely seen at all, Hutch's miracle car has vanished, and basically all the basics of the series have been stripped away. It feels like they were already in the process of getting rid of the sets, so they couldn't shoot there. I don't know if that's true, but that's the impression I got from watching it, like they're not even out the door yet and the series is being pulled out from under them, another reason why it's a less satisfying episode. You want to see the familiar elements one last time, but Dobey sets up a makeshift HQ at the hospital (I don't even know if it was Memorial), and spends all his time there, and Hutch is buzzing around making trouble for the bad guys, or trying to, though in reality it seems like he's making more trouble for himself.

I wonder if they really were dismantling the sets during the episode? That could explain why they cover up the office with the excuse of a repainting, and when Dobey enters we're looking from a low angle and you can actually see past him into his own office, where the set noticeably ends, with no ceiling! I called Hutch's car a miracle because it was destroyed by explosion in 'Targets Without A Badge,' then in the very next story, 'Starsky Vs. Hutch,' he's back to driving it around again! Could it be that they actually filmed that one before 'Targets,' but wanted a buffer between the three-parter and the finale? That would explain how Hutch could be driving that car again, while in this one he clearly doesn't have a car because he has to borrow Dobey's. Otherwise, and this might have made more sense, it would have been a four-part end to the series, and edited together as one long, feature-length film, it might have made a more suitable, large-scale, and ambitious end to the series. Obviously the villains, Gunther and Bates, return, and when Hutch is babbling about his computer printout, he mentions the late Federal Judge McClellan, as well as Clayburn, so it was definitely tied squarely to the previous story.

The computer printout was the real stinger, as it seems to be suggesting that just feeding information into a computer will allow it to spit out the magic formula that will convict even the most powerful. I get that knowledge is power, but it's all too easy, and seemed just an excuse to get to a point where Hutch could go and arrest Gunther. I'm not saying there weren't any effective sequences: when Hutch kicks his way into Jenny Brown's office, or when he verbally tangles with lawyer Jonathan Wells, or foils the knife attack in the underground car park, and especially when he finally gets to Gunther's opulent office, grabbing his gun before he can shoot it off, and an excellent image of power brought low when Gunther's head is forced down to his desk - all these worked, it's just there isn't the gum holding together the bits between. If they'd bumped up Huggy's role so he was integral as Hutch's partner (he already had a kind of official approval from Dobey who tells him to go after Hutch), that might have been an improvement, but even then the situation was too serious to warrant jokes and light humour - it would have been out of place with Starsky lying in critical, but it might have given us something to enjoy. And though Dobey was in it more, he was mostly just moping about, staying close in case they lost Starsky, when you want to see him burst into action and bark orders, take charge instead of folding - I will say the shot of him sitting against the wall at the hospital made even him look somehow small and insignificant, the way he's shot and framed with so much space around him.

If the sets and familiar components of the series appear to be stripped away, so too are all the tropes and ticks the series relies on. There are no quirky eccentrics for S&H to do battle with, there are few pop culture references, and I really couldn't say if the episode showed a positive or negative view of the city, because it's not about the city, it's more about wrapping up, or even going through the motions one last time because an episode had to be done. Well, until the final scene, that is, which is almost worth watching the episode for, on its own. But there are a few references: Jenny Brown is described as the Mohammed Ali of the modelling world, according to Hug, and has appeared on the covers of Vogue and Cosmopolitan. And, almost as important a character as the main cast, Pinky (or Perky, I still haven't worked out which), is seen for one final time on the desk they're using for Ping-Pong. Dobey's food issues are inverted with the Captain refusing to eat, even when Huggy brings him a hamper full of tasty treats to try and pique his appetite, and of course the final scene is all about them having a sneaky feast in Starsky's hospital room. Apart from the missing ceiling in Dobey's office, I would also point to Bates' death as a bit of a continuity error: he drinks the poisoned coffee on the settee at one end of Gunther's office, but when Hutch arrives he's sat in an armchair at the other end! I can't see Gunther bodily lifting him over there, either, unless he got his butler, Thomas, to do it.

There are shockingly few returning actors, but we do get three. William Prince as Gunther, and Alexander Courtney as Bates are the obvious ones, reprising their roles from 'Targets,' of course, but we also have Stefanie Auerbach credited as 'Nurse,' which is interesting because she played the same role way back in Season 1's 'Texas Longhorn,' so I could suggest she's the same character. It's a shame we didn't get more, but to be honest, the other characters were mere ciphers, obstructions for Hutch to chase down and get in his way, and nothing else. It was a true anticlimax that the organisation appears to fall apart of its own accord, with only the printout linking Brown, Jonathan Wells, McClellan, and Clayburn to Gunther Industries, said to be the fourth largest holding company in the US. Hutch says that McClellan was on the board of directors of three Gunther owned companies, but I thought they already knew that from before? And that's it, so a mighty series ends. I could have wished that the freeze frame had finished on all four of them, instead of cutting Dobey out of the picture, but when you've followed the series from beginning to end you still can't help but be a little moved by this scene. The series was often dirty, grimy, messy, and it doesn't make me wish I'd lived in the Seventies, but it is a great place to visit and hang out with the lads for a while.

S&H were young when they started, and they definitely had aged, even though it was only four years, and perhaps they were reaching the end of their action hero time, but I'd have happily watched another season, even though I'd have to write another twenty-odd reviews. It's hard to believe that it's all done and dusted now, every episode reviewed in detail, and it's with a sense of accomplishment that I sign off on the series. But not before I put this season in its place: I think it's unquestionable that Season 2 was their strongest year, and Season 1 had a number of good episodes, while Season 3 was generally less fun and more serious. Season 4 went back to the Season 2 style, sometimes taking it too far (it wouldn't be fair not to mention 'Dandruff' again, and 'The Groupie'!), but also succeeding in some quality episodes ('The Avenger,' 'Starsky's Brother,' 'The Golden Angel,' 'Huggy Can't Go Home'), and I even found things to enjoy in even the worst examples of the season ('Starsky Vs. Hutch,' yes, 'The Groupie'), with a good mix of stories all round. I could have wished for more of the good ones, but it measures up fairly well to previous seasons, about in keeping with the ratio of good to middling stories. Nothing ever topped Season 2's double-whammy of 'Nightmare' and 'Starsky's Lady,' but then that's one reason why that season was the best. The important thing is that it's been a good journey across those ninety-three episodes, a good couple of guys to see doing things in freedom, standing up for good and dealing with the bad, and that's what you want to see, and that's what they did, and if they weren't always successful they made up for it with good humour and dedication. So here's to the four heavy dudes!

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