When Starsky is kidnapped by a Manson-like guru's followers, Hutch must solve obscure clues to find Starsky before he is killed in a ceremonial sacrifice. It sounds scary, and it mostly is.
A plot like this could go comic pretty easily, especially forty years after it was made. I think it was sufficiently dramatic and acted so that it didn't. I was still bothered by the brainwashed cult followers; they seemed pretty menacing and capable of nasty things. They were much scarier than the Satanists who show up in Season 3. Big contrast in the success of this episode compared to that one.
Most of Starsky and Hutch's scenes are separate because PMG is directing. DS gets most of the scenes, and does a good job keeping Hutch frustrated and anxious as he tries to follow thin leads to find his partner. Hutch is in never-give-up mode; lucky for Starsky. Meanwhile, Starsky tries to diffuse his captors with challenges and sarcasm, which seems like just the thing for Starsky to do. So I'm buying it.
The final scene of the cult followers preparing to beat a bound Starsky to death is frightening when you see the tools they plan to use, but the one guy chanting "Semen" instead of "See-moan" (as noted in the goofs section) somewhat messes with the drama. How did no one notice that? The final fight scene is pretty nice, with Starsky managing to elude the butcher knife and trip up an assailant going after Hutch, while Hutch handles the rest of the bad guys.
I have to suspect that the final line that DS gives PMG after Hutch saves Starsky was not the actual line. Starsky has been dressed in a long, black robe and Hutch says something like "that's a nice nightgown you got there". If you watch PMG to end of the scene, he starts cracking up, so I don't think that was the expected line. It's nice to notice when they are having some fun.
I have no explanation for the bear.
A plot like this could go comic pretty easily, especially forty years after it was made. I think it was sufficiently dramatic and acted so that it didn't. I was still bothered by the brainwashed cult followers; they seemed pretty menacing and capable of nasty things. They were much scarier than the Satanists who show up in Season 3. Big contrast in the success of this episode compared to that one.
Most of Starsky and Hutch's scenes are separate because PMG is directing. DS gets most of the scenes, and does a good job keeping Hutch frustrated and anxious as he tries to follow thin leads to find his partner. Hutch is in never-give-up mode; lucky for Starsky. Meanwhile, Starsky tries to diffuse his captors with challenges and sarcasm, which seems like just the thing for Starsky to do. So I'm buying it.
The final scene of the cult followers preparing to beat a bound Starsky to death is frightening when you see the tools they plan to use, but the one guy chanting "Semen" instead of "See-moan" (as noted in the goofs section) somewhat messes with the drama. How did no one notice that? The final fight scene is pretty nice, with Starsky managing to elude the butcher knife and trip up an assailant going after Hutch, while Hutch handles the rest of the bad guys.
I have to suspect that the final line that DS gives PMG after Hutch saves Starsky was not the actual line. Starsky has been dressed in a long, black robe and Hutch says something like "that's a nice nightgown you got there". If you watch PMG to end of the scene, he starts cracking up, so I don't think that was the expected line. It's nice to notice when they are having some fun.
I have no explanation for the bear.
