In one of my previous reviews, I had observed that Earl Bellamy was perhaps the best director of the Starsky and Hutch series. I think I now have to change my mind and give the title to Don Weis. It's a close call, but I think Weis' average rating score for his episodes (per me) is going to exceed Bellamy's average, and Bellamy had a couple of missteps which Weis seemed to avoid. Weis ekes out the gold.
This episode is another strong effort directed by Weis. After Starsky and Hutch see a well-respected superior officer with a known gangster boss, they don't know what think. It does not seem feasible that this police captain, with his stellar reputation, should be on the take, but they can't think of many other reasons to explain what they saw. Although they try to give the cop the benefit of the doubt, their suspicions continue to heighten when he asks Dobey to assign them to his unit. Starsky and Hutch end up in some tight and tense situations that smell like set-ups to get rid of them. Does the captain know what they have seen, and what they suspect?
We are just as clueless as Starsky and Hutch in this episode, and we are going along with them as they try to figure out what is really going on. In the end, they face a moral dilemma and make the opposite choice made by their superior. But the ending is rather ambiguous, and Starsky and Hutch are faced with the realization that maybe there was no clear-cut, right-or-wrong answer for this one.
I thought this was nicely written and nicely put together. It wasn't clear to me that the gangster was getting much for all he was giving up, so I couldn't quite get his motivation, but the rest of the story held together pretty well. The comparison was made between what the captain was doing for the gangster as being very much the same as what Starsky and Hutch did for their snitches and low-level crooks in order to get information, but curiously, that point does not get as much attention as might have been expected.
I would like to know who choreographed the opening sequence when Starsky and Hutch are spying on the captain behind the kitchen door, during his meeting with the crook in the restaurant. That sequence was surely put together for a reason, and I hope the reason was a good one, and not a gimmick. It's an effective scene in my eyes and should not be taken lightly. It's another example to me of things that only PMG and DS could do and make work, and for which they should get enormous credit. I hope that was the point. That's all I have to say.
This episode is another strong effort directed by Weis. After Starsky and Hutch see a well-respected superior officer with a known gangster boss, they don't know what think. It does not seem feasible that this police captain, with his stellar reputation, should be on the take, but they can't think of many other reasons to explain what they saw. Although they try to give the cop the benefit of the doubt, their suspicions continue to heighten when he asks Dobey to assign them to his unit. Starsky and Hutch end up in some tight and tense situations that smell like set-ups to get rid of them. Does the captain know what they have seen, and what they suspect?
We are just as clueless as Starsky and Hutch in this episode, and we are going along with them as they try to figure out what is really going on. In the end, they face a moral dilemma and make the opposite choice made by their superior. But the ending is rather ambiguous, and Starsky and Hutch are faced with the realization that maybe there was no clear-cut, right-or-wrong answer for this one.
I thought this was nicely written and nicely put together. It wasn't clear to me that the gangster was getting much for all he was giving up, so I couldn't quite get his motivation, but the rest of the story held together pretty well. The comparison was made between what the captain was doing for the gangster as being very much the same as what Starsky and Hutch did for their snitches and low-level crooks in order to get information, but curiously, that point does not get as much attention as might have been expected.
I would like to know who choreographed the opening sequence when Starsky and Hutch are spying on the captain behind the kitchen door, during his meeting with the crook in the restaurant. That sequence was surely put together for a reason, and I hope the reason was a good one, and not a gimmick. It's an effective scene in my eyes and should not be taken lightly. It's another example to me of things that only PMG and DS could do and make work, and for which they should get enormous credit. I hope that was the point. That's all I have to say.
