As the very first episode of the series, this story seemed a little off. In the context of our day, planning to place a car bomb in a government building to draw attention to an injustice is not a slight matter. I guess there was supposed to be some humor and incredulity in a couple of innocent and harmless-looking old folks who come up with such a plan.
Starsky and Hutch tap their sources for information and try to track down the car thieves who drove off with the bomb unknowingly. They ultimately succeed with moments to spare.
There is nothing that stands out very much in this episode. Already I notice that not much care is taken to hide the stuntmen from our view; they are easy to spot and the production team doesn't seem to care. Did televisions in the 70s really give such bad resolution that we didn't notice it as much? It's very distracting now to watch the older shows on DVD and see the stuntmen in every fight scene and the cuts in scenes between the stuntmen and the actors. This show seems especially prone to it.
There are some story points that don't quite track. Why did the bad guys puncture Starsky's car tires if they were planning to hang around and ambush and shoot Starsky and Hutch anyway? After Starsky drives away with the car bomb, Hutch hangs around in the parking garage to catch the thieves, but what makes him think they are coming out any time soon? They haven't been in there very long and he doesn't really know why they are there. Then the bad guy seems to be waiting to kill Starsky as he comes back with the motorcycle cop, but he has no way of knowing they are even coming. I guess these kinds of things only come to most people's attention if they are looking specifically, or if they are viewing it multiple times.
All in all, it was an OK start, but didn't really reveal the promise of the pilot or the depth of things to come.
Starsky and Hutch tap their sources for information and try to track down the car thieves who drove off with the bomb unknowingly. They ultimately succeed with moments to spare.
There is nothing that stands out very much in this episode. Already I notice that not much care is taken to hide the stuntmen from our view; they are easy to spot and the production team doesn't seem to care. Did televisions in the 70s really give such bad resolution that we didn't notice it as much? It's very distracting now to watch the older shows on DVD and see the stuntmen in every fight scene and the cuts in scenes between the stuntmen and the actors. This show seems especially prone to it.
There are some story points that don't quite track. Why did the bad guys puncture Starsky's car tires if they were planning to hang around and ambush and shoot Starsky and Hutch anyway? After Starsky drives away with the car bomb, Hutch hangs around in the parking garage to catch the thieves, but what makes him think they are coming out any time soon? They haven't been in there very long and he doesn't really know why they are there. Then the bad guy seems to be waiting to kill Starsky as he comes back with the motorcycle cop, but he has no way of knowing they are even coming. I guess these kinds of things only come to most people's attention if they are looking specifically, or if they are viewing it multiple times.
All in all, it was an OK start, but didn't really reveal the promise of the pilot or the depth of things to come.
