Earl Bellamy is officially my favorite Starsky and Hutch director (along with Don Weis). He did not direct any of my favorite episodes, but he never gave us junk and turned out solid shows. This three-part show near the end of the series was done very well and I wish it had been the series finale. I really dislike the last two episodes after this one, so I'm going to pretend that they don't exist and just remember this one as the fond farewell.
The plot of this three-part show started with drugs and a dead informant, and then morphed into blackmail and fraud. The only thing connecting it all was the identity of the head criminal, and even that expands into something totally new. If you were to try to dissect it, I'm sure there are a lot of holes and unanswered questions. But I don't care, because PMG and DS got to play their strong, smart characters throughout the show and had a lot to do and a lot of good dialog with each other. That's how I like to see them work. There were some slow spots, but otherwise it was complex and smart, especially in Part 3. These are the guys I know and want to watch.
It was difficult to see the characters of Starsky and Hutch not being cops; it felt a little better when they got their guns back, but I wanted them to have their authority as well. At one point, though, I thought it would have been very interesting if they had not gone back to being cops and the show had continued with them as private investigators; that could have been really awesome. That's really the only alternative to being cops that I could ever imagine them doing.
I liked the dramatic showdown with the bad guys and saving the girl, even though it didn't make any sense. The bad guys wanted them both dead, so they probably weren't going to bother exchanging the girl for just one of them. But it was a nice scene anyway, and PMG and DS played it with good intensity.
I think this would have made a really great finale. It had a lot of little things in it that would have given a nod to their roots. It had some funny car issues that gave us some satire on the red tomato. They quit their jobs because of being disgruntled with the system, but in the end, after cracking the case on their own, they are restored with honor. It would have been a perfect ending.
The plot of this three-part show started with drugs and a dead informant, and then morphed into blackmail and fraud. The only thing connecting it all was the identity of the head criminal, and even that expands into something totally new. If you were to try to dissect it, I'm sure there are a lot of holes and unanswered questions. But I don't care, because PMG and DS got to play their strong, smart characters throughout the show and had a lot to do and a lot of good dialog with each other. That's how I like to see them work. There were some slow spots, but otherwise it was complex and smart, especially in Part 3. These are the guys I know and want to watch.
It was difficult to see the characters of Starsky and Hutch not being cops; it felt a little better when they got their guns back, but I wanted them to have their authority as well. At one point, though, I thought it would have been very interesting if they had not gone back to being cops and the show had continued with them as private investigators; that could have been really awesome. That's really the only alternative to being cops that I could ever imagine them doing.
I liked the dramatic showdown with the bad guys and saving the girl, even though it didn't make any sense. The bad guys wanted them both dead, so they probably weren't going to bother exchanging the girl for just one of them. But it was a nice scene anyway, and PMG and DS played it with good intensity.
I think this would have made a really great finale. It had a lot of little things in it that would have given a nod to their roots. It had some funny car issues that gave us some satire on the red tomato. They quit their jobs because of being disgruntled with the system, but in the end, after cracking the case on their own, they are restored with honor. It would have been a perfect ending.
