Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
08.00 The Incredible Hulk
The Incredible Hulk. Episode 6. "Terror In Times Square" Protection Racket in Times Square.
The first really good episode since the pilot. Several of the elements that make the show so good are on display here:
Nice People In Trouble. Jack Kruschen (one of TV's most familiar faces) is perfectly cast as the kindly old businessman that finds himself coming up against a protection racket in his area. Kruschen makes his character lovable and real. And we care that he's in trouble.
The Story Is Realistic. This is a much better story than the previous two: murders in the world of fashion and bad guys using animals to smuggle diamonds aren't realistic enough for a show like The Incredible Hulk. They just don't work. This does. Despite the huge fantasty element of a large green creature running around saving people, this is a show with a serious tone. Local gangsters are a much more realistic threat. And stories like this help keep the show grounded in reality. In this way, the (eventual) arrival of The Hulk is all the more spectacular. The very best episodes of The Incredible Hulk are the ones that don't look like a super-hero show for the first twenty minutes. If you started watching after the credits, and had never seen it before, you would think you were watching a drama about a drifter. That's when the show works best.
The Bad Guy. Robert Alda makes a great bad guy. Very charming. And the script (by William A. Schwartz) makes him interesting and rounded. This is much more enjoyable than the one-dimentional characters of prevous episodes.
The Good-Bye Is Heartbreaking. Pamela Susan Shoop is wonderful here. So beautiful and honest-to-goodness nice. Her character is peripheral to the story, sure, but Shoop makes a great impact nonetheless and her character's bond with David (the ever-wonderful Bill Bixby) is easy to see. Their good-bye is the first really superb one of the series. You really feel that you are watching two friends say farewell. For ever.
The Hulk Scenes Are Special. This footage is the Hulk running through Times Square is stunning and is among the most iconic imagery of the entire series. Lou Ferrigno is so impressive as he pounds his way around some of the most famous scenery in the world. If you first saw that as a kid, like I did, you will never forget it. Never.
Jack McGee. McGee gets three scenes here and one of them is a great character scene, very much in keeping with who the character is. His motives are realtively pure. He thinks he is tracking a killer.
We Can Live Vicariously Through The Hulk. Another cornerstone of what makes this show so special: we get to see The Hulk do what we want to do. In this episode, the Hulk breaks out of a taxi trapped in traffic. Who hasn't wanted to do that? Smash the door right off, say "to hell with this" and run off on foot. Grrr. Fantastic.
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The Incredible Hulk
