Saturday, August 1st, 2009
09.30 Kolchak: The Night Stalker
11.30 Son Of The Beach
01.00 Sledge Hammer
Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Episode 10. "The Energy Eater" New hospital. Old monster.
Despite a contrived, and weak, ending this is a superb episode.
The Logic. Carl sinks his teeth into the story long before there is a hint of anything supernatural at work. He spots a cover-up and goes after it. The scenes at the start, showing Carl bored (but observant) at the press conference, are wonderful.
The Authority Figure/Conspiracy. When the story gets underway Carl thinks he is dealing with a building that is about to fall down and - with that as his fuel - he butts heads with the three guys who run the hospital on more than one occasion. Great casting here gives us three very exact types. They are 'bland' in the perfect way that makes them idea as Kolchak foes. And they get a lot of (great) screen time, too. In this respect, this is the closest the show has come to recovering the feeling of the first two pilots.
The Comedy. The comedy highlight comes when Carl poses as 'Dr. Kolchak' and sneaks into one of the early meetings. Darren McGavin is a treat to watch as Carl does his very best to fit in, and fails on more than one ossasion. The line that ends it all is wonderful: "I'm not fussy, I'll take the feet."
The Ally. Carl never works closely with anyone for the duration of the episode so (the superb) William Smith holds a special place in Kolchak history as he appears in many scenes and works closely with the intrepid report for about half the story. Jim Elkhorn is a well-written character, too. A ladies man with a sense of humour and a healthy skeptism about what they are fighting. Then there's Nurse Janis Eisen, another character who works with Carl for several scenes. Is that really her dead body we glimse towards the end of the story?
The Scare Factor. The invisible monster is a good route for Kolchak to take, when you consider budget constraints. The moment where we 'see' the creature, through the X-Rays, is genuinely scary and works to prefection. Sadly the ending, where Carl goes down alone into the empty basement corridors is completely without terror, or interest. At that point, the story is over and the audience knows it. The hospital people have listened to Carl and are doing their thing to defeat the creature. That's enough. Sending Carl down, at that stage, is nothing but false jeopardy. And it makes very little sense, too. Sure he wants the story. But, he's had lots of chances to get a story. What does he expect to see this time that is different? It makes no sense. And it's a damp squib of an ending.
Son Of The Beach. Episode 4. "Silence of the Clams" An eco-terrorist targets Malibu Adjacent.
Not hilarious, but very clever and very amusing. Several tropes get the Son Of The Beach treatment. The eco-terrorist, the hot girl hidden behind a pair of glasses, the girl about to give up her virginity to the wrong guy, and many other standard situations of movies/tv are touched on and lampooned. Any one gag, on it's own, isn't overly impressive, but the sheer number of targets in impressive and enjoyable.
And there are several moments when you are thinking: I can't believe they got away with doing this. The extending vomitting scene in a prime example. I can't believe they got away with doing that.
Sledge Hammer. Episode 7. "All Shook Up" The Elvis episode.
One of the very best episodes. A classic. Someone is murdering Elvis impersonators and Sledge goes undercover. All the best elements of Sledge Hammer are on display here:
1. References to other TV shows. This episode refers to lead-in Mr. Belvedere and acknowledges that it's Friday Night competition was Dallas and Miami Vice. They even admit that this is a bad timeslot to get.
2. An oddball crime. SH is at it's best, I feel, when the crimes are a bit 'out there'. And you don't get more oddball than this.
3. Sledge and Dori make a great team. Alan Spencer knows how to make Dori smarter than Sledge without making Sledge seem totally stupid. Sure, he often misses things, but this more to do with his skewed worldview than anything else.
4. There's an action finale. I love the episodes that end with chase or a shoot-out and use the (wonderful) Sledge Hammer theme music for the score. It may be a comedy show, but Sledge and Dori are two pretty cool cops.
5. This is one of the episodes where Anne-Marie Martin looks utterly fantastic. Sure, she looks great in the other 40 episodes, too, but I really wanted to remark on it here.
Highlight? Kolchak (superb)
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