User Reviews

Starsky does a lot of smooching in this episode, No, not with Hutch. With his new girlfriend he met while jogging in the park. They smooch here, they smooch there, they smooch everywhere. It gets to be too much and gets annoying. But the other scenes are very good. This is a well-written and well-acted episode by everyone.

On a lighter note, one of my favorite moments is when Hutch buys a piece of candy from the candy machine at the police station and the captain grabs it out of his hand and walks away. That's cruel. But very funny.

I'm part-way through the third season, and this is not looking good. Gone is the pace replaced with the pathos; the car's used for smooching not chasing. The impact and excitement of the first series is completely absent in this drippy, maudlin soap opera. The plodding, formulaic dialog is delivered without conviction or effort. This is hugely disappointing as the show once relied upon edgy, intelligent story lines and well-rounded characters. It would be fascinating to know who or what sent the show into such a mind-numbing spiral of forgettable dross. If this episode sets the tone for the rest of series 3, I'm amazed they managed to pull off a 4th.

It certainly isn't the Starsky & Hutch of the previous seasons. Already, in the episode before this one, the case of the week seemed be worked in around the story of Hutch and his bunny-boiler, one-night-stand nurse. That was bad enough. In this episode, it's hard to even notice a criminal case. People talk about it, but we don't see much in the way of investigating, solving and putting villains away.

Anyway, the combined law enforcement agencies of the United States have apparently decided to let the resolution of this extremely important phantom case rest solely on Starsky's excruciatingly boring relationship with the boring daughter of a boring wrongdoer.

This means that not only do we have to once again put up with Starsky's caveman method of coming on to women - which should have already earned him at least half a dozen restraining orders and/or dismissals from the police by now - but that we also then endure one of the most cringeworthy, what's-the-point romances seen outside of Hallmark Channel. There's virtually no room for anything else. The reason I don't remember the details of the criminal case in question is because the case is hardly even there.

While I was simultaneously trying to stay awake and avoid retching as I watched this episode, a wispy notion drifted into my head that the writers cared less about depicting police work and more about creating their own TV-detective-show version of "Love Story." Maybe, living in the 70's, they hadn't yet realised that "Love Story" should never have been written in the first place, let alone published, let alone made into a film. (No offence intended. Well...)

In case I haven't made it clear, I don't like this episode.

And I don't like "Love Story."

But I like "Love Story" even less than I like this episode.