Starsky & Hutch: The Complete Second Season proves the 1970s ABC
series, in its sophomore year, both codified its earliest strengths
while continuing to evolve into a sharper, wittier, and often darker
show. Contributing to those improvements were the stars themselves:
David Soul (who plays maverick police detective, intellectual, and
health nut Ken Hutchinson) and Paul Michael Glaser (as Hutch's more
impulsive, junk-food-junkie partner Dave Starsky), each of whom
directed exemplary episodes in season 2. Series creators also struck
a more entertaining balance between the comic and dramatic
possibilities inherent in Starsky and Hutch's bluntly honest,
fraternal relationship. A number of stories placed the guys in
intentionally funny undercover situations: as garish gamblers in the
two-part opener "The Las Vegas Strangler;" entertainment directors
(named Hack and Zack) on a luxury cruise ship in "Murder at Sea;"
gigolo-like dance aficionados in the playfully-titled "Tap Dancing
Her Way Right Back into Your Hearts;" and, most amusingly, stunt men
in "Murder on Stage 17."
Those are all good shows, and the duo often bicker within them,
to great comic effect, like an old married couple. (Soul and
Glaser's commitment to their schtick as well as their more
emotionally raw collaborations is truly admirable.) But it's the
relentlessly tougher episodes that prove each character's mettle and
demonstrates the depth of Starsky and Hutch's mutual trust. Among
these is the powerful "Gillian," in which Starsky discovers Hutch's
classy new girlfriend is a prostitute and breaks the news to his
shattered friend. Somewhat lighter but just as revealing is "Little
Girl Lost," starring a young Kristy McNichol as an orphaned street
urchin whom Hutch, lately in a misanthropic, anti-Christmas mood,
takes into his home. Glaser's directorial debut, the harrowing
"Bloodbath," gives Soul a lot of room for an intensely physical and
psychological performance as Hutch scurries to find his kidnapped
partner. Soul returns the favor with "Survival," in which Starsky
desperately seeks his missing pal, trapped and slowly dying beneath
a car wreck. All in all, a very good season, with (of course)
Antonio Fargas still sharp as sidekick Huggy Bear. --Tom Keogh
