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In 1984, "Hunter" got off to an explosive start, with producer Stephen J. Cannell and creator Frank Lupo taking the Dirty Harry concept way over the top. Fred Dryer starred as Rick Hunter, a Los Angeles cop hated by his superiors both for his shoot-first-ask-questions-later methods and for his family ties to the mob. Stepfanie Kramer played Dee Dee McCall, the only other cop on the force with an equally aggressive approach; she also had a flair for disguise which was often helpful. Together, they took down every form of sleaze under the California sun: psychos, drug-dealers, pimps, corrupt politicians, often in a hailstorm of bullets punctuated by car crashes and explosions; and they made no apologies, because they knew that there was no other way to have justice in a scummy world. With the outstanding production values typical to Cannell shows, and with Dryer and Kramer's considerable chemistry, the results were white-hot.
Unfortunately, after the show was renewed for a second season, Cannell found himself juggling too many shows at once, and brought in his mentor, veteran producer Roy Huggins, to take over the reins. The results were depressing: out went the sleaze, out went Hunter's mob ties, out went the fights with the superiors, out went most of the action. Instead, we got the usual boring upscale L.A. locations, we got slower, "socially relevant" stories, and Hunter and McCall suddenly had vulnerabilities. That last change was especially annoying to me, because the unstoppable dealer (in this case, dealers) of justice is a true icon which Cannell, with his love for classic hard-boiled detective fiction, understood perfectly.
The series went on to run for a total of eight years, but it was never again as good as when it started. For a brief, bright moment, it was the closest thing to TRUE pulp fiction seen in American live action entertainment from the second half of the 20th century.
score /10
phoenix2rachelsummers 21 February 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1025449/ |
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1-11-2020 11:59:13