I was nine when "The Avenger" episode aired in '78 and it wasn't until this Christmas, when I got the complete series on DVD, that I was able to see it again. Harry's raspy "You!" has haunted me for the last 40 years. Love this episode and the gritty handheld aesthetic it employs.
6 Reviews
No surprise
monomerd3 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
A jealous and crazy stalker (Harry) is killing all the guys that the object of his obsession (Monique) brings home for a tumble. After two such murders in her home, Dobey assigns Starsky to play a decoy lover, while Hutch digs a little deeper into the mystery that is Harry.
I don't remember if we were dumb enough in the 70s to have been surprised by the plot twist of this episode so that it would have been more dramatic. Maybe it was a more novel idea back then? I can't remember how obtuse I used to be, but watching now, I certainly knew by Minute 5 exactly what was going on with crazy Harry. So it loses a bit of drama when it takes Starsky and Hutch so very long to figure out what is right in front of their faces. However, they do play it straight and they do follow the leads and they come up with the right answer in the nick of time. So points for that.
I had to laugh right out loud at the kooky lab tech lady that Hutch calls for evidence analysis info: that character is with us even in today's shows! That made the episode seem much younger than it is. Well, it did, until Hutch starts playing with the plastic layover sheets to make composite sketches. He spends a whole lot of time doing that - a computer would have saved him a bunch of work.
This was one of the first episodes of Season 4 that I could watch and not get upset about. Mostly Starsky and Hutch seem like friends in this one, they do work together, and Hutch isn't played with such a surly attitude that he has in many Season 4 shows. I still do not like the competitiveness that someone (writers??? directors???) is pushing the characters into. The opening scene of playing pool against each other and being so darn serious about who wins in all wrong for their teamwork and friendship. Not that they can never compete, but Season 4 is doing it all the time - over games, women, work - you name it. I don't like that direction at all.
I really did not like Starsky playing the guitar and singing a song! Where did that come from?? That is Hutch's thing, and now they give it to Starsky?? No, that should not have happened. No wonder Hutch is getting surly!
Anyway, it's not a great episode and it's way too predictable, but I got enough satisfaction from it that it just may be saved from the flames after all. I had plans to burn Season 4 after viewing because I hate some of it so much. I may have to rethink. Maybe a disc or two can be saved.
I don't remember if we were dumb enough in the 70s to have been surprised by the plot twist of this episode so that it would have been more dramatic. Maybe it was a more novel idea back then? I can't remember how obtuse I used to be, but watching now, I certainly knew by Minute 5 exactly what was going on with crazy Harry. So it loses a bit of drama when it takes Starsky and Hutch so very long to figure out what is right in front of their faces. However, they do play it straight and they do follow the leads and they come up with the right answer in the nick of time. So points for that.
I had to laugh right out loud at the kooky lab tech lady that Hutch calls for evidence analysis info: that character is with us even in today's shows! That made the episode seem much younger than it is. Well, it did, until Hutch starts playing with the plastic layover sheets to make composite sketches. He spends a whole lot of time doing that - a computer would have saved him a bunch of work.
This was one of the first episodes of Season 4 that I could watch and not get upset about. Mostly Starsky and Hutch seem like friends in this one, they do work together, and Hutch isn't played with such a surly attitude that he has in many Season 4 shows. I still do not like the competitiveness that someone (writers??? directors???) is pushing the characters into. The opening scene of playing pool against each other and being so darn serious about who wins in all wrong for their teamwork and friendship. Not that they can never compete, but Season 4 is doing it all the time - over games, women, work - you name it. I don't like that direction at all.
I really did not like Starsky playing the guitar and singing a song! Where did that come from?? That is Hutch's thing, and now they give it to Starsky?? No, that should not have happened. No wonder Hutch is getting surly!
Anyway, it's not a great episode and it's way too predictable, but I got enough satisfaction from it that it just may be saved from the flames after all. I had plans to burn Season 4 after viewing because I hate some of it so much. I may have to rethink. Maybe a disc or two can be saved.
The most watchable episode in the series
praestans22 November 2017
This is the most watchable because the fair story is truly boosted by the acting skills of Soul, Glaser and especially Joanna Cassidy whose chilling and then warm performance lifts it to eery heights. For a change it's Starsky where we might expect Hutchinson. The direction is fair and involving though could've been tighter - that'd definitely have strengthened the story. The chief letdown is the poor editing: one scene ought not to be there in the beginning. I've been a fan since the eighties and re-appreciating the series...some episodes are forgettable...but the Avenger abides...
The Disco Ripper!
JasonDanielBaker27 February 2015
Detectives Ken Hutchinson (David Soul) and David Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) investigate a lethal case of stalking as a deranged killer follows Monique Travers (Joanna Cassidy) a foxy & sexually expressive single woman who likes to get down and boogie at discos picking up garish and vapid men.
The knife-wielding assailant murders each man she spends the night with, leaving her terrified and with unsightly stains on her funky carpet. Monique identifies him as Harry Ashford - a Harold Lloyd lookalike she met once in San Francisco who became fixated on her and followed her to Los Angeles. The overworked San Francisco police were only too happy to hear Harry left the Bay Area. They couldn't find a trace of him.
Hutchinson and Starsky dutifully follow through running down leads on Ashford with a composite sketch forwarded to them by SFPD. But Police Captain Dobie hits upon the idea that to flush out the killer one of them should get cozy with Monique. Surely such a volatile stalker/murderer could not resist emerging when provoked thusly.
Dobie assigns Starsky to that task much to the dismay of Hutchinson who is ordered to observe at a distance. Not really surprising given that Hutchinson is sporting a silk bowling shirt and a droopy porn star moustache. For perhaps the first episode in the series Starsky is the more dapper of the two and more believable as a love interest for beautiful, lonely, vulnerable Monique.
The ruse works perfectly except for a not wholly unexpected plot-twist. The victim has not told them everything about Harry and that puts Starsky in jeopardy. Long before then the mystery has been solved in front of the audience and our two cop heroes, Hutch especially, look like complete imbeciles because they haven't figured it out.
What better statement on the "Me Decade" than a psychopath with severe self-esteem issues? Who better to get to the bottom of such a crime than Detective Ken Hutchinson and his intrepid partner David Starsky other than perhaps the roadies for KC & the Sunshine Band? The main cast and guest performers of Starsky & Hutch consistently gave it their best to endow it with more substance than it had. It is something I happen to appreciate as the attempt at trying to bridge the limitations of the formula and recycled material DID result in entertaining TV quite often.
This episode is a prime example of something that could have been a complete embarrassment for everyone involved. Instead because of a lot of hard work the result is a fun guilty pleasure tour de force.
The knife-wielding assailant murders each man she spends the night with, leaving her terrified and with unsightly stains on her funky carpet. Monique identifies him as Harry Ashford - a Harold Lloyd lookalike she met once in San Francisco who became fixated on her and followed her to Los Angeles. The overworked San Francisco police were only too happy to hear Harry left the Bay Area. They couldn't find a trace of him.
Hutchinson and Starsky dutifully follow through running down leads on Ashford with a composite sketch forwarded to them by SFPD. But Police Captain Dobie hits upon the idea that to flush out the killer one of them should get cozy with Monique. Surely such a volatile stalker/murderer could not resist emerging when provoked thusly.
Dobie assigns Starsky to that task much to the dismay of Hutchinson who is ordered to observe at a distance. Not really surprising given that Hutchinson is sporting a silk bowling shirt and a droopy porn star moustache. For perhaps the first episode in the series Starsky is the more dapper of the two and more believable as a love interest for beautiful, lonely, vulnerable Monique.
The ruse works perfectly except for a not wholly unexpected plot-twist. The victim has not told them everything about Harry and that puts Starsky in jeopardy. Long before then the mystery has been solved in front of the audience and our two cop heroes, Hutch especially, look like complete imbeciles because they haven't figured it out.
What better statement on the "Me Decade" than a psychopath with severe self-esteem issues? Who better to get to the bottom of such a crime than Detective Ken Hutchinson and his intrepid partner David Starsky other than perhaps the roadies for KC & the Sunshine Band? The main cast and guest performers of Starsky & Hutch consistently gave it their best to endow it with more substance than it had. It is something I happen to appreciate as the attempt at trying to bridge the limitations of the formula and recycled material DID result in entertaining TV quite often.
This episode is a prime example of something that could have been a complete embarrassment for everyone involved. Instead because of a lot of hard work the result is a fun guilty pleasure tour de force.
you
petjack-4810429 August 2021
S&h
thirumavijayane10 August 2021
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