In this one, Joe and Malcolm are taken hostage by a criminal who killed a young cop in Joe's office.
This hostage crisis is just like all of the other ones that have been seen on countless other TV shows and has all of the same clichés - the ransom demand, the demand for a fueled up jet on the runway, the ultimatum that all of the demands must be met within an hour or a hostage will be killed every twenty minutes, the police chief saying he doesn't have enough time to get the money, and on and on and on. It's all out of the same playbook and it's all been seen an endless number of times before on other TV shows. We also have the usual cliché where one of the kidnapper's accomplices has a change of heart, as if we haven't seen that before.
Of course, you know neither Joe or Malcolm are going to be killed because without them there wouldn't be a show, so there's no suspense whatsoever.
The kidnapper (played by Rip Torn) isn't very interesting and in fact is really annoying, with his yelling and loud outbursts. He's also really dumb too and makes an inexplicable number of mistakes, like not checking the dish cloth, not taking the gun away from the kid, falling for the "I have to go to the bathroom" trick, and not keeping a close eye on his hostages. This has to be the dumbest kidnapper I've ever seen. He obviously didn't comb his hair either. That mop on his head is atrocious.
Ward Wood looks bored throughout. He can see what a bomb this is.
This is just another dull hostage crisis with all of the usual clichés, right down to the details of the kidnapper's demands. There's nothing new or interesting here, except for the ending, where we see the fate of Roarke, the kidnapper. What happens to him is certainly unique, but nothing else is.
Season six is off to a horrible start.
This hostage crisis is just like all of the other ones that have been seen on countless other TV shows and has all of the same clichés - the ransom demand, the demand for a fueled up jet on the runway, the ultimatum that all of the demands must be met within an hour or a hostage will be killed every twenty minutes, the police chief saying he doesn't have enough time to get the money, and on and on and on. It's all out of the same playbook and it's all been seen an endless number of times before on other TV shows. We also have the usual cliché where one of the kidnapper's accomplices has a change of heart, as if we haven't seen that before.
Of course, you know neither Joe or Malcolm are going to be killed because without them there wouldn't be a show, so there's no suspense whatsoever.
The kidnapper (played by Rip Torn) isn't very interesting and in fact is really annoying, with his yelling and loud outbursts. He's also really dumb too and makes an inexplicable number of mistakes, like not checking the dish cloth, not taking the gun away from the kid, falling for the "I have to go to the bathroom" trick, and not keeping a close eye on his hostages. This has to be the dumbest kidnapper I've ever seen. He obviously didn't comb his hair either. That mop on his head is atrocious.
Ward Wood looks bored throughout. He can see what a bomb this is.
This is just another dull hostage crisis with all of the usual clichés, right down to the details of the kidnapper's demands. There's nothing new or interesting here, except for the ending, where we see the fate of Roarke, the kidnapper. What happens to him is certainly unique, but nothing else is.
Season six is off to a horrible start.