I know there is a message to this episode that I was supposed to get, but I just wasn't able to tell what it was.
A (naturally beautiful and female) reporter gets a ride-along with Starsky and Hutch to do an article on the "new breed" of cop. Of course, the guys have to fall all over themselves getting her attention and outdoing each other. I get really tired of that scenario coming up again and again. These guys had natural charm coming out of their ears! Why do these writers think it's funny to make them try so hard? Must they go after every available woman who crosses their path? (To be fair, it's still happening in TV these forty years later - think the Tony DiNozzo character from NCIS). It doesn't last long, however, because when she writes a negative article about them, they turn on her (and off her) immediately. The rest of the episode is showing her what kind of real cops they are. First she believes they aren't tough enough, then she thinks they are too tough, and finally she realizes that they are just right. Goldilocks has learned a valuable lesson.
I myself sort of missed it. Starsky has the pivotal line, asking how they should judge how much violence they, as cops, should use to stop the violence of the bad guys. To me, this is telling us to differentiating types of violence and understand necessary compared to evil. It seems like a strange question for PMG's character to come up with, because he was apparently the person most concerned with the violent tone of show. There is something here we were supposed to think about, but maybe we've figured out in the intervening years and have moved on to other burning questions.
A (naturally beautiful and female) reporter gets a ride-along with Starsky and Hutch to do an article on the "new breed" of cop. Of course, the guys have to fall all over themselves getting her attention and outdoing each other. I get really tired of that scenario coming up again and again. These guys had natural charm coming out of their ears! Why do these writers think it's funny to make them try so hard? Must they go after every available woman who crosses their path? (To be fair, it's still happening in TV these forty years later - think the Tony DiNozzo character from NCIS). It doesn't last long, however, because when she writes a negative article about them, they turn on her (and off her) immediately. The rest of the episode is showing her what kind of real cops they are. First she believes they aren't tough enough, then she thinks they are too tough, and finally she realizes that they are just right. Goldilocks has learned a valuable lesson.
I myself sort of missed it. Starsky has the pivotal line, asking how they should judge how much violence they, as cops, should use to stop the violence of the bad guys. To me, this is telling us to differentiating types of violence and understand necessary compared to evil. It seems like a strange question for PMG's character to come up with, because he was apparently the person most concerned with the violent tone of show. There is something here we were supposed to think about, but maybe we've figured out in the intervening years and have moved on to other burning questions.
