Review of B2: Night Of The Dragon

B2 Night Of The Dragon B-

MIXED BAG. Early in the second season and "Hunter" seems to be all over the place. At least with this episode. Some elements are good (the political stuff, and the stuff with the rival cop and his reasons for doing what he is doing) and some are bad (the coincidence factor, and the handling of the McCall character) and some are over the top (the gun battles), so - in theory - every viewer will come away with something to like.

The episode opens with McCall and Hunter out for dinner (much is made of the fact that this is the consequences of a lost bet, which is a shame, shouldn't these two friends just be able to go out to dinner. Full stop?). They witness a shooting. As a rule, I dislike the cop show cliche of the hero being there when the crime happens, but in this instance it's pretty much the point of the entire episode so - truthfully - it didn't bug me once the episode got going.

Anyway, the cop who arrives to investigate the case turns out to be an old buddy of Rick's. The two show great warmth and delight upon meeting and, indeed, seem very cordial on pretty much every meeting that follows. Which is great, because the other cop keeps complaining to the Deputy Chief about Hunter butting in and the scenes where Hunter questions him about this ring very true. There's no great tension between the guys, just a slight edge to what comes across as a genuine friendship. When the viewer is shown scenes of the other cop in conversation with The Baddie, it serves to make things more and more interesting.

Anyway, the plot gets reasonably elaborate, and we find that we are dealing with two warring factions in Chinatown. At this stage the episode has left the "real world" of TV cop shows and wandered squarely in the realm of the "TV world". But it all seems fine.

So far.

The episode lost me in its final quarter.

A pitch battle is taking place in the street outside a restaurant. Hunter and McCall up against a mini-army. Luckily, for a busy city, there are no other people around. Then, for reason that I can fathom, Dee Dee McCall ups and runs across the street (through the hale of gunfire) whereupon she is then clobbered by An Evil Henchman and carried off in a manner that is quite amusing. He even carried her off into a secret tunnel!!

McCall had been quite passive throughout the episode. Rick was leading the way on this one. She was just doing as she was told, as much as we could figure. Then, BAM, she's snatched away to be a hostage. Sigh. McCall deserves better.

The episode then becomes totally hilarious as Rick wanders the tunnels with A Very Big Gun Indeed blowing apart Henchmen with that clenched-squint-thing he's got going.

By episodes end, all is well, and the tag scene is perfectly played by all concerned and very funny, but by that stage I couldn't care anymore.

06-11-04