Starsky and Hutch (TV Series) Nightmare (1976) User Reviews

Memorable episode..

[jazzfi · 8/10 · 21 March 2015]

What a tragic episode, although it is actually one of the better and less silly of the S&H episodes as it presents many issues, although with a satisfying ending.. A sweet little mentally challenged girl (marvelously played by Diana Scarwid)is sexually assaulted by a low life thug (with his partner as lookout) in a vacant bus as she is on her way to the library. Innocent and trusting as most of these precious children are, she is conned into boarding the wrong bus. Our detective heroes (and Captain Dolby)are also friends of her family and are determined to put these two thugs behind bars, just as the DA appointed lawyer is just as determined to keep them free. The little girl wonders if she was attacked for being pretty, and sweetly asks Hutch to beat them and beat them when he finds them, to which Hutch explains that, although he would like to, he is a policeman. But no one wants to bail out these two degenerates and they are forced to seek the services of a tough loan shark named Al Martin (well played by Carl Weathers). But with S&H on their trail, they are unable to raise the money to payback their benefactor, so he beats the rapist to a pulp and the perp tells the hospital that it was S&H that did it, in order to get them off his back.(This is somewhat of a twist off a similar situation from the movie,"Dirty Harry." Also, this scene is coincidentally an answer (or prophecy)to little Lisa's earlier request of seeing her attacker get beaten, so there is some closure here for the audience.) In the end the two thugs eventually get the book thrown at them, and the heartless attorney representing them also gets his comeuppance for this and evidently other breaches.

Sweet justice

[monomerd · 6/10 · 1 September 2016]

This is not a bad episode, but it only has two notes to it. 1. There is a whole lot of nurturing going on. 2. The system is stacked against the victim and favors the criminal. Starsky and Hutch spend their time nurturing the victim and fighting the system to get her justice. Naturally, my teen-aged self remembered the nurturing parts; scenes from this episode have stayed with me for forty years.

I remembered well the girl being lured onto the empty bus and assaulted and raped. I remembered her cutting her hair because she did not want to be pretty. I remembered Starsky tackling her attacker on the stairs while Hutch protected and comforted her. I am sure that because I was a teen-aged girl, these scenes made a lasting impression on me. I do not remember so well the underlying story of Starsky and Hutch struggling with the system to get justice for their young friend.

I don't know why this scenario of criminals getting off for their crimes was so prevalent in 70s TV. Was it really that bad? PMG and DS play their parts well, being strong and determined against the system and the criminals yet kind and tender with the girl. Starsky and Hutch finally succeed in getting justice done, but because it's just those two notes, it's not complex or interesting enough. Even though I remember it well, I now find it to be one of the weaker episodes of Season 1 & 2.

Discrimination

[Paulldavidson · 4/10 · 9 July 2022]

A menally challenged girl is raped and the culprits get off and starsky and hutch have a battle on their hands to prove she is the innocent party but the girl i discriminated by the system because she's got mental problems other's ie ASD also find themselves discriminated and the thing being We have feelings too and those feelings can be hurt.