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Spenser: For Hire - Promised Land
episode 1.1
USA 1985
produced by Dick Gallegly, John Wilder (executive) for John Wilder Productions, Warner Brothers/ABC
directed by Lee H. Katzin
starring Robert Urich, Barbara Stock, Avery Brooks, Geoffrey Lewis, Donna Mitchell, Ron McLarty, Ruth Britt, Richard Jaeckel, Chuck Connors, Dorothy Gallagher, Wendy Marlowe, Peter Kovner, John Bedford Lloyd, Venus Irving-Prescott, Will Le Bow, Bill L. McDonald, Forest Hamilton, Ron Brice, Joe Torrenueva, Victoria Howard, William Winn, Richard Grusin
screenplay by John Wilder, based on the novel Promised Land by Robert B. Parker, music by Steve Dorff, Larry Herbstritt
TV series Spenser, Spenser: For Hire
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Tough-as-nails ex-cop turned private eye Spenser (Robert Urich) has
been hired by land developer Harry Patterson (Geoffrey Lewis) to find his
wife Pamela (Donna Mitchell) - and he finds her alright, living with two
other women (Ruth Britt, Dorothy Gallagher), who have made her their
getaway driver in a robbery that cost a cop his life - the last detail
Spenser learns only later though. He finds out something about Patterson
though: As he arrives at his place, Hawk (Avery Brooks) just leaves who
happens to be the enforcer of crime kingpin King Powers (Chuck Connors) -
so that must mean Patterson owes Powers money. For some reason, and no
doubt the influence of his girlfriend Susan (Barbara Stock) has to do with
it, Spenser is determined to solve Patterson's money problems for him and
bring him back together with his wife. And somehow he manages to do so by
luring Pamela's two friends as well as King Powers' men into a trap - but
he gives Hawk, who's actually an old friend of his, a tip-off so he can
escape. Powers somehow managed to escape as well, and now brings Hawk as
his muscle to have his revenge on Spenser - but Hawk has switched
allegiances, and watches with a big smile as Spenser beats the shit out of
Powers ... As 1980 crime shows go, this one's ok, as it's well
paced, hardly ever lets the tension drop, and has a few cool shoot-outs
and car chases. At the same time, it's far from perfect: For one, there's
Spenser himself, who's in one scene tough as nails but a hopeless
do-gooder and hopeless romantic in the next who still wants to bring
Patterson and his wife back together even after Patterson fired him from
the case - the problem with this is that there's no effort put into giving
him a motive for doing so. Also the romantic subplot between Spenser and
Susan is at times jarring while too much effort is made to emphasize time
and again that Spenser's the good guy on the show - a little more subtlety
would have gone a long way. It's still an ok entry into a series, even
though it lacks the urgency to make the viewer watch more.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
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the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
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