This edition of 'Airwolf' i.e., the fourth season of 'Airwolf' is hated by reviewers for the following 2 reasons: 1] The first three seasons starred Jan Michael Vincent in the lead role instead of Barry van Dyke who took over from the former. Naturally fans felt betrayed and were not inclined to like the new series lead.
2] The fourth season is indeed low budget compared to the first three seasons and all the footage of the Airwolf super-helicopter used in the fourth season is borrowed from the first three seasons.
Yet, Airwolf, Season 4, is not as bad as reviewers would have you believe. I started watching Season 4 recently with low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the little-known Canadian actors who play the other lead roles in this series. Even the much-maligned reuse of helicopter footage from the previous seasons has been fairly well done by this show's editing department, considering that video-editing software did not exist in the 1980s.
A few episodes in Season 4 are actually fairly good. I suspect that if one watched Season 4 first and the first 3 Seasons later, the former would not seem so bad at all. Barry van Dyke's St.John (Sinjin) Hawke is actually more likable than Jan Michael Vincent's brooding performance as Stringfellow Hawke. Of course, one would expect that St.John, after his many years of captivity and ill-treatment in Vietnam, would be the one who is moody and morose. Not his younger brother Stringfellow who managed to avoid capture.
Another point that other reviewers have missed is that the tall, square-jawed Barry van Dyke seems more believable as an action hero than the short, slightly-built Jan Michael Vincent who somehow manages to beat up the bad guys during three seasons of this show. Yet, it is true that both actors give rather middling performances in their respective roles.
2] The fourth season is indeed low budget compared to the first three seasons and all the footage of the Airwolf super-helicopter used in the fourth season is borrowed from the first three seasons.
Yet, Airwolf, Season 4, is not as bad as reviewers would have you believe. I started watching Season 4 recently with low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the little-known Canadian actors who play the other lead roles in this series. Even the much-maligned reuse of helicopter footage from the previous seasons has been fairly well done by this show's editing department, considering that video-editing software did not exist in the 1980s.
A few episodes in Season 4 are actually fairly good. I suspect that if one watched Season 4 first and the first 3 Seasons later, the former would not seem so bad at all. Barry van Dyke's St.John (Sinjin) Hawke is actually more likable than Jan Michael Vincent's brooding performance as Stringfellow Hawke. Of course, one would expect that St.John, after his many years of captivity and ill-treatment in Vietnam, would be the one who is moody and morose. Not his younger brother Stringfellow who managed to avoid capture.
Another point that other reviewers have missed is that the tall, square-jawed Barry van Dyke seems more believable as an action hero than the short, slightly-built Jan Michael Vincent who somehow manages to beat up the bad guys during three seasons of this show. Yet, it is true that both actors give rather middling performances in their respective roles.