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Reviews
21 Jump Street: Swallowed Alive (1989)
Coinkidink Episode and Hansen's Rebellious Spirit
Even though it was another coincidence episode it was very, very well done. It also showed more flashes of the rebellious spirit that would land Hansen in prison at the end of this season. We're introduced to Dennis Booker (Richard Grieco), who is partnered with Hansen and a real thorn in Hansen's side. Fuller says he's never seen anyone push Hansen's buttons like this. Hansen and Booker are investigating who shot out the tires on a school bus and spray painted then n word on the bus. But they get sidetracked by an apparent rape. Tracy Edwards is found on the floor of the shower room, badly beaten, cigarette burns on her, the words "nigger slut" written on the walls. Hansen breaks into Booker's apartment and discovers Booker is with IAD. That and other false evidence leads Hansen to proclaim, in front of Fuller, Booker, and Hoffs, that Booker raped Tracy Edwards. Hoffs alibis Booker. Hansen goes home. As he's sitting, brooding over a can of beer, Booker knocks on his door. Booker is blunt and brutal, but also correct. He tells Hansen among other things that the system works for him because he's White. He also tells Hansen he wanted to catch a racist so much he falsely suspected him (Booker); "that's racism my friend." Booker wants to find out who raped Tracy Edwards; will Hansen help or not? Hansen doesn't want to help Booker; he wants to help Tracy Edwards. They go to the school and reconstruct the events leading up to the rape. Tracy Edwards had fought with other girls. They conclude she's the only one who can help them. They go to the Edwards home and convince her mother to allow "only one of you" to talk to Tracy. Hansen gets down on one knee as if proposing and begs Tracy to help him. She reveals she wasn't raped; she was brutally beaten by three girls because she had sex with one of their boyfriend's. The episode ends with Booker and Hansen in a girly bar. IA let Booker out to Jump Street; they have formed a grudging mutual admiration. I love the way Booker and Hansen put aside their animosity and differences to work with each other. Hansen's hair looked ridiculous, with a long thin strand hanging over his face.
21 Jump Street: Cory and Dean Got Married (1988)
Phenomenal! Showcases Penhall's Superior Police Instnicts!
This has got to be one of the ten best Jump Streets.
The teaser shows Corey and Dean getting married. Just as they're married the police come looking for them. Corey escapes and drives off in his late 1970s Chevrolet Nova, apparently leaving his new bride to face justice alone.
Penhall and Hoffs are called in to extradite Corey to whatever fictitious city the Jump Street gang operates in. Corey fakes an illness on the bus coming back, and they're forced to rent a car. They stop at a motel for the night, and as Hoffs heads for the showers. Corey reveals to Penhall that she murdered her father,not Dean. As Hoffs is showering Dean appears. He holds her at gunpoint, and negotiates with Penhall for the Lincoln. Corey, Dean, and Hoffs take off; Dean has the keys to his car. Corey and Dean reveal they plan to spend the night at a cabin not far from where they're at. They dump Hoffs, handcuffed, at the side of the road.
Penhall hot wires the Nova, and after a spell finds Hoffs walking along the side of the road, hands cuffed behind her back. The next scene is in the car; Hoffs' hands are, obviously, freed. She urges Penhall to pull over somewhere to call for backup. Penhall refuses, assuring Hoffs they'll catch up to the two lovers, telling Hoffs that if they call in the county police, Corey's father was choking Dean to death, and Corey shot her father in self defense. Corey and Dean will never see the light of day. They do catch up to Corey and Dean, and two scenes from the end Hoffs is sleeping against Penhall's chest as the two sit on a bench on the porch of the cabin. Dean comes out onto the porch, confirms Penhall and Hoffs have been there all night, and thanks Penhall. In the next to the last scene Fuller admonishes Hoffs for the report he calls "a piece of fiction," then tells Hoffs there's a good chance Homicide will reopen the investigation. Looks like Penhall was right.
Nat sswusfc@yahoo.com
21 Jump Street: Draw the Line (1989)
Intense Scene Followed by Jump Street Ridiculousness
In what would arguably be the most intense scene of the series, Hansen is in the joint, lying on the lower level of the bunk bed. The whole prison is chanting, "skin the pig," again and again, and the floodlight lights up Hansen's cell. "Chilling." Intense." "Mind boggling." Only a few adjectives to describe the scene.
But then it melts into Jump Street ridiculousness. First, wouldn't Hansen go to PC in a Federal pen? Second, why do we see the normally sane Penhall going buggy to protect Hansen? Third, wouldn't the Warden bother to check that Ioki was dead, thus blowing Bookr out of the water? Fourth, why does Booker - who in the previous episode rightly note that Hansen ran himself up a rail - compound the same mistake by doing exactly the same thing? Couldn't Raymond Crane have taken over the area where Tower and Farrell were dealing guns by Eminent Domain rather than hoping gang bangers would kill each other off? Why did only Booker go down when Hanson was released? Penhall committed perjury and was in on the impromptu investigation with Booker and Hansen. Hansen should have demanded to be taken back to prison once he discovered Ioki was still alive. And even though Hansen was right about Tower and did not kill him, he broke every rule in the book breaking into his house. Why wasn't he taken to task for this instead of getting his badge back?
Street Smarts (2000)
Frank Ncotero Is An Irritating Little Troll.
Street Smart used to come on around 4:30 in the morning, and would sometimes wake me up. It's hard to know where to begin as far as this stupid show is concerned. -Frank Nicotero's annoying, high pitched voice. -The show is a fake (there is no way people could be as stupid as this). -The show is disgusting (one contestant claimed someone paid him money to do something nauseating to another man). -The ridiculous dunce cap.
If sat and thought about it long enough, I could come up with another twenty reasons.
All Ican say is what journalist H.L. Mencken once said: no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.