Having now seen both halves of the series premiere—far be it from Hulu to offer the original feature-length episode, of course—I think the balance of events was off. The first half dragged on, bogging down in overly long shots of nothing in particular, as if there was extra screen time that needed filling. The second half, by comparison, felt rushed at times.
Breaking the story at the point where Archangel comes to tell Hawke he must leave for France immediately, instead of when the missile hit the American destroyer, would have made the two halves much more balanced. Superfluous material from the first half could have been cut, and additional material added to the second half showing more of how Hawke and Santini actually pulled off the theft of Airwolf. As edited, the whole sequence of events in Libya felt extraordinarily rushed.
Perhaps the pacing is better in the original feature-length edit. Maybe not. I can only assume that no scenes were cut from the episode when it was divided into two parts for re-airings, but TV studios have done more heinous things than that in edits for syndication.
I don't dislike Stringfellow quite as much as I did in the first half, but I still think his character provides more illusion of depth than actual depth. At this point, it is still very early days, though, and I won't pass judgement just yet on whether he's a good character.
But, since it seems Dr. Moffet has been written out already, I can safely say that he was an utterly flat character. We learn nothing substantial about his motives for massacring the observation team and defecting to Libya. I don't buy that line about going where he can treat women the way he wants to. This smells of lazy writing, and it's inconsistent with what I recall of Bellisario's writing on Quantum Leap, so I really don't know what to make of it.
And my final nitpick: Stringfellow needs to stop playing the cello on screen. It bothers me because I've spent the last 20+ years on the violin and I'm therefore intimately familiar with how stringed instruments are played for real. But the fake playing was so bad in this show so far that I think even non-musicians would be able to notice. It really breaks the immersion. Though I suppose, instead of not showing him play, they could have had a real cellist improvise a piece that actually matched the bowings & fingerings Jan-Michael Vincent used on camera…
Review by dgwVIP 10BlockedParent2018-11-20T23:01:55Z
Having now seen both halves of the series premiere—far be it from Hulu to offer the original feature-length episode, of course—I think the balance of events was off. The first half dragged on, bogging down in overly long shots of nothing in particular, as if there was extra screen time that needed filling. The second half, by comparison, felt rushed at times.
Breaking the story at the point where Archangel comes to tell Hawke he must leave for France immediately, instead of when the missile hit the American destroyer, would have made the two halves much more balanced. Superfluous material from the first half could have been cut, and additional material added to the second half showing more of how Hawke and Santini actually pulled off the theft of Airwolf. As edited, the whole sequence of events in Libya felt extraordinarily rushed.
Perhaps the pacing is better in the original feature-length edit. Maybe not. I can only assume that no scenes were cut from the episode when it was divided into two parts for re-airings, but TV studios have done more heinous things than that in edits for syndication.
I don't dislike Stringfellow quite as much as I did in the first half, but I still think his character provides more illusion of depth than actual depth. At this point, it is still very early days, though, and I won't pass judgement just yet on whether he's a good character.
But, since it seems Dr. Moffet has been written out already, I can safely say that he was an utterly flat character. We learn nothing substantial about his motives for massacring the observation team and defecting to Libya. I don't buy that line about going where he can treat women the way he wants to. This smells of lazy writing, and it's inconsistent with what I recall of Bellisario's writing on Quantum Leap, so I really don't know what to make of it.
And my final nitpick: Stringfellow needs to stop playing the cello on screen. It bothers me because I've spent the last 20+ years on the violin and I'm therefore intimately familiar with how stringed instruments are played for real. But the fake playing was so bad in this show so far that I think even non-musicians would be able to notice. It really breaks the immersion. Though I suppose, instead of not showing him play, they could have had a real cellist improvise a piece that actually matched the bowings & fingerings Jan-Michael Vincent used on camera…