The Incredible Hulk, Season 3: List Of Episodes with short reviews
1. Metamorphosis: A reasonable social statement about the sensationalistic side of heavy metal rock n roll which unfairly portrays its management as vampires and vultures with no care for its effects upon the youth, while missing the whole point of such music to begin with; as a way for the youth to relieve pressure on weekends without turning to actual criminal activities. The episode unfairly stereotypes the rock n roll industry, insults the intelligence of the people within it, and blames them for the violent actions made by the ignorant youth that listen to it. I'm thoroughly sick of propagandists blaming substances and mediums for the abuse and misuse of ignorant consumers. When some people don't know how to appreciate freedom like civilized adults, then that means everyone should have their freedom taken away, right? * *
2. Blind Rage: Very noteworthy case of careless toxic waste disposal by a military base which leads to blindness and death of innocent bystanders. Much more to worry about here than a few drunken kids brawling at a rock n roll concert. Banner sneaks a peak at the formula for the toxin and points the base doctor in the right direction for a cure, just before he goes blind himself and turns into the Hulk. The Hulk, of course, manages to save his eyesight, after battling a tank and a unit of soldiers on a booby-trapped obstacle course. * * *
3. Brain Child: A teenage genius sneaks away from the government goons guarding her to go looking for her mother who abandoned her years earlier. She hooks up with Banner and the goons fake a story to the local law that she was kidnapped so that they'll work harder to locate her and get her back. Unfortunately, Banner is pegged as the kidnapper, but he manages to help the girl find her mother in spite of the chase. * * *
4. The Slam: Of course, no series like this is complete without the case of the corrupt southern prison-camp way out in the rural boondocks. Prisoners do long sentences for misdemeanors and simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they're used as slave-laborers while the prison collects the payment for services rendered. Banner is arrested for picking an apple from a tree. * *
5. My Favorite Magician: Ray Walston, who played Uncle Martin in My Favorite Martian during the early 60s, which also had Bill Bixby as the nephew, plays an over-the-hill average magician and hooks up with Banner while doing a show and seeking to help his female ex-assistant, who is being preyed upon by a fake Romeo who plans on stealing her wealthy estate for the mob he works for.
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6. Jake: Banner works with a rodeo and gets mixed up with brothers who own a rig and are being bullied by modern-day cattle-rustlers. One of them is sick with a serious illness but insists on working and ignoring his health, while Banner tries to convince him to see a doctor. *
7. Behind the Wheel: A big city cab company owner suckers Banner into driving for her without telling him that a loan-shark and a gang are sabotaging the business, forcing her to turn it over to them because she cannot pay back the loan and is in debt over her head. Of course, illegal drugs are involved also. * * *
8. Homecoming: Banner visits his sister and father at the farm where he grew up, mixes it up with lots of emotional flashbacks, and tries to save the farm from a genetically-engineered bug that threatens to destroy the staple crops. A corporate tycoon is behind the engineering with plans to force the local farmers to sell so that he can build a city. * * * *
9. The Snare: A thoroughly spoiled-brat independently wealthy hunter lures Banner to a private island where he hunts game for sport, and decides to hunt Banner for sport also. Of course, after Banner turns into the Hulk, the man is overwhelmed with the thrill of his life-time, and determined to force Banner to change again for his amusement under humiliation and torture. * * *
10. Babalao: New Orleans Mardi Gras season is the setting and hoodoo con-artists using scare-tactics and fear to prey upon the local working-class poor is the theme. I dunno how much lower anyone can get than this. The people in this have next to nothing to begin with; why do they waste their time shaking the pennies from their pockets? Banner works with the local goody-two-shoes doctor who runs a clinic while the hoodoo con-artists try to run her out of business. *
11. Captive Night: Banner works in a city department store over-night doing inventory with a sales-girl and one security-guard when an ex-employee sneaks in the back with his big-brother ex-con to rob the safe. Things don't go so well for the cons when they mix up with the 3 night-workers and then discover that the old safe has been replaced by a large upgraded safe with a time-lock. * * *
12. Broken Image: Banner is mistaken for a thief in hiding who looks just like him and the law chases him into the hands of the guys he stole the money from. The Hulk gets him out, but the real thief latches on a plan to use Banner to help him disappear. * * * *
13. Proof Positive: A day in the life of Jack McGee, star reporter and hunter of the Hulk. While the publisher is on a honeymoon in the south seas, his college-brat daughter takes over and tries to reform the paper to fit her tastes. Lots of friction ensues when she insists upon dropping the Hulk story and exposes it as an obsession with McGee. * * * *
14. Sideshow: Banner goes to work for a group of female carnival dancers and helps one who is being harrassed and terrorized by a god-fearing old man who blames her for the loss of his son. * *
15. Long Run Home: Banner gets a ride from a motorcyclist who is heading away from a gang to a farm but the gang is involved in gun-running over the borders and they think he snitched on them after the ATF breaks up a business deal. * * *
16. Falling Angels: Banner runs into some young female orphans, gets a job working with their orphanage, and learns they are being taught to steal for the guy that oversees the place. * *
17. The Lottery: Banner befriends a guy who runs a newstand in the big city, hangs out with him at his place for a few days, and wins big in the local lottery. Banner can't collect the money, convinces his friend to collect it for him, and the guy disappears with the money. Banner locates him in the top suite of a high-rise hotel running a con as a Latin-American General selling offshore oil-well rights to a couple of small-time oil tycoons. * * * *
18. The Psychic: Banner gets blamed, as the Hulk, for the life-threatening injury of a teenager and a psychic who touches him and discovers his secret calls Jack McGee to turn him in for the reward. Later, when she sees Banner in the hospital waiting-room, she sees something else about him and changes her mind. The two become friends but then the boy dies and Banner is broken up inside, until she tells him that Jack McGee is going to be killed and they both go to his rescue. * * *
19. A Rock and a Hard Place: Banner stays at the house of an old woman with mysterious criminal roots from way-back around prohibition in the early 20th century, not realizing that she still has criminal plans. After she uses him to deliver dynamite without him knowing it and he's caught by the feds, the feds use him to spy on her. I dunno where they come up with this stuff. *
20. Deathmask: While working at the library of a college in a rural college-town, a series of murders of young blonde female college students occurs and Banner is mistaken for the killer. The chief of police holds him in a secure room at the police-station and interrogates him, trying to get him to confess. But the interrogation goes on for 2 days and nights and eventually, the police chief (played by Gerald McRaney) starts to talk to him about philosophical, social, and psychological subjects, while recognizing that Banner possesses a college-level intellect and gives him respect and understanding. Excellent psychopathological case-study by Gerald McRaney, definitely one of his best performances. * * * *
21. Equinox: Banner gets trapped on an island at the estate of a wealthy spoiled-brat heiress during her Equinox Party and Jack McGee sneaks onto the island and into the party to look for him. Meanwhile, someone tries to kill the spoiled-brat, and of course, Banner is blamed. * *
22. Nine Hours: A young boy in a city ghetto gets kidnapped by mobsters to use in exchange for Banner's help getting into the hospital he works at night to kill an old mob-boss who plans on turning state-evidence to the feds. * * *
23. On the Line: Banner is drafted to work with forest-service fire-fighters and learns that someone is setting the fires intentionally. Jack McGee gets a job on the line after learning the Hulk was seen in the area. * *
* One star = Poor, * * Two stars = Okay, * * * Three stars = Good, * * * * Four stars = Very Good.