You know if they didn’t follow the predictable arc of needing to make something in the last act of each episode, both of these stories this week could have been really solid. I mean they work for A-Team stories, but if they had played with their formula just a bit…

I had a bit of an issue with the first episode this week, Chopping Spree. This one aired on 14 February, 1984 and was written by Stephen Katz. I don’t think Katz had the voices of the characters down well enough, and I had to wonder whether or not the showrunner took a look at his draft or not… The story is pretty cool though.

Dennis Franz guest stars as Sam Friendly, a used car salesman, who is also running an auto ring. He sells a car, then a few weeks later, he’ll have it boosted, chopped and resold… He also is doing some work with a mob boss named Tony Victor (Lee Patterson).

When a friend of B.A.’s (Mr. T) comes to the team for help, he’s been booted from his job as a valet and is the prime suspect in a car theft, Hannibal (George Peppard) and the guys decide to use Face’s (Dirk Benedict) flashy corvette as bait…

Unfortunately, while they are trying to stop the theft of the corvette, someone nabs the van (!) with Murdock’s (Dwight Schultz) plant inside!

Now, B.A. is furious, and the entire team can only follow in his path, as they try to stop Friendly, with Face even going undercover as a salesman to work for him, and recover the van before it gets diced up!

And once they do recover it, they still have to stop Victor from carrying out an attack on the local D.A.!

Harder Than It Looks, written by Frank Lupo with an airdate of 21 February, 1984 was a fun one for me, because a large portion of it was shot at Point Vincent Lighthouse, which I will always associate with V – The Final Battle…

A hostage situation goes sideways for the team when they break into a terrorist camp run by Ramon (Steven Keats) and Katherine (Cherie Michan) who have a dangerous plan to blow up a local dam. The team is there to rescue Jennifer Teasdale (Lori Lethin) at the behest of her father (Michael Prince) but things aren’t all they seem…

It seems that Jennifer is suffering a bit of Stockholm Syndrome and is in love with one of her captors Marcus (Kevyn Major Howard), who was her boyfriend before the event got under way.

They have to break back in, get Marcus, and then learn about the plan to blow a dam, so the team has to figure out how to stop the terrorist attack before Ramon and his people carry out their deadly mission.

This was a fun one, but the ideas of Stockholm Syndrome could have explored a little more, oh well…

Still, a pair of decent episodes that helped reinvigorate my interest in the show after it started flagging a bit last week.

Until next week!