Gaston Poon | Through the Shattered Lens

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewing the Canadian sitcom, Check it Out, which ran in syndication from 1985 to 1988. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and Peacock!

This week, Howard is getting sued!

Episode 3.17 “Fatal Harrassment”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on January 10th, 1988)

The newest cashier at Cobb’s, Kim Dillard (Lolita Davidovich, in a very early role), is suing Howard for sexual harassment!

Actually …. yeah, I could see that. Everything about Howard screams lawsuit, if not for sexual harassment than for something else. The same can be said of the behavior of just about everyone who works at Cobb’s. One thing I’ve noticed over the years that I’ve spent watching old sitcoms for the site is that, in the 80s and 90s, everyone just harassed everyone else and regularly made comments that would end friendships and lose jobs today.

Anyway, Howard swears that Kim was actually coming onto him and that he’s being set up. Yeah, whatever, Howard. No one buys that! Except, it’s true! It turns out that Kim has a history of taking jobs and then suing her boss for sexual harassment. Since most of her bosses settle to avoid the bad publicity that would come with a trial, Kim makes a lot of money without having to prove anything. Howard, however, threatens to go to court, which cause Kim to drop her suit. Howard keeps his job, disappointing Christian who was hoping to take over the store.

This episode wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible. It was very middle-of-the-road, featuring a lot of obvious jokes that were saved by the cast’s third season chemistry. That said, it also painted Kim as too obvious a villain and it again left me wondering why Edna is still wasting her time with Howard. For three seasons now, Edna has been complaining about dating Howard. Strangely, Edna always says that she’s been dating Howard for “Seven years,” even though three years have passed since she first said that. Poor Edna!

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The show can be found on YouTube!

This week, we’ve got the saddest episode of Friday the 13th yet!

Episode 2.10 “Night Hunger”

(Dir by Martin Lavut, originally aired on January 9th, 1989)

As a young boy, Michael Firono was constantly told by his father, Dominic (Nick Nichols), that he should always play to win and that, if he lost, it was because he was a wimp. Needless to say, once Mike became a teenager, he did not have a great relationship with his father. Seeking an escape from his abusive household, Mike spend all of his time at the local antique store where, on his 16th birthday, the store’s owner, Lewis Vendredi (R.G. Armstrong), gave him a special silver chain.

Mike (played by Richard Panebianco) has grown up to be an angry young man. He always wears the chain around his neck. Hanging on the chain is the key to his car. Mike loves to race his car and, far from being the loser that his father claimed he would grow up to be, Mike cannot be beat. His car is amazingly fast and Mike is incredibly (one might even say supernaturally) skilled behind the wheel. His main goal is to defeat his childhood rival, Deacon (Real Andrews), who is now a street racer himself. Deacon is hesitant to race Mike, precisely because Mike seems to be so driven to win that racing with him can be even more dangerous than usual. To Deacon, street racing is fun. For Mike, it’s an obsession.

Of course, Mike has a secret. As long as he’s wearing the silver chain, he can’t be defeated. But he has to kill people and dip the key in their blood for the chain to work. Jack, Micki, and Ryan set out to reclaim the silver chain but an accident results in both the chain and the key being absorbed into Mike’s body. With the chain and the key now sitting next to Mike’s heart, Mike’s eyes not only glow red but his car seems to have a mind of its own….

This is another one of those episodes of Friday the 13th where the villain is himself a victim. Even before he met Lewis and received the silver chain, Mike was doomed. His abusive father left Mike feeling so insecure and so obsessed with winning that there was really no way Mike wasn’t going to end up snapping eventually. In the present day, Dominic finally understands how much he hurt Mike and he feels guilty about it but it’s too late to undo the damage that’s been done. Like a pusher befriending people most likely to get addicted to his product, Uncle Lewis saw Mike as someone who would easily succumb to a cursed antique. Mike becomes addicted to using the key and that leads to him doing a lot of bad things. But the real curse here is not the silver chain but instead Mike’s abusive childhood. Mike never had a chance.

This is a genuinely sad and well-acted episode, with Mike’s obsession eventually destroying him. As happen so often with this show, Ryan and Micki are left with the knowledge that, while they can reclaim the cursed objects, they can never repair the damage that they’ve done.