Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 2.7 “Rape and Revenge: Part Two”

Posted on October 22, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Hunter, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1991. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, Hunter and McCall are in South America.

Episode 2.7 “Rape and Revenge: Part Two”

(Dir by Richard A. Colla and Gary Winter, originally aired on November 9th, 1985)

Picking up where last week’s episode ended, Hunter, with the help of an orphaned street urchin named Iggy (Dan Ponce), has managed to track down where Raoul Mariano lives in Curaguay. He’s also learned that the country is controlled by the brutal secret police and that Mariano is the son of a feared general (Michael Ansara). Hunter has also arranged for a burned-out American named Jimmy Crackin (Larry Hankin) to fly him over the border to the safety of Bolivia. Of course, Hunter won’t be leaving until after he’s killed Mariano….

What Hunter did not count on was McCall suddenly showing up and asking him not to assassinate Mariano on her behalf. Even after Hunter points out that Mariano is going to get away with all of his crimes otherwise, McCall argues that Hunter should not put his life in danger to kill him.

Hunter disagrees. However, he doesn’t assassinate Mariano. Instead, when he confronts Mariano, Hunter gives Mariano a gun to keep things fair. When Mariano opens fire, Hunter shoots back in self-defense and kills him. Essentially, this was all so Hunter could avoid being portrayed as a cold-blooded killer. If this episode were made today, Hunter would have no hesitation about shooting Mariano, whether he had a gun or not.

Mariano is killed early on in the episode. The rest of the running time is taken up with Hunter, McCall, and Iggy trying to get to the helicopter in time to make their escape. Fortunately, it turns out that the Curaguayan army is no match for a determined Los Angeles homicide detective in a big car. The episode ends with the helicopter flying towards Bolivia, taking Hunter, McCall, and even little Iggy to freedom.

(To be honest, it still seems like this would all lead to an international incident of some sort but whatever.)

Compared to Part One, the second part of “Rape and Revenge” is pretty much just a straight-out action story. It was satisfying to watch Mariano meet his fate. That said, I could have done without Iggy the talkative urchin. I think he was mostly included to soften the fact that this episode was basically about Hunter trying to murder someone.

Next week, Hunter and McCall will be back in Los Angeles!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 2.6 “Rape and Revenge: Part 1”

Posted on October 15, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week’s episode is a difficult one.

Episode 2.6 “Rape and Revenge: Part 1”

(Dir by Gary Winter, originally aired on November 2nd, 1985)

I nearly didn’t watch this episode.

When I saw the title of this episode and then read the plot description on the IMDb, my first instinct was to try to find an excuse to get out of having to watch and review it. The plot description read: McCall is raped by a visiting diplomat and her colleague’s hands are tied when he claims diplomatic immunity. Nearly every episode of Hunter so far has featured McCall getting into some sort of trouble. She’s been kidnapped countless times. She’s been shot at least three times. She’s been in more than a few fights. In the past, that didn’t bother me because no one is going to mistake Hunter for a realistic show. But when I read what was going to happen to her in this week’s episode, I immediately imagined that the show would handle it in the worst and most insensitive way possible.

Still, I watched the episode because I’m a completist. And you know what? I was wrong.

This episode opens with Hunter and McCall investigating the discovery of a dead woman at the Curaguayan Consulate in Los Angeles. (Curaguaya is a fictional country in South America.) One of the consuls, Raoul Marino (Richard Yniguez), immediately starts hitting on McCall, despite the fact that she’s conducting a police investigation. Later, Raoul sends three different flower deliveries to McCall’s house. When Raoul then shows up at McCall’s house, she tells him to leave. He rapes her and then flees. McCall calls Hunter, who rushes over to her house and then takes her to the hospital.

Because he has diplomatic immunity, Raoul thinks that he can get away with rape. He also thinks that he can get away with shooting Hunter in the shoulder when the latter confronts him. And it turns out that Raoul is correct. With both McCall and Hunter temporarily out of action, he boards a plane to Curaguaya and returns home.

To the show’s credit, it handles McCall’s rape sensitively. Stepfanie Kramer gives a strong performance as McCall. The scenes at the hospital, where the still bruised McCall is examined by doctors and investigators, capture the fact that the trauma of being raped doesn’t just end with the act. My fear was that this episode would have McCall magically recover at the end of the hour. It didn’t. Instead, we watch as McCall goes through therapy and as she slowly reaches the point where she feels that she can return to work. But even when she does return, the pain and the trauma are still there. This episode doesn’t simplify rape or use it as just another melodramatic plot twist. For that, it deserves a lot of credit.

(My only real issue that, during a recovery montage, the scenes of McCall in therapy are mixed with scenes of Hunter recovering from being shot in the shoulder. I feel like McCall deserved to have that montage to herself.)

This is a two-part episode. The first hour ended with McCall realizing that Hunter had traveled down to San Pablo, Curaguay to get revenge on Raoul. (Hunter previously told McCall that he was taking a few days off to go fishing.) McCall then made a reservation on the next flight to San Pablo. The story concludes next week!

Retro Television Review: Baywatch 2.4 “Money, Honey”

Posted on May 16, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to 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 Baywatch, which ran on NBC and then in syndication from 1989 to 2001. The entire show can be viewed on Tubi.

This week is pretty pointless.

Episosde 2.4 “Money, Honey”

(Dir by Monte Markham, originally aired on October 7th, 1991)

When Mitch and Eddie are hired to serve as lifeguards at a Hollywood party, film producer Dita (Leslie Easterbrook) is impressed when she sees Mitch respond to a boating accident. She decides to make Mitch into a movie star. Everyone knows that Mitch can swim and run in slow motion but can he deliver scripted lines? Dita doesn’t care. She just wants to sleep with him. That goes against Mitch’s ethics so his film career ends before it even begins. Meanwhile, Shauni puts together a benefit to protect a sea lion habitat. At first, it looks like Shauni won’t be able to raise the money but then Mitch donates his movie paycheck to the cause.

This was a montage episode of Baywatch. There really wasn’t much of a plot but there certainly were a lot of montages. Watch as Mitch nervously sits in the makeup chair. Watch as a bunch of bikini-clad beachgoers gather for Shauni’s benefit. Listen to the music. Watch the images. Don’t worry about a thing….

In short, this was a pretty pointless episode. That said, the sea lions were cute and the scene where Captain Thorpe tried to teach Mitch how to audition did make me smile. It’s interesting that it took only four episodes for the syndicated version of Baywatch to fall into the pattern that would definite it for the next ten years.