Monday, May 20, 2013

Wonder Woman 2.5: Knockout


Airdate: 10/14/77

Steve Trevor is kidnapped by attractive woman named Carolyn, head of an LA-based, SLA-type terrorist group planning to disrupt he forthcoming world trade conference, where numerous heads of state are expected to congregate. The two had known each other when she was a San Francisco cop and he had been assigned to help her bust a narcotics ring, but since then her allegiance shifted to the left. It requires the sleuthing of Diana and the brawn of Wonder Woman to retrieve her hunky captive, thwart the baddie’s scheme, and make Carolyn see the error of her ways.

Last WW borrowed from James Bond, this week’s installment gets its inspiration from (then) current events, namely the Symbionese Liberation Army’s kidnapping of Patty Hearst. Here, she’s Carolyn, played by Jayne Kennedy, a brainwashed young woman demanding, along with her cohorts, money from “private and federal bank vaults.” (Lest WW gets accused of offending its primarily young, liberal audience, Steve has a line that she was probably manipulated to be a plant from “the other side.)

Its social conscientiousness notwithstanding, this is an odd and rather boring episode, alleviated only by a quasi-romance between Diana and a cabbie (Ted Shackelford) who helps her out in Los Angeles. Bad guys’ scheme is about as nebulous as the actual SLA’s was, and that sure doesn’t help a comic book-based TV show that relies on flashy action to keep the customer satisfied.



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