Kojak-athon

This week I recorded five episodes of Kojak and today, I set about watching them. They were all from Season 4, following on from the episode I watched last week.



10.00am: I start watching the first episode "Out of the Shadows". It is about a serial killer whose victims at first seem motiveless, but it turns out are all people who've ripped him off. We are shown a divorced man having a breakdown who may be the killer. The episode is good, but I still manage to leaf through the Guide and magazine sections of The Guardian. No sign of any lollypops or his catchphrase "Who loves ya, baby".



10.45am: I move straight onto the next installment, "A Need to Know". This is about a chauffeur for a foreign consulate who molests children in his spare time. The cops catch him leading another child away but then the FBI step in, declaring the man to have diplomatic immunity. Kojak and the Captain are enraged, and Det. Crocker still tails him. It turns out he is more than just a driver. Kojak calls the FBI agents "baby" in a less than respectful way and he produces a lollypop when he is trying to soothe a child, but the catchphrase isn't used.



I break off here to do some gardening for an hour or so, then have a shower and a spot of lunch.



1.45pm: I resume with "An Unfair Trade" which is about a cop shooting a Hispanic youth, and then coming up accusations of racism. Tired by the gardening, I lose concentration and fall asleep for a while.



On waking, I take a break from the marathon and watch a film instead. It is a romp from the 70s with Robin Asquith - its pretty awful. The OH, who is spending the day elsewhere watching cricket, texts to ask how much progress I've made.



4.30pm: Refreshed, I return to "An Unfair Trade". It really is very good - I'm impressed by the depth of characterisation they fit into an hour show and its ability to tackle the big issues. No lollypops here and still no catchphrase.



5.15pm: Moving onto "A Hair-Trigger Away" where another troubled cop (these seem to be a recurring theme) is on a one-man mission to ride the world of drug dealers, because his girlfriend is a heroin addict. Its all very overwrought, but the cop does have a great dinning room furniture set which looked like Eero Saarinen's Tulip table and chairs. The girlfriend is played in great thespian style by Lynn Redgrave. One of the crooks turns out to be Dominic Chianese, best known as Uncle Jun from the Sopranos, but I only find this out on IMDB afterwards and I've already deleted the episode so too late to check him out. A smattering of babies but no lollies. I'm beginning to think this catchphrase is a myth.

Another break, this time to watch the episode of Oz I fell asleep in last night (more on that separately). I make my supper (vegetable chilli if you are interested in such things) and then onto the final leg.

8:00pm: Last one of the day "By Silence Betrayed". The setting is the docks, rather similar to Season 2 of The Wire, which I'd re-watched earlier in the weeks. The dock workers operate a code of honour of standing together and not talking to the police, but they also live under the threat of violence from the gangster who they steal crates of cargo for. The episode features a big slow-witted guy who talked about seagulls in a way Eric Cantona would have admired. It all ended badly. Actually a lot of the episodes end rather bleakly. I'm wondering whether watching so many in a row is a good idea.

So that is the Kojak-athon complete. One lolly, fair use of the word "baby", but I've given up on the catchphrase.

There are another five episodes next week, but I think I'll spread them out a bit more.