Spending Spree/The Hunted

I don't know what it is with the super boring episodes, maybe because I started watching this show at the end, that, although this episode has 2 stories that are nothing to sneeze at, I somehow wasn't looking at Tubi's time bar, the whole time (but I did a few times).

Diana Canova was pleasant enough in all her episodes, which is a nice break from the likes of the uber-annoying Carol Lynley. Lola Falana... wasn't she in a Muppet Show I never watched? I knew her name, and that must be where from, but never saw her in anything. I thought the 2 women had poor chemistry as friends but, as typical, they came alive when playing rivals.

The "Most Dangerous Game" rehash was extra-boring, to me. We've seen this story already deployed in the F. I. pilot and, I do believe, 2 more times. I don't particularly care for men running around fighting each other, and it was a throw back to the Vietnam fantasy with the hole-drilling guy from Mission Impossible. I'm not impressed with bad guy characters, so I failed to notice any spectacular acting here.

Stupids of the show: 1) Stuart Whitman (aka Mr. Bushy eyebrows, aka the Peter Lawford look-alike) spends time building a weapon trap thingy by hoisting a hollow branch up in the air, tied to a rope. Then the bad general reaches for the bait and it so happens, out of any place where they could have stood, the 2 other bad guys are hit in one fell swoop when they stand smack on the path of this feeble "weapon". 2 stars down for taking viewers for idiots like that! (At least!).

2) The bunny being tied by his tummy and hind legs, and hearing him whimpering (hard to watch!) and the dogs having bark sounds added to them, when clearly one was panting and the other had his mouth closed.

3) The stuntman for bushy-brow guy throws his arms up in the air and moves backwards before the general stuntman even pretends to hit him.

Highlights of the show: for the very first time, a map of the island is shown! It's partial, but it's something. A super cute doll close up at the end. (Well? I thought it was cute!)

There was no moral of the story for the ladies: just like in The Nightmare, where the father wouldn't have been a fire victim unless they came to F. I., rendering her stupid fantasy useless, the ladies were never competitors to begin with, they were friends, therefore had nothing to learn. Come on now, Mr. Roarke! (Didn't Mr. Montalban have enough clout to go to the prods and have them send this script back to the writers, for idiocy-trimming?)

Mr. Roarke was best when he lectured about love at the end. None of that, again, here. I have a theory that, when we aren't shown Mr. Roarke drinking his (non-alcoholic) fruit cocktail in the intro of guests, the story is sure to be boring as hell. Sure enough: we don't see him slurping his orange slice-clad drink here.

Extra disappointing: the stupid idiot gifts the ladies take with them out of the island. Really!? What about that diamond necklace...really, no?

Noteworthy: They still have a random fantasy person who wasn't on the plane talking with Roarke, as filler. (This would not be the case in last seasons.) And Fantasy Island has a Fantasy Island Travel Agency. Really? Why?! You're on F. I, FCOL! Mr. Roarke can make it Alaska if you so choose. 6/10 for what it is.

This episode wasn't very strong, nor did anything happen that was too memorable, other than a decent performance by James Shigeta. I know that this show can't have 2 stories of a sinister nature, especially back in 1979, but sometimes one story is so fluffy that it hurts the overall quality of an episode. The story I'm referring to here has 2 woman that are given an enormous amount of money to spend before the fantasy's over; Diana Canova, who was everywhere back then, and Lola Falana star here, as we get to see who spends their cash the quickest in order to keep whatever they buy. Normally, Mr. Rourke has a motive to keep people honest in regards to their fantasies, and I applaud that, but I'm not certain in this case. The girls were friendly to begin with for most of the fantasy, and they both leave the island in the same manner, so I wonder what the point actually was. It wasn't a poor segment, but simply boring. In the other better, but not great story, Stuart Whitman(he was just in another episode only weeks before)stars as a hunter who has a fantasy of hunting something more exciting than usual; instead of a gun, he's given a camera on the end of a gun in order to take a picture of ruthless General Lin Sun, played mighty fine by Shigeta. Long story short, Charles(Whitman)is captured, but this time around, he's the hunted one, as Sun allows him to leave the prison so that he can hunt Charles down in a game of life and death. The hunt isn't exactly the greatest ever filmed, but it suffices and was the better story, especially Shigeta's performance.