Escape from Los Santos

This time David doesn't even manage to settle into town and get a job. He's picked up by some small town cops while hitchhiking to be jailed for conspiring with the assistant DA's wife to murder her husband. Once he gets a chance to talk to her, she explains that the assistant DA had dug up evidence of corruption in the local police force, and - Well, you get the idea. If you've watched a decent amount of 1970s TV or movies, you've probably already seen this plot at least once.

Nonetheless, the excitement here is at a strong pitch, thanks to some superbly done action scenes. In particular, David and Holly's escape from a crooked cop - while handcuffed to each other - is one of the most thrilling escapes I've seen in memory. The chase across a gorge is also exceptionally well-done.

The humanity is where this episode falls short of most of the season 2 offerings. It's not that they don't make an effort at it, but Holly's frustration at her in-laws not believing in her innocence feels forced and unconvincing. David merits credit for standing by her when he could have just escaped on his own, but somehow that isn't as moving here, perhaps because the plot isn't as grounded in real life.

Still a fun episode, even if it's nothing special.

So many episodes in "The Incredible Hulk" are slightly above average and Season Two's "Escape From Los Santos" is one of them. To be fair, the story here is solid, a lot of plot twists and chases in 45+ minutes and there's little here in terms of lulls. Once again David is falsely accused of murder along with the dead guy's wife (the lovely Shelly Fabares). They get out of jail after a memorable Hulk-out and set out to prove their innocence...and nail the guilty party as well.

Overall Season Two is chock full of decent episodes, fast paced and lively and "Escape From Los Santos" keeps things well in check. This season is the "socially conscious" one, as I'd like to call it (dealing with child abuse, alcoholism, violent sports, insanity and drug addictions) but a few let loose and provided plenty of fast paced action.

The supporting cast here (Fabares excluded) is pretty bad, sub standard acting from guest stars was far too evident in the Second Season (but it got better in Season's Three and Four). The whole story wraps up far too easily but as for action and excitement this episode goes down very well.

David Banner(Bill Bixby) is hitchhiking along a desert road in Arizona when he is picked up by two policemen who subsequently arrest him for the murder of a man, whose wife Holly(played by Shelly Fabares) is also being held, as they are both to be framed for the murder by the corrupt police department that the murdered man wanted to expose. After a hulk-out, they escape handcuffed together into the desert, then back at her home, so that they can gather the evidence needed to prove their innocence, and put the crooked lawmen in prison. Exciting if contrived episode once again shows David's amazing bad luck of being in the wrong time and place, though the Hulk is still an excellent crime-fighter!

David 'Brown' -aka Banner - is on the road again, as Willie Nelson would say, and is thumbing for a lift in Flagstaff, Arizona and is unlucky in not getting a ride. But a police car driving behind another police car, which has Holly Cooper, an alleged murderess of her husband, in the back, stops and picks up David, and David thinks he will be dropped off in town, near a hotel ...

Instead he's put in the hoosegow, next to Holly Cooper - the crooked officers led by a corrupt Sheriff (Dana Elcar) arrest them for murdering Cooper's cop husband. Of course, they are framing them as the husband was trying to expose them for smuggling ...

Handcuffed together, the two of them make their escape.

Escape from Los Santos is an exciting and fast-paced entry which has great scenery, tense moments such as David and Holly crossing this bridge type of thing, and an engaging plot - the hulk turns up a couple of times, in the jail and towards the end where he's pulling at a rope, wrecking the bridge so the crooked cops can't reach them. Shelley Fabares and Bill Bixby both starred in Clambake, and are reunited here.