Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Hey I saw this was on Netflix so I thought hey what they hell and put the pilot on while I was fixing a vacuum cleaner and doing some PC maintenance. I literally have not seen this series since I was a child of 7 (through 11) I guess. Blowing my mind to see it once again.
Holds up okay so far, for the pilot. I made the mistake of going back to Six Million Dollar Man one time, and was disappointed. Not so much this time.
-------------------
Dr. David Banner is happily in love (we know from the lovely montage) until one day his tire blows out sending he and his girl over an embankment. Banner is thrown clear while the girl is trapped as the car begins to burn. The weight of the car is pitched upon the door, and Banner struggles with all his might, lifting, straining, screaming as the fire spreads...
David Banner awakes from his nightmare. At the lab that day his colleague Elaina knows just what has happened and is concerned for him. He shrugs her off, the doctors told him the dreams would come back sometimes. He is more concerned with his work, studying the adrenal system and the strange phenomenon that occurs when people show bursts of amazing strength when a loved one is threatened... and why it didn't happen for him that night all those years ago. **Bixby does a great job here, and the motivation for this character is still the strongest of any Banner before or since. He's really likeable, and very much a tragic figure the way things play out.**
David and Elaina interview a woman who had her car flip over just as Banner did, and struggled to life it to open the door in just the same way he did, and found herself able to lift the car enough to get her son out to safety before it exploded. **This scene, and this woman who delivers this performance, is just mesmerizing.**
At some point, a "nosy reporter" from a newspaper that sounds like a tabloid named "Mr. McGee is snooping around. Nobody in the project wants him around. **Jack McGee is the unsung hero of this series. He is simultaneously sympathetic and detestable, and he is always, always just one step behind Banner. We'll see how the rewatching goes, but he stands out very clearly in my memory as a formiddable neneis who you ALMOST wanted to succeed. Very well-played by Jack Colvin.**
After an idle comment from a coworker about communication disruption due to gamma waves from sunspot activity, oh a whim Banner compares the time frame of his interview subjects with a chart of spikes in Gamma wave radiation and finds a correlation. **Somehow I never remembered this plot point. Kind of interesting.**
Banner decides to dose himself with a little bit of Gamma radiation, you know, see what happens. He doesn't know the dentist's chair with the bullseye shadow it casts over his face has been tweaked to go up to 11. Actually, way beyond 11, more like 33 or something. He gets way too much Gamma. **Okay so radiation like this would kill anyone no matter what, but it's a bit easier to believe when the guy's sitting in some experimental chair than say in the comic when he literally gets hit by a bomb explosion that doesn't kill him. Still, he should have known. The chair just looked evil. It ends up in the credits and so becomes very iconic.**
That night there' a horrible rain and lightning storm, and he gets a flat tire and is already pretty pissed off and frustrated. So he cuts his hand taking off the lug nuts and WE'RE OFF! David Banner starts his career as the Hulk by beating up his own car. **Lou Ferrigno is actually really good as the Hulk. The thing they did with his eyebrows and his eyes makes him look almost demonic, even though he is probably the most benevolent interpretation of this character.**
In a scene that echoes the original Frankenstein, Hulk nearly scares a young girl into falling into a lake and drowning, but ends up saving her life even as her father tries to shoot him. Later he sits by the lake and chills and turns back to David. David goes to Elaina for help, and they smartly go to a secure lab with a big, reinforced chromium steel isolation chamber. And plunk the freaked-out doctor inside, and try to recreate the transformation, although Elaina would prefer to just try and cure him. With initial failure, the pair accidentally discover it is anger that triggers the Hulk when Banner has a nightmare and completely destroys the isolation chamber breaking out, before Elaina can calm him.
Banner is fearful she could have been killed but Elaina doesn't believe the Hulk will kill. She feels his behavior is similar to how Banner's behavior would be if he were hyptonized, i.e. he won't really do something against his nature. **Kind of interesting way to express that plot point.**
The two attempt an x-ray based cure but it doesn't work. The next morning the police come around asking about Banner's beat-up and exploded car, and he sucks at lying and stammers some bullcrap. McGee is standing right there for the conversation with a cast of a giant foot taken from the scene. Banner and Elaina manage to stave off the police, but McGee sneaks inside after he sees that destroyed isolation chamber.
When Elaina and Banner arrive McGee hides in a chemical storage closet. Banner discovers him and goes to take him outside and he accidentally knocks over a bottle of something which looks like Windex and explodes like C4, with Elaina still trapped inside the building. Banner Hulks out and pulls Elaina from the fire and McGee sees the Hulk emerge with her, but doesn't see him transform and presumes Banner killed.
Hulk carries Elaina into the forest but she is fatally injured and dying. As Hulk stares down at her, without comprehension, Elaina confesses her long-held secret love for David, and dies. Hulk howls in rage and loss. **I fucking cried.**
A warrant is issued for the Hulk for the murders of Elaina Marks and David Banner, with McGee as both witness and the guy who runs the story: "Incredible 'Hulk' Kills Two." And he's going to stay on the story, and see the Hulk brought in...
Banner visits the graves of Elaina and himself, David Bruce Banner. "I love you Elaina," he says, "and I think you loved me too, although you never said it."
Banner hits the road, disappears, hitchhiking, hunted and alone, and haunted, searching for any relief from the monster he has inside, and the guilt he carries for the deaths of the women who loved him. Deaths for which he believes he is more responsible, than he actually is...
-------------------------
Really one of the very few successful comic adaptations to TV that wasn't animated. As I recall, throughout its run it didn't pay too much attention to comic continuity, and really couldn't, with its budget.
If I keep watching, my memory informs me I should be ready for a steady stream of corrupt ranch owners, mine owners, union busters, Sheriffs, and all manner of other people in roles of authority who are looking to hurt some innocent member or faction of the local populace somehow. Just as Banner gets confortable, or gets an inkling of a cure, these evil folks do something to Hulk him out and it's time to move on. Rinse and repeat.
Still the premise was great way to adapt it for TV, the characters were well-played and memorable, and the whole affair seemed to hit a lonely, melancholy vibe at times that I rarely remember the comic approaching.
And the score! The music in the Incredible Hulk comes from an earlier time when more orchestration was used in TV scores. It's by a guy named Joe Harnell, apparently, and it includes the Lonely Man theme, which is so good it should live forever:
Lonely Man Theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d4C1ZQKmw4
Opening Credit Sequence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOXpKUu6pUg
----------------------
Also I guess someone posted the whole thing on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zFA0OFYuLQ
Holds up okay so far, for the pilot. I made the mistake of going back to Six Million Dollar Man one time, and was disappointed. Not so much this time.
-------------------
Dr. David Banner is happily in love (we know from the lovely montage) until one day his tire blows out sending he and his girl over an embankment. Banner is thrown clear while the girl is trapped as the car begins to burn. The weight of the car is pitched upon the door, and Banner struggles with all his might, lifting, straining, screaming as the fire spreads...
David Banner awakes from his nightmare. At the lab that day his colleague Elaina knows just what has happened and is concerned for him. He shrugs her off, the doctors told him the dreams would come back sometimes. He is more concerned with his work, studying the adrenal system and the strange phenomenon that occurs when people show bursts of amazing strength when a loved one is threatened... and why it didn't happen for him that night all those years ago. **Bixby does a great job here, and the motivation for this character is still the strongest of any Banner before or since. He's really likeable, and very much a tragic figure the way things play out.**
David and Elaina interview a woman who had her car flip over just as Banner did, and struggled to life it to open the door in just the same way he did, and found herself able to lift the car enough to get her son out to safety before it exploded. **This scene, and this woman who delivers this performance, is just mesmerizing.**
At some point, a "nosy reporter" from a newspaper that sounds like a tabloid named "Mr. McGee is snooping around. Nobody in the project wants him around. **Jack McGee is the unsung hero of this series. He is simultaneously sympathetic and detestable, and he is always, always just one step behind Banner. We'll see how the rewatching goes, but he stands out very clearly in my memory as a formiddable neneis who you ALMOST wanted to succeed. Very well-played by Jack Colvin.**
After an idle comment from a coworker about communication disruption due to gamma waves from sunspot activity, oh a whim Banner compares the time frame of his interview subjects with a chart of spikes in Gamma wave radiation and finds a correlation. **Somehow I never remembered this plot point. Kind of interesting.**
Banner decides to dose himself with a little bit of Gamma radiation, you know, see what happens. He doesn't know the dentist's chair with the bullseye shadow it casts over his face has been tweaked to go up to 11. Actually, way beyond 11, more like 33 or something. He gets way too much Gamma. **Okay so radiation like this would kill anyone no matter what, but it's a bit easier to believe when the guy's sitting in some experimental chair than say in the comic when he literally gets hit by a bomb explosion that doesn't kill him. Still, he should have known. The chair just looked evil. It ends up in the credits and so becomes very iconic.**
That night there' a horrible rain and lightning storm, and he gets a flat tire and is already pretty pissed off and frustrated. So he cuts his hand taking off the lug nuts and WE'RE OFF! David Banner starts his career as the Hulk by beating up his own car. **Lou Ferrigno is actually really good as the Hulk. The thing they did with his eyebrows and his eyes makes him look almost demonic, even though he is probably the most benevolent interpretation of this character.**
In a scene that echoes the original Frankenstein, Hulk nearly scares a young girl into falling into a lake and drowning, but ends up saving her life even as her father tries to shoot him. Later he sits by the lake and chills and turns back to David. David goes to Elaina for help, and they smartly go to a secure lab with a big, reinforced chromium steel isolation chamber. And plunk the freaked-out doctor inside, and try to recreate the transformation, although Elaina would prefer to just try and cure him. With initial failure, the pair accidentally discover it is anger that triggers the Hulk when Banner has a nightmare and completely destroys the isolation chamber breaking out, before Elaina can calm him.
Banner is fearful she could have been killed but Elaina doesn't believe the Hulk will kill. She feels his behavior is similar to how Banner's behavior would be if he were hyptonized, i.e. he won't really do something against his nature. **Kind of interesting way to express that plot point.**
The two attempt an x-ray based cure but it doesn't work. The next morning the police come around asking about Banner's beat-up and exploded car, and he sucks at lying and stammers some bullcrap. McGee is standing right there for the conversation with a cast of a giant foot taken from the scene. Banner and Elaina manage to stave off the police, but McGee sneaks inside after he sees that destroyed isolation chamber.
When Elaina and Banner arrive McGee hides in a chemical storage closet. Banner discovers him and goes to take him outside and he accidentally knocks over a bottle of something which looks like Windex and explodes like C4, with Elaina still trapped inside the building. Banner Hulks out and pulls Elaina from the fire and McGee sees the Hulk emerge with her, but doesn't see him transform and presumes Banner killed.
Hulk carries Elaina into the forest but she is fatally injured and dying. As Hulk stares down at her, without comprehension, Elaina confesses her long-held secret love for David, and dies. Hulk howls in rage and loss. **I fucking cried.**
A warrant is issued for the Hulk for the murders of Elaina Marks and David Banner, with McGee as both witness and the guy who runs the story: "Incredible 'Hulk' Kills Two." And he's going to stay on the story, and see the Hulk brought in...
Banner visits the graves of Elaina and himself, David Bruce Banner. "I love you Elaina," he says, "and I think you loved me too, although you never said it."
Banner hits the road, disappears, hitchhiking, hunted and alone, and haunted, searching for any relief from the monster he has inside, and the guilt he carries for the deaths of the women who loved him. Deaths for which he believes he is more responsible, than he actually is...
-------------------------
Really one of the very few successful comic adaptations to TV that wasn't animated. As I recall, throughout its run it didn't pay too much attention to comic continuity, and really couldn't, with its budget.
If I keep watching, my memory informs me I should be ready for a steady stream of corrupt ranch owners, mine owners, union busters, Sheriffs, and all manner of other people in roles of authority who are looking to hurt some innocent member or faction of the local populace somehow. Just as Banner gets confortable, or gets an inkling of a cure, these evil folks do something to Hulk him out and it's time to move on. Rinse and repeat.
Still the premise was great way to adapt it for TV, the characters were well-played and memorable, and the whole affair seemed to hit a lonely, melancholy vibe at times that I rarely remember the comic approaching.
And the score! The music in the Incredible Hulk comes from an earlier time when more orchestration was used in TV scores. It's by a guy named Joe Harnell, apparently, and it includes the Lonely Man theme, which is so good it should live forever:
Lonely Man Theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d4C1ZQKmw4
Opening Credit Sequence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOXpKUu6pUg
----------------------
Also I guess someone posted the whole thing on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zFA0OFYuLQ