Here's an interesting exchange about Hack from the Usenet group, rec.arts.tv. This thread was entitled:

My Thoughts on Hack.

From: "Alex Wai" <awai@sympatico.ca>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: My thoughts on Hack
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 02:41:07 -0400

The opening scene really put me off. So cliche ridden complete with the taxi that pulls into the dark alley and David Morse spouting some tough guy lines before saving the jerk passenger. Thank goodness the rest of the show was not like this. Which also makes me wonder why it was there.

David Koepp has quite the armful of screenwriting credits. But they're all action flicks with Carlito's Way the closest thing I could find to drama. So, I'm not entirely sure what his angle is with this show.

I guess if you can buy the idea of people pouring their hearts out to a cab driver and then accepting his help, then I'm sure the show has some good episodes in there somewhere. But if you can't buy into that premise, well... you can always watch John Doe.

Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: My thoughts on Hack (semi-spoilers)
From: "Brandy  Alexandre®" <brandy@kamikaze.org>
Date: 28 Sep 2002 01:29:05 -0700

Alex Wai said in news:dacl9.11486$ls3.1729789@news20.bellglobal.com:

> The opening scene really put me off. So cliche ridden complete
> with the taxi that pulls into the dark alley and David Morse
> spouting some tough guy lines before saving the jerk passenger.
> Thank goodness the rest of the show was not like this. Which also
> makes me wonder why it was there.
>

I started out opting to record R&D and watch That was Then. I can only
choose two and Hack didn't interest me. After 5 minutes of That was
Then I switched over to Hack. It does seem a bit cliche and
predictable, but I was mostly entertained by it. Two cops on the take
being made up as heroes, tough. I dunno...

--
Brandy  Alexandre®
http://kamikaze.org
Caution: Adult Oriented Material!
FAQ, Bio, Filmography, Scripts, Where to Buy, and more!

From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.chinet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: My thoughts on Hack (semi-spoilers)
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 19:47:09 -0000

Brandy Alexandre® <brandy@kamikaze.org> wrote:

>I started out opting to record R&D and watch That was Then. I can only
>choose two and Hack didn't interest me. After 5 minutes of That was
>Then I switched over to Hack. It does seem a bit cliche and
>predictable, but I was mostly entertained by it. Two cops on the take
>being made up as heroes, tough. I dunno...

That Was Then is among the ABC programs repeated Saturday evenings on Family Channel if you're interested enough to catch a later broadcast.

I might give it another try. Seems like I've heard all those same regrets on Ed. However, there were a couple of plot points that were less predictable than they could have been.

From: jesseleonmccann@aol.comantispam (Jesse Leon McCann)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Date: 29 Sep 2002 01:55:32 GMT

Two things seemed unrealistic to me:

The group of thugs at the beginning were a Black man, a Latin man and an Asia or Oriental man. Hokey!

The girl who was rescued, "Oh, Daddy! I was so scared!" After all that time,
she probably would have been beaten, raped, and in shock.

With kindest regards,
Jesse Leon McCann, Freelance Scribe

Enter my world:
http://hometown.aol.com/jleon2001/myhomepage/index.html

From: wdstarr@panix.com (William December Starr)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: My thoughts on Hack (semi-spoilers)
Date: 28 Sep 2002 23:52:30 -0400

In article <20020928215532.02214.00008267@mb-mu.aol.com>,
jesseleonmccann@aol.comantispam (Jesse Leon McCann) said:

> Two things seemed unrealistic to me:
>
> The group of thugs at the beginning were a Black man, a Latin man
> and an Asia or Oriental man. Hokey!

What, you got a problem with politically correct psycho thugs? :-)

> The girl who was rescued, "Oh, Daddy! I was so scared!" After all
> that time, she probably would have been beaten, raped, and in
> shock.

And drugged. Don't forget drugged.

Incidentally, I couldn't help but notice that for all the bondage equipment hanging on the walls in that apartment, the girl herself seemed to be secured to that bar by nothing more than what looked like some clothesline rope wound fairly loosely around her wrists. She seemed just a _tad_ over-dressed for her circumstances too... my guess is that someone on the production team or at CBS decreed that they had to present her in as unerotic a visual manner as possible and the hell with credibility.

I'm also wondering whether drugstores really sell ketimine. As far as I know, it's only used, legitimately, as an animal tranquilizer... if so, why would it ever be sold to plain old civilians, even with prescriptions in hand?

-- William December Starr <wdstarr@panix.com>

From: "Ian J. Ball" <iball***SPAM-No***@san.rr.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: My thoughts on Hack (semi-spoilers)
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 16:41:05 GMT

In article <Xns9297F003718Abrandykamikazeorg@216.227.56.89>,
"Brandy  Alexandre®" <brandy@kamikaze.org> wrote:

> I started out opting to record R&D and watch That was Then. I can only
> choose two and Hack didn't interest me. After 5 minutes of That was
> Then I switched over to Hack. It does seem a bit cliche and
> predictable, but I was mostly entertained by it. Two cops on the take
> being made up as heroes, tough. I dunno...

They're not "heroes" - they're "morally ambiguous". Especially Morse's character (Sadanski?...) - hence the whole "redemption through helping people" angle.

Ian J. Ball

From: Sarah <sarahlee22@juno.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: My thoughts on Hack (semi-spoilers)
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 20:50:28 GMT

Ian J. Ball wrote:
>
> In article <Xns9297F003718Abrandykamikazeorg@216.227.56.89>,
> "Brandy Alexandre®" <brandy@kamikaze.org> wrote:
>
> > I started out opting to record R&D and watch That was Then. I can only
> > choose two and Hack didn't interest me. After 5 minutes of That was
> > Then I switched over to Hack. It does seem a bit cliche and
> > predictable, but I was mostly entertained by it. Two cops on the take
> > being made up as heroes, tough. I dunno...
>
> They're not "heroes" - they're "morally ambiguous". Especially Morse's
> character (Sadanski?...) - hence the whole "redemption through helping
> people" angle.
>

Michael Olshansky is Morse's character.

They are definitely morally ambiguous, that what I liked about it. I was
absolutely stunned in the middle half when they revealed that he and his
partner both took the money. I totally expected Michael to be the cowboy
cop, the Denzel Washington/Training Day guy, who was using the fact that
he was no longer a part of the law, to be the law. It totally shocked me
to see that he was no better than his partner, maybe, his partner was a
little worse. And as a fan of Kyle Secor and Andre Braugher's partner
chemistry, it was good to see Morse and Braugher had a good rapport.

For a pilot, it was very strong IMO. It set up the history, the
characters, and told an involving story. It didn't lay on the cheese or
drown itself in action scenes. And every character in this story has a
shady side; Michael's wife, already sleeping around, Michael's son,
shutting him out, Michael's partner, sitting on the 4,000 not turned in,
Michael's priest, his bookie, and the people Michael saved, arrogant
blue blood and verbally abusive father. You've got admit that's
different and gutsy of them; To have a show where everybody's flawed
which makes Michael just any other guy, trying to deal with the mistakes
he was caught making without really accepting he can no longer be a cop.

sarah

"sarah says" - The Serial Bowl for the new millenium
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/16094