David Banner(Bill Bixby) is assisting a Dr. Renee DuBois(played by Louise Sorel) in New Orleans during the Mardi Gras as they try to help the local population who are held in a grip of superstitious terror by a local witch doctor/con man named the Babalao(played by Bill Henderson) whose elaborate act is denying the people the proper medical care they need. Determined to drive them both out, the Babalo and his henchman try to scare them off with voodoo, then physical intimidation, as David is once again forced to become the Hulk... Disappointing episode telegraphs all its punches too early, leaving just a standard and uninspired crime plot. Bixby does his best, but episode fails.
5 Reviews
The worst episode I have seen on TIH....
markymark7025 June 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Yes - the worst episode (and that is including Never Give a Trucker an Even Break from season 2) yet.
Some hokum about New Orleans Magic men and a local doctor trying to treat the people of the city with conventional medicine. Banner is helping her out as a nurse. That should be enough to scare you - a drifter gets a job as a nurse in a doctor's surgery.
Anyway - the whole thing is ridiculous coupled with the fact that the Director of Photography must have learned his craft in the deepest, darkest cave - everything he shot was like midnight. Even the daytime shots were so murky it was hard to see what was going on. The 'New Orleans' scenes regarding the parade were laughable - it is so obvious that it is on a back lot that if I were the producer and knew my tight budget - I'd get the thing re-written. But the worst offender by far was the scene where Banner and the lady doctor come out of their surgery building to see a Hex Voodoo thing hanging above the entrance and a crowd staring at them from the street outside. The 'crowd' consists of about a dozen people who change places depending on which angle Banner looks at them. If he looks to the right he sees a Black guy with a white Tee-shirt, a lady wearing a red suit and an old, balding Elvis throwback guy. If he looks left - to what is supposed to be another part of the 'crowd' - he sees the same people again (in the SAME clothes) but just positioned in a different spot. Laughable.
Bixby - spouting some dire dialogue - does not give in to the cheap shots happening all around him but remains professional and delivers his - terrible - lines with gusto. But even he cannot save this diabolical episode. McGee pops up for his customary one scene, but I guess he wished he had stayed in bed that morning instead. An ingratiating scene with a large, orange woman and a guy dressed as an artichoke !!!
On that note - 4/10 - the worst episode yet. Let's hope the tempo and quality picks up in subsequent episodes.
Some hokum about New Orleans Magic men and a local doctor trying to treat the people of the city with conventional medicine. Banner is helping her out as a nurse. That should be enough to scare you - a drifter gets a job as a nurse in a doctor's surgery.
Anyway - the whole thing is ridiculous coupled with the fact that the Director of Photography must have learned his craft in the deepest, darkest cave - everything he shot was like midnight. Even the daytime shots were so murky it was hard to see what was going on. The 'New Orleans' scenes regarding the parade were laughable - it is so obvious that it is on a back lot that if I were the producer and knew my tight budget - I'd get the thing re-written. But the worst offender by far was the scene where Banner and the lady doctor come out of their surgery building to see a Hex Voodoo thing hanging above the entrance and a crowd staring at them from the street outside. The 'crowd' consists of about a dozen people who change places depending on which angle Banner looks at them. If he looks to the right he sees a Black guy with a white Tee-shirt, a lady wearing a red suit and an old, balding Elvis throwback guy. If he looks left - to what is supposed to be another part of the 'crowd' - he sees the same people again (in the SAME clothes) but just positioned in a different spot. Laughable.
Bixby - spouting some dire dialogue - does not give in to the cheap shots happening all around him but remains professional and delivers his - terrible - lines with gusto. But even he cannot save this diabolical episode. McGee pops up for his customary one scene, but I guess he wished he had stayed in bed that morning instead. An ingratiating scene with a large, orange woman and a guy dressed as an artichoke !!!
On that note - 4/10 - the worst episode yet. Let's hope the tempo and quality picks up in subsequent episodes.
The first bad Hulk episode
ODDBear31 May 2009
Well, you can't win 'em all. The third season of "The Incredible Hulk" is the best when it comes to stand-alone episodes but this turkey is the worst offender of the bunch. Season four's "Half Nelson" and season five's "The Phenom" did manage to outdo "Babalao" in terms of being bad, but still, this is pretty horrendous. Overall "The Incredible Hulk" was a good show despite the relatively absurd subject matter.
Thankfully the show's creator Kenneth Johnson found an angle that really worked and he achieved some very good moments with his stellar cast (Bixby, Ferrigno and Colvin) and a solid writing crew. However, as with most series, the show did offer a few offenders and "Babalao" is the first really bad Hulk episode.
Credit to Bixby, he doesn't falter as David Banner here, as he's spewing one ridiculous line after another. The story is meant to be somewhat mystical, with an evil sorcerer known as Babalao terrorizing the folks in New Orleans. Well, the less said about the story here the better.
There is one good Hulk-out here, though. The New Orleans setting is always lovely to look at but there ends the positive concerning this episode. It doesn't reach the "it's so bad it's actually kinda' good" heights like Season Five's "The Phenom" but it's pretty bad.
Thankfully the show's creator Kenneth Johnson found an angle that really worked and he achieved some very good moments with his stellar cast (Bixby, Ferrigno and Colvin) and a solid writing crew. However, as with most series, the show did offer a few offenders and "Babalao" is the first really bad Hulk episode.
Credit to Bixby, he doesn't falter as David Banner here, as he's spewing one ridiculous line after another. The story is meant to be somewhat mystical, with an evil sorcerer known as Babalao terrorizing the folks in New Orleans. Well, the less said about the story here the better.
There is one good Hulk-out here, though. The New Orleans setting is always lovely to look at but there ends the positive concerning this episode. It doesn't reach the "it's so bad it's actually kinda' good" heights like Season Five's "The Phenom" but it's pretty bad.
Just plain offensive
dewboy3081617 August 2013
This episode was disgusting. Apparently black followers of Voodoun are all stupid primitives, who don't know what fireworks are until the white man explains it to them.
Now, certainly I could go on about how silly the plot is, or how hammy the acting is, but it was The Incredible Hulk, and the 70s. Silly I can deal with. What I cannot deal with is such blatant racism and xenophobia directed at a disenfranchised minority religion.
Certainly, it could have been better. And I have no problem with religious leaders as villains (certainly there are plenty in real-life), but that doesn't make every person associated with the religion a drooling idiot.
Now, certainly I could go on about how silly the plot is, or how hammy the acting is, but it was The Incredible Hulk, and the 70s. Silly I can deal with. What I cannot deal with is such blatant racism and xenophobia directed at a disenfranchised minority religion.
Certainly, it could have been better. And I have no problem with religious leaders as villains (certainly there are plenty in real-life), but that doesn't make every person associated with the religion a drooling idiot.
Voodoo Adult (Slight Respect)
flarefan-819062 May 2017
This time David plays nurse to a New Orleans doctor who is competing with a voodoo con man for the neighborhood health care.
Heroes fighting to save superstitious folks from voodoo con men was a common enough plot line at the time, but I found this example to be offensively condescending. For starters, Babalao doesn't have any special tricks to get people to believe in his power, just some cheap props and a husky voice. Though some of his patients are cured psychosomatically, the overall message seems to be that voodoo followers are such gullible hicks that they'll believe anyone who claims to be a powerful voodoo priest just because they say so.
Second, David's pretty doctor boss does the voodoo act herself, because if she didn't, people wouldn't believe that she could cure them. Admittedly I know very little about the voodoo religion, but as a rule, believing in a religion doesn't mean disbelieving the effectiveness of scientific methods. The way David and the doc talk to their patients ("The doctor wanted you to have this, uh, mojo") is positively insulting.
This is not to say that this episode isn't entertaining. There's a great funny scene with McGee, and lots of unintentional humor too. Example: Babalao, after making a very cryptic statement about how he intends to take care of David and the doc, lets loose with a cheesy villainous belly laugh, while his partner blandly remarks, "If you say so." But it's all very b-movie in form and content, in a series which typically strives to be much more. And the essential plot has been done elsewhere without blatantly insulting voodoo followers.
Heroes fighting to save superstitious folks from voodoo con men was a common enough plot line at the time, but I found this example to be offensively condescending. For starters, Babalao doesn't have any special tricks to get people to believe in his power, just some cheap props and a husky voice. Though some of his patients are cured psychosomatically, the overall message seems to be that voodoo followers are such gullible hicks that they'll believe anyone who claims to be a powerful voodoo priest just because they say so.
Second, David's pretty doctor boss does the voodoo act herself, because if she didn't, people wouldn't believe that she could cure them. Admittedly I know very little about the voodoo religion, but as a rule, believing in a religion doesn't mean disbelieving the effectiveness of scientific methods. The way David and the doc talk to their patients ("The doctor wanted you to have this, uh, mojo") is positively insulting.
This is not to say that this episode isn't entertaining. There's a great funny scene with McGee, and lots of unintentional humor too. Example: Babalao, after making a very cryptic statement about how he intends to take care of David and the doc, lets loose with a cheesy villainous belly laugh, while his partner blandly remarks, "If you say so." But it's all very b-movie in form and content, in a series which typically strives to be much more. And the essential plot has been done elsewhere without blatantly insulting voodoo followers.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
