Kojak: The Chinatown Murders
This blog post spoils an essential plot point of this show.
Remaining on the other side of the Atlantic (with a distinct absence of tea) for only my first ever post here about Kojak. I can't begin to think what's wrong with me, and I can only say that the fact Theo's never appeared here yet just illustrates that shows which are good haven't all appeared here yet, but shows I think are rubbish never will. One of these days I'm going to do a blog post about rubbish TV and have you all stop reading because you're so offended. Kojak needs no introduction to the readers of this blog.
The Chinatown Murders is a two-part adventure over two episodes. That's pushing 100 minutes of television, which broadcast on TV would presumably have had adverts and been even longer. This is a genuinely prodigious adventure for Kojak. My only question would be why it apparently isn't a film. The plot doesn't match any of the Kojak TV movies, and I'm not aware that any of the double-episode adventures were made into films, so I can't work out why this plot which would be a great film, is spread across two TV episodes. No doubt someone in my readership will know why and whether this was intended to be a film, and so all answers welcome in the comments.
Kojak tends to leave me feeling at a bit of a loss. For example this is the summary of this adventure on IMDB:
'Kojak races to stop a Mafia war, incited by Chinatown hoodlums. First, the young tong mobsters ripoff a knock-over of a Crespi family policy operation, by low-level soldiers of the Scalesi clan. Not suspecting that the masked murderers are Chinese, the Crespis dispatch their Jewish consigliere to recoup the loss from Scalesi godfather Don Cheech, and discern if the Scalesies are muscling in on their territory. All atwitter, Lt. Kojak calls in NYPD Cosa Nostra expert Sgt. Polucci, to help stave off a full-scale gang war.' Source
Do you see what I mean? I'm not sure what language that is written in but I'm fairly sure it's not English.
One of the reasons I'm writing about this one is that the online reviews tend to be a bit doubtful and even when positive, the praise is distinctly faint. The reason is that this show is confusing. And when I say it's confusing I mean that the plot is positively labyrinthine. It twists and turns, introduces another set of warring gangsters, delineates aspects of the criminal fraternity in various ethnic groups in the US, and then there's the whole Kojak thinkg going on, on top of it. My advice is not to try to follow the plot too closely because...
...this Kojak isn't really about the crime(s). It's about expectations and sleight of hand, and the episodes themselves set up us to expect one or several things (which is what makes it confusing) and then delivers a resolution which is different from all of them. It sets up two massive criminal gangs, and I suspect sets us up to suspect the Italians more than the Chinese. It also uses any racism the viewers' have to make us suspect the Chinese, thereby setting up viewers to be arguing at home about who did it. There are even mentions of overt racism such as the idea that Chinese people all look the same so can't be identified when it comes to a crime.
It then wrong-foots us even more with the sending of an amputated thumb. Jesus, this show is violent and horrible in every way but its genius doesn't stop it being entertaining for one moment.
So how have I given away the plot? Well I've told you what not to look at haven't I and that there is some sleight of hand going on, so you'll know to look elsewhere in the cast of, if not thousands, a huge number.
The only real criticism of this adventure is that really it could have been a film or considerably trimmed down to make it into a single Kojak episode.
My rather idiosyncratic favourite moment is the scene where the incident board is being used in the police precinct to arrange the Italians into a classic mafia family, and the board is glass so that we can see through it with backwards writing. Actually that's another reason I like Kojak, that it's like looking in a mirror. In case of confusion, that's me on the right.
