Kolchak the Night Stalker - Ole Jack was Still at it!

 After watching the two Kolchak television movies, I thought it would be cool to watch some episodes from the show currently on Peacock. The first episode was on Jack the Ripper, seemingly still alive and kicking. Somehow, besides electricity, Ripper can withstand gunfire, mow through Chicago cops, leap from buildings, and take a car hit head on. 

This has some similarities to the first film in that the Night Stalker overpowers police and has the police Chief (and Vincenzo in the news office) takes great offense to Kolchak's repeated efforts to get at the Ripper, offering his own explanation about how the current killer (using a sword pulled from a sheath cane) attacking adult workers at night is no ordinary man. Breaking out of a maximum security prison is enough of an example to take the Ripper seriously as someone beyond the typical criminal that can be arrested and stay arrested.

Despite the attempts to keep Kolchak at his desk (working Dear Emily letters for a reporter out on vacation), Vincenzo goes through his usual stress with his unable-to-wrangle reporter, going wherever he can to get the necessary sources and evidence to locate the Ripper.

So the show already establishes at the beginning that it would stay true and close to what made the two movies such a success. Too bad the show itself couldn't seem to maintain that same degree of success and was canceled after its one and done season.

I caught this on Sci-Fi Channel thanks to my uncle in the 90s. It has stayed with me ever since.

Eerie scene at the end has Kolchak locating the abode of the Ripper, setting up an electric shock trap capitalizing on the killer's weakness of that, falling into a pool of water, receiving a big jolt he doesn't recover from. Kolchak finding the body of a reporter from another paper in Chicago in the Ripper's living room is a chilling discovery, too. She had gone missing after telling Kolchak she would be meeting Rippers reporting to her directly. Despite Kolchak's warnings to her not to be so flippant about actually physically meeting a Ripper in person, realizing the danger she would be putting herself in, his discovery of her explains why she never reported back to her mom or work.

First episode rating, The Ripper : *** / *****