Main cast: Ken Olin (Steve), Parker Stevenson (Brett), Michelle Moffett (Lorri Ann), Brion James (Lionel), and Page Fletcher (The Hitchhiker)
Director: John Laing

I really don’t understand The Hitchhiker. There are episodes that are straight out soft porn, and then there are the more “respectable” episodes that focus on, shudder, plot. Plot has always been a weakness for this show, as even at its most inspired, it’s just serving up tropes warmed over only cursorily.

Fortunately, Best Shot is one of the better “plot” episodes, although it also has its share of problems.

Then again, this show knows how to pick its eye candy male leads, so it at least has some equal opportunity fanservice for viewers of all persuasions. Michelle Moffett for those that like to look at women, and it’s the always gorgeous Ken Olin along with Parker Stevenson channeling his best hot nerd impression for those that like to look at men. Ms Moffett shows some skin here, so that puts her on equal footage, fanservice-wise, to the two men that don’t show anything below the neck.

Oh, and there’s Brion James, whom one can tell will play the villain the moment his name shows up in the opening credits. Mr James can always be relied on to play a good one!

Mr Olin is Steve, a charming yet spoiled and entitled defense attorney that is somehow BFFs with Brett, a nerdy law professor that seems to be the by the book type. They really are good friends, when Steve buys a new pimp car, no doubt with his ill-gotten gains protecting lowlifes and what not, and actually lets Brett behind the wheel as the two go off for a fun weekend of booze and hook-ups.

Here, the dynamics of these two men’s relationship start to take an interesting turn when Steve likes to hook up and Brett likes to capture the hook up on camera. Perhaps they like to watch the video together later and then do, er, interesting things with one another? Who knows, but these two men are pretty so I won’t mind seeing that home video.

Things come to, er, a bump when their attention inevitably strays off the road ahead and they run down a poor guy. Steve realizes that they have run down a fellow and that fellow seems dead. Whatever, he’s a lawyer so that means he is untouchable by the law, so he kicks the poor dead dude down the slope into the bushes.

When these two men bump into Lionel and his friends at the usual charming watering hole of the rednecks and the crazies, Steve will realize that there are places where even a lawyer can’t talk his way out of trouble.

Let’s get the bad thing out of the way first: this episode is mostly filler in the first half or so. It’s all about Steve and Brett acting like frat brothers trying desperately to hide their attraction to one another by overcompensating on the douchebag factor. While the two men are definitely nice to look at, things get monotonous after a while.

The amount of filler also means that Brion James shows up only late in the episode, and that’s not a good thing because a show like this needs as much of Mr James as it can get. The actor plays the silent, menacing, dangerous type very well, and Lionel makes a nice foil to the charismatic ball of sleaze that is Steve.

However, things come to a boil way too late in the episode, and by the time I am having fun, the party is over and it’s time to switch off the lights.

Best Shot is not a bad episode, and the title is pretty clever in that it refers to a different kind of shot in this one (no, not that kind, perverts). It has eye candy and definitely solid performances from the cast. Too bad that it takes so long to find its groove, and I can’t help feeling shortchanged by how little of the episode is devoted to the really fun stuff like violent paybacks and villainous scenery chewing.