The great thing about anthology TV is that it is so wide open.  The most basic premise can open a series up to an infinite variety of stories.  The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Night Gallery, Tales From the Crypt and others have made the most of this.  Without any set characters or plot points to adhere to, each episode becomes its own self-contained short film.  In 1983, HBO added The Hitchhiker to that tradition.  The show ran from 1983 to 1990, a show totally of its time, but not so dated that we cannot enjoy it now.

One does not have to look too hard at The Hitchhiker to know which decade produced it.  The synth music, the slicked back hair, it all screams 80’s.  The stories themselves also come out of the zeitgeist of the time: materialism, designer drugs (this was the decade of crack, an epidemic that started right around the same time as this series), and of course, modern art, stories that would work any time, but that were a particular preoccupation in those days.  Regardless of the setting, every story boils down to the same basic premise: on The Hitchhiker’s road, no one gets what they think they paid for.

The show was clearly not blessed with an overabundance of budget, and production value suffers for it.  In “O.D. Feelin’,” Sandra Bernhard’s voice is so horribly dubbed (by a man’s voice, no less), that it takes the viewer out of the show.  Other make up and special effects are laughably antiquated.  The actors are all having a good time, though, and are clearly aiming to please.  Page Fletcher, while not having a lot to do, is effective as The Hitchhiker.  With his rugged, Rutger Hauer looks, he is the precursor to The Cryptkeeper, the host of HBO’s other great horror series.  The morals of The Hitchhiker are a bit obvious, and the show lacks the diabolical fun that would come to characterize Tales From the Crypt, but each episode has something to enjoy, and as horror television goes, one could do much worse.

The episodes on this disc are presented in the original fullscreen format.  The picture quality is not bad, but it also does not look like there has been any serious clean up.  The colors are not as crisp as they could be, the black levels are shaky, and the overall picture lacks any real sharpness.  The quality at times is closer to VHS than DVD.

The Hitchhiker, Vol. 2 is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0.  While the overall presentation is decent, there is much room for improvement.  The sound is inconsistent, hollow at times, and at other times it is muted and unclear.  These defects take away from the overall quality, which is fairly sharp.

THE EXTRAS

"True Believer" Audio Commentary With Director Carl Schenkel: Schenkel, who passed away in 2003, talks about making what he calls, “the quintessential episode” of this series.  He talks about the total freedom he had and how this episode was a stylistic leap forward for the show in terms of the number of cameras used, set-ups, and other technical aspects.

"The Curse" Audio Commentary With Director Phillip Noyce and Actor Harry Hamlin: Noyce, who directed four episodes of The Hitchhiker, two of which are featured in this set, never fails to give an engaging commentary, and this episode is no different.  Noyce and Hamlin talk about where their careers were at the time and what led them to this project, what it was like working with a brand new television network, and other interesting trivia.  They actually talk about the episode itself very little, but they do give interesting insight into certain scenes.

Both commentary tracks are incredibly interesting, but it would be nice to have a larger retrospective look at the show, perhaps more from the actors; there were so many people of note who walked this road.