Recipe for Heavy Bread s2ep2

co-starring: Marjoe Gortner as Tom Anderson, John Fujioka as General Chow, Michael Alldredge as Don, Mako as Lin Duk Coo, Liam Sullivan as Dr Peters
Written by Stephen J Cannell
Directed by Bernard McEveety

The team discover the cook from a Vietcong prison camp they were held in is working in a Los Angeles restaurant.

Something of a disappointment considering it was written by co-creator Cannell, this is a watchable but unremarkable episode that suffers from some serious pacing issues before the mid-point and never really recovers. The start is fine with the team witnessing Lin Duk Coo’s kidnap and then staging an assault on the warehouse where he is being held. It’s an excellent set piece (culminating in Murdock riding on the roof of the A-Team van) but the rest of the episode fails to live up to this promising start.

Face is posing as an interior decorator to gain access to an expensive apartment where the team are hiding out but the scenes of him having to explain the presence of the rest of the group eventually become repetitive. In addition, Murdock's obsession with golf balls and their liberation is not one of his more interesting fixations and could easily have been cut entirely with no loss.

Like a lot of Cannell episodes, the A-Team's military background is central to the story but the attempts to make serious points don't always come off and the good humour that plays a key part in all the best episodes is mainly absent here. The overall effect is interesting at best, heavy-going at worst and when the end comes it does so suddenly and rather too easily. The final action sequence is impressive though, a well-filmed chase featuring Murdock piloting a helicopter down a city street with the rest of the team in pursuit. 6/10.