The Checklist: Silk Stalkings (S1 Ep20) “Powder Burn”
Silk Stalkings is one of the most unique cop shows in television history… set in swanky Palm Beach, Florida, Silk Stalkings follows the lives of homicide detectives Rita Lee Lance (Mitzi Kapture, Angel III: The Final Chapter) and Chris Lorenzo (Rob Estes, Trapper County War), who specialize in crimes of passion… or as Sgt. Lorenzo refers to them “silk stalkings”
The series began in 1991 on CBS as part of a late night programming block dubbed Crimetime After Primetime before moving to the USA Network in 1993 for the remainder of the show’s run.
In this edition of The Checklist, I will put the season one finale of Silk Stalkings, titled “Powder Burn”, to The Checklist test and see if it met the sexy standards of the series…
- Synopsis: Hutch goes undercover as a Jamaican drug dealer in order to help Chris and Rita solve the vicious murder of a socially prominent young woman who was an innocent bystander at a drug rubout.
#1- Were there any notable guest stars?
Would you consider Vanity of The Last Dragon and Action Jackson fame a notable guest star? Because I sure as hell would. Vanity plays Chantel, she works as a hostess at a dance club downtown called Society. Chantel has a more than professional relationship with her boss and helps him with his illegal interests… most notably the selling of cocaine.
Trevor Goddard, who I will always remember for his work in the 1994 Dolph Lundgren film Men of War, does what he did best… playing the main bad guy in this episode. Goddard’s character Steiner is all about trading automatic weapons for cocaine… and when he doesn’t like something about a deal, his first instinct is to kill the other person. In fact it was Steiner who gunned down the high profile socialite (along with her a drug dealer boyfriend) before the opening credits. 1/1
#2- Did the show feature any sexual content?
I won’t lie… seeing the provocative commercials for Silk Stalkings while watching World Wrestling Federation programming on the USA Network back in the day really grabbed my attention and eventually led me to becoming a regular viewer of the show.
The commercials were not false advertising… sexual content was a part of the show (again our cops were more often than not investigating crimes of passion) and when you have a notable guest star like Vanity, who proved in movies like 52 Pick Up and Never Too Young To Die, that she was not afraid to appear nude on screen, you just knew they were going to manage to have her involved in a sex scene and they did. 2/2
#3- Was this a Ben Vereen episode?
Song and dance man turned actor Ben Vereen played Captain Ben Hutchinson (or just plain Hutch to his friends) during the first two seasons of the show. But Hutch didn’t appear in every episode and many of his appearances were the typical few minutes that you see a police captain in any cop show… giving encouragement/guidance or tough love to his detectives depending on the situation.
But Hutch is an essential character in “Powder Burn” going undercover as a Jamaican drug dealer at Society to help catch the lunatic with the automatic weapons that is killing people in Palm Beach. The reason Hutch has to go in is because Chris and Rita had previously done some undercover work at Society during their days on vice and there was a chance their cover would be blown immediately.
Things go perfectly as Hutch charms Chantel into taking her to her boss (after he orders a Red Stripe of course), who in turn sets up a drugs for guns deal with Steiner… but things go sideways when we learn among his many deplorable traits that Steiner is a racist and doesn’t want to do business with a “mud person”. Even worse… Steiner seemingly kills Hutch… fortunately for Hutch he was wearing a Kevlar vest and Chris and Rita were on hand as soon as the bad guys fled the scene… driving the surveillance van right through the building’s bay door! 3/3
#4- Do the cops butt heads with the assistant district attorney?
The tenuous relationship between the police and the legal system is nothing new on cop shows and Silk Stalkings loved to showcase the almost love/hate relationship Assistant District Attorney George Donovan had with the Palm Beach PD… in this case Hutch, who after being shot by the racist Steiner hatches a plan to take him down once and for all… a plan that involves feigning two police officers being gunned down, a kidnapping and 50 kilos of cocaine. Donovan was not a fan of the plan, but after some vehement arguing chose to look the other way so our heroes could do what they needed to do to take down Steiner. 4/4
#5- Did they tease sexual tension between Rita and Chris?
When you have two attractive people like Rita Lee Lance and Chris Lorenzo working so closely together romantic sparks are bound to fly. But in this particular episode, there was a subplot between Rita and ex-flame Tyler… which took Chris out of the equation, a smart move considering this was only the first season… and the longer you make the audience wait, the more they’ll want the eventual Rita/Chris romance. 4/5
- Final Score = 4/5 (80%) This episode strayed from the crimes of passion formula, but may very well be Hutch’s most important episode. Plus what it lacked in sensuality, it made up for with some extra action and violence.
