Bespectacled teen misfit Anthrax Vermillion AKA Terry McDaniels (Robbie Rist - still acting, never stopped) has a way with computers. He is so good that he has taken to hacking his local bank and stealing modest sums of money which total roughly $800. Not a lot, even for back in 1981 particularly given how much he could have stolen.
Like a lot of delinquents he wasn't so much doing it for the cash as he was for the rush. He buys computer games and Dungeons and Dragons stuff with the money.
The bank president Paul Scully (James Whitmore Jr. - one of the most ubiquitous character actors in 1970s and 1980s TV) hires small-time local private investigators the Simon Brothers - Rick (Gerald McCraney) and A.J. (Jameson Parker) to see if they can nab him.
They catch him almost immediately. After they see him get chewed out by his mom (Jenny O'Hara) they come to sympathize with the kid. After we see Rick and A.J. get chewed out by their own mom (Mary Carver) later on for what they haven't done with their lives we get a sense why they might sympathize.
Rick tells Mrs. McDaniels they can fix things with the bank because that is what Scully has told them. They may even be able to get him a job there again based on the word of Scully. Of course it is not that simple. Bad people see potential in what the kid did and they have a considerably bigger take in mind.
When he disappears his mom knows who to call - those nice private detectives. As with any child abduction scenario Rick and A.J. hope they can find him alive and know the chances of that decrease by the moment.
Humiliation does not equal contrition or even necessarily a reluctance to change a destructive habit. When we see the kid hacker get caught we see no discernible regret about what he has done, why it is wrong or that people have been hurt.
The supposedly benign and innocuous character is hacking again within 24 hours albeit under considerable duress. By then he is doing it for bigger stakes and the ultimate adrenaline rush. But mostly he is just trying to survive. The fact that the baddies are worse and old enough to know better may put him in a sympathetic light. But he is still a criminal.
Philip DeGuere Jr., the creator of this series also created the TV series Whiz Kids (On which Robbie Rist and Linda Scruggs would both appear) which took a home PC hacking story-line further than they did here. But we at least see some of its beginnings.
3 out of 3 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
