Ep by ep; Semi Friendly Persuasion

Another cowboy ep (the A-team come to a small town and defeat the local bullies on behalf of the 'settlers'). Murdoch is pretty deft on the skates, like Face on the bike wearing a very Miami Vice style outfit. BA seems keenest to help, because of his religious convictions or he just likes to build things? Face shows he's a poor carpenter which is weird as he seems competent with helping the team the rest of the time. We see him bond with the local kid as always. You wonder what the church make of all his varied religious symbols?

2 scenes stand out to you from this ep, BA taking the kid to the docs for smoke inhalation and the bullies trying to stop him. And for once you feel BA's fury and cheer when he smashes them out of the way. The other is Hannibal's philosophical discussion with the cult leader as to the nature of peace vs violence (he's oddly lacking from the rest of the ep), you don't expect such deep stuff on The A-team but we do get it here and you're never sure who exactly is right. Murdoch's nuts bit is great (you genuinely feel for him when BA stamps on one) and for once he's attacking BA at the end.

Great guest stars, Tim O'Connor fresh from Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon himself Sam Jones and Geoffrey Lewis, a character actor with 222 credits in 54 years and still going strong.