I used to catch reruns of the HBO anthology series The Hitchhiker on USA Network. I remember them as quite good little stories, with some smart writing and casting. What I don't remember - because they were edited out - were the R-rated sex scenes and vulgarity. So, that was kind of an eye-opener when I watched The Hitchhiker: Volume 3. Later on, USA Network took over producing the show, and much of those more adult elements were left behind, probably to make the show more palatable to basic cable audiences. It's not the way I remember the show, but that added adult angle to the stories only makes the episodes more gritty, more nasty in an exploitive way -- which helps.

The Hitchhiker premiered on HBO in 1983. It originally starred Nicholas Campbell as the mysterious "Hitchhiker," who introduced and closed each episode. The following year, Page Fletcher was hired as the new Hitchhiker, and he stayed with the series until it ceased production in 1990. This particular DVD gathers together episodes from various years of the series; it's not a chronological set that equates Volume 3 with the third year of the show. So you get a wide selection of the shows from 1984 to 1990 in this DVD, all introduced by Fletcher.

The Hitchhiker is a curious anthology. It's not a supernatural or horror series; all of the dramas are played straight, with the most basic (and base) motives for the crimes committed by the characters: sex, money, power, and more sex. Some of the more lurid events you'll encounter in The Hitchhiker: Volume 3 include: voyeurism, spousal abuse, sheriff stomping, serial killings, prostitutes, poisonings, bondage, dope farmers and an especially memorable decapitation by Porsche. The early episodes in particular are handled quickly, in a snappy exploitation style that wastes no time in unnecessary exposition. A lot of emphasis was put on producing the stories in as contemporary a fashion as possible. MTV-style cutting (then relatively new to mainstream television) jump-started the episodes, while 80s synthesizer music fueled the stories along. Weird, jarring camera angles also aided The Hitchhiker episodes from looking like every other show out there. It also helped that the majority of the shows (up until USA Network took over) were shot in Canada; specifically Vancouver standing in for Anonymous Big City in America. The settings were just different enough from the standard American film locales to put an additional off-setting spin to the stories; it looked kind of like America, but something was off just a little. The stories may have loads of sex and violence, but there's always a moral at the end, and the criminal always meets his or her comeuppance; they're like O. Henry stories on meth. The Hitchhiker: Volume 3 is essentially conservative in message: you screw around, and you're going to pay.

But the addition of the mysterious "Hitchhiker" adds an understated supernatural shading to the proceedings that's a nice touch. The opening of each show, where the Hitchhiker walks along deserted highways, with that cool rattlesnake-tanging theme song playing, sets you up nicely to anticipate a fairly edgy little show. After a brief cold opening, the Hitchhiker appears and lays out, usually with a pithy epigram, what kind of conflict you're going to see. And then he disappears, only to show up at the end -- when the main character that week has either been blown up, or run over, or locked up -- to put the moral icing on the cake, and to let us know crime and vice don't pay. It's a cool way to give an identity to an anthology show that otherwise probably wouldn't have caught on. I remember Fletcher had a bit of a following when the series hit its peak, despite the fact that he didn't actually star in any of the episodes. The majority of the show's viewers were women, and it didn't hurt the ratings to focus a lot of Fletcher's screen time on filming him walking away from the camera in his trademark tight jeans.

Also helping greatly with the shows' success were the casting choices. Some good actors showed up in these stories, including Edward Albert, Lauren Hutton, Gregg Henry, Michael Madsen, Bill Paxton, Bud Cort, Timothy Bottoms, Kelly Lynch, Susan Anspach, Ken Olin, Shannon Tweed, Parker Stevenson, Michelle Moffett, Brion James, Joan Severance. The behind the scenes talent was good, too, including even some legends, like director Roger Vadim. The films look good, with sharp cinematography, and they move like lightning, never allowing the viewer to get bored or to get ahead of the story. The stories are tight and involving, with no fat whatsoever -- at around 22 minutes each, there's no time to fool around here.

Here are the ten episodes included in The Hitchhiker: Volume 3:

DISC ONE:

The Man at the Window
An ex-drug addicted screenwriter steals the life and words of a woman with an abusive husband and a female lover, only to find himself the target of the husband's anger.

Dead Man's Curve
A famous novelist returns home for her high-school reunion and finds herself in the middle of a dangerous romantic triangle.

Made for Each Other
The friendship between two madmen unravels after they pick up a prostitute.

Joker
This twisted tale tells the story of a practical joker getting the ultimate comeuppance.

Videodate
A duplicitous salesman who wears many disguises to take advantage of women finds the tables turned on him when he meets a mysterious video artist who plays him like a fiddle.

DISC ONE:

Best Shot
A lawyer who likes to live on the edge crosses the line when he hits a pedestrian with his car and leaves him to die.

My Enemy
When two look-alikes trade places, the results are deadly, but that's only the beginning of this twisted mystery....

Tough Guys Don't Whine
A movie director famous for his gangster pictures tries to recruit real gangsters for his next film, with deadly results....

Riding the Nightmare
Tess is a successful woman with a job, a family...and mysterious powers that allow her to commit murderous deeds.

Cruelest Cut
A young man becomes involved with a woman that may or may not be a murderous prostitute.

The DVD:

The Video:
Some of the episodes from The Hitchhiker: Volume 3 are fairly rough from an image standpoint, particularly the later USA Network transfers. There's some shimmer and compression problems, as well as a general sharpness problem. However, most of the episodes look okay, if unspectacular.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital 2.0 English mono track is okay, if like the picture image, unspectacular.

The Extras:
There are no bonus features for The Hitchhiker: Volume 3 -- none. That's a shame; I'm sure HBO could have scared up one of the stars of these shows to speak on a commentary track. Evidently, their market research must have told them not to bother.

Final Thoughts:
The Hitchhiker: Volume 3 is a good selection of episodes from the 1980s cult hit. The stories are appropriately grim and violent, there's quite a bit of (relatively tame) sex to titillate the viewer, and the acting is first-rate. If you remember the show, it's recommended. If you're new to it, rent it first.