The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (TV Series) Sole Survivor (1978) User Reviews

One of the Eps this show is remembered for

[zenfrodo-970-911469 · 8/10 · 14 May 2015]

Joe Hardy wakes up in a Hong Kong hospital, to find out he's been in a coma over a year...and that his father & brother are dead. Yeah. This is the episode that most fans of the show really remember, despite its goofy logic.

First, put all common sense aside and turn your brain off: if you don't, you'll spend the whole episode going "But why didn't he..." or "there's no way they would've..." and the big "why didn't the agents just break the guy's fingers instead?" This is '70s TV aimed at the teeny-bop crowd and intended only as a vehicle to sell the good-looking male leads, Shaun Cassidy & Parker Stevenson. Common Sense doesn't play any part in it.

Watching this episode now -- through the filter of 9/11 and Guantanamo Bay and our knowledge of water-boarding & torture-tactics to obtain information -- yeah. Despite the Cold War, the '70s were still pretty innocent in terms of TV. Still, if you can put all that aside, this is a rather tense, tight episode, built around the mind-screw the bad guys are using to get information out of Joe. Shaun in particular gives a good performance as someone trying to put his life back together and figure out what happened...though, honestly, better directing should've been applied to Parker Stevenson & Edmond Gilbert, who don't look or act at all like they've just lost a brother/son. Even in terms of '70s TV, though, the plot holes are too big, once they occur to you: why didn't Joe insist on calling his aunt stateside? Or the US Embassy? How did three Chinese agents manage to subvert an entire Hong Kong hospital?

Anyway...enjoyable fun. Turn brain off, enjoy the ride.

This one was a favorite of mine!

[kqueen-75102 · 7/10 · 14 March 2024]

I don't think I've seen this episode since it was first run, but certain scenes were committed to my memory. I think I liked this one in particular because it was so Shaun-centered. He was the whole reason I watched the show, after all. I remember even as a pre-teen being skeptical about the year-long coma, especially since he showed no ill effects such as speech or mobility problems, and his hair was still perfectly coiffed! Despite the plot holes, this episode held my interest, and it's still one of my favorites. IMDB says I need to add more characters, so I'll just say I got a chuckle out of seeing James Hong in this episode. Every time I see him in anything, I think of his character on Seinfeld in the Chinese restaurant. "Seinfeld, four!"

Spies Like Us

[cutterccbaxter · 28 February 2024]

The concept of this story is similar to the James Garner film "36 Hours." In that flick the Nazis try to get Garner to reveal the details to D-Day by making him think the war is over and he is in an allied hospital.

Later James Garner apparently punched Glen A Larson for pilfering plot ideas. Don't know if "36 Hours" was on his mind when he socked Larson but it is an interesting coincidence.

I heard on the radio last week that James Hong celebrated his 95th birthday. I was hoping he was a double agent in Sole Survivor because he is from Minneapolis and I am from Minneapolis, and Minneapolis only produces good guys. Unfortunately he was a bad guy making me wonder if he isn't really from St. Paul.

zenfrodo-970-911469 was right!

[traci515 · 16 August 2023]

Zenfrodo-970-911469, the previous commenter, is 100% right. Every time the Hardy Boys was on, I was right there at the TV watching my first crush, Shaun Cassidy (his was the first concert I attended, too). This episode, out of all of them, has stuck in my mind for 40+ years, and I wound up here while checking to see if my memory of the plot was correct. It wasn't quite right (I wasn't even 10 yet, and now I'm 53, so I'll give myself a break on having a fuzzy memory of the episode.), but I remember being so distressed (not crying, but upset) about Joe being in a coma then grieving for Frank and his dad that it imprinted itself on my brain. Who cared about plot twists when Shaun Cassidy was in danger)?