This episode titled "Why Are You Here?" really answers it's own question pretty well for the 80's a time of drugs, power, greed, and party time at night. This episode shows that culture very well as Jerry Rulac the central character works a reality show taking the camera around showing the scenes of the city after the sun goes down and the party life at night. We see it all the drugs, sex, alcohol, and crazy life people were doing in the clubs of the 80's. It's just so sad that the Rulac character gets caught up in the drama and pressure and falls to his own real tragedy in the end. Look for Helen Hunt as a supporting part of a depressed young club girl one of her early roles. Overall an okay episode of the series.
6 Reviews
one of the worst episodes of the series
movieman_kev10 July 2007
Jerry Rulac tries in vain to get a good story for his reality TV show thats centered around nightclubs. He might get a bigger tale then he bargained for in this supremely boring and stupid episode of the Hitchhiker. The story never really goes anywhere and one could surmise that the episode was put on Volume 1 of the US release of the show only because of the star power of one Helen Hunt, who's pretty bad in the role she's casted in. This was quite possibly the worst episode of the otherwise OK series that I've seen thus far. If you rent the volume one DVD set, skip over this one, if you see it on TV, change the channel. Utterly worthless.
My Grade: F
Eye Candy: one extra gets topless
My Grade: F
Eye Candy: one extra gets topless
Weak overall, but interesting references
Jane_E_Doe28 May 2015
I thought this episode was slow to start with an unsatisfying ending.
Did anyone else notice how this episode borrowed heavily from Bret Easton Ellis's novel, Less Than Zero? There is a scene in that novel that depicts the exact same dead-bum scene we see in this episode. I also felt as if the characters were plucked from his early novels and renamed--the soulless youth of the the 80s. I feel like if this episode had been stretched an hour longer, it would have been an adaptation of Less Than Zero.
I also thought Helen Hunt's character was a clear reference to Edie Sedgwick from the 1960s. In fact, Edie Sedgwick starred in a film titled Poor Little Rich Girl (directed by Andy Warhol) that featured a very similar 3-way mirror, the application of makeup, the mole, and gender-bending sidekicks. And Edie was a voracious drug-user and depressive.
All in all, the ending seemed a little too cute and rushed. I wasn't sure why I was supposed to give a damn about the Rulack character. Much of the first ten minutes was filler, just him wandering through night clubs--I think the ending would have been more satisfying if we knew more up front what that guy was all about.
Did anyone else notice how this episode borrowed heavily from Bret Easton Ellis's novel, Less Than Zero? There is a scene in that novel that depicts the exact same dead-bum scene we see in this episode. I also felt as if the characters were plucked from his early novels and renamed--the soulless youth of the the 80s. I feel like if this episode had been stretched an hour longer, it would have been an adaptation of Less Than Zero.
I also thought Helen Hunt's character was a clear reference to Edie Sedgwick from the 1960s. In fact, Edie Sedgwick starred in a film titled Poor Little Rich Girl (directed by Andy Warhol) that featured a very similar 3-way mirror, the application of makeup, the mole, and gender-bending sidekicks. And Edie was a voracious drug-user and depressive.
All in all, the ending seemed a little too cute and rushed. I wasn't sure why I was supposed to give a damn about the Rulack character. Much of the first ten minutes was filler, just him wandering through night clubs--I think the ending would have been more satisfying if we knew more up front what that guy was all about.
A highly disturbing episode...
braniki7 June 2006
...because so much ahead of its time. The unusual concept of "real-tv-camera-on-the-shoulder" type of film puts the audience in an very uncomfortable position. Despite Brad Davis' overacting , you get that unsettling feeling that what you are watching is actually happening in front of you, FOR REAL!!! You literally "become" the camera and take part of the action. The film gets made while it is shot in an underground world of idle youth lost in punk discos where sex, drug, and rock n'roll are necessarily involved. Don't count on me to tell you the twist ending, though you kind of guess it won't be pleasant for the leading protagonist. But this series got you used to that ironical sense of morality by now. Someone in the team of "Blair Witch Project" MUST have seen this one.
Pretty cool "found footage" episode
davidmalaimo8 November 2018
This episode is pretty neat. I honestly don't understand the person who said skip this episode. I get why some people would think it's bad, but I certainly don't think you should skip it by any means. Especially if your going off of the 30 episodes that were put on DVD. I'm gonna savor every episode. This episode is very captivating. The setting is cool. The characters are quite captivating. And it also seems to be an early foray into the found footage genre that horror fans love so much these days. It follows the formula pretty wel givin that it was made in the 80s. If anything it's just a cool, fun little episode of a show that hasn't gotten a proper DVD release
A very tense and gripping episode
Woodyanders5 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Smarmy and opportunistic reality TV show host Jerry Rulac (a lively performance by Brad Davis) does an expose on the wild punk nightclub scene for the latest segment of his television program "Why Are You Here?". Jerry uncovers more than he bargained for when he decides to focus on troubled wealthy party girl Donette (a sound and compelling portrayal by a then unknown Helen Hunt) and her unpredictable gaggle of scary low-life friends. Director Chris Thomson, working from a crafty and absorbing script by L.M. Kit Carson and Christopher Leitch, relates the riveting story at a nonstop brisk pace, offers a vivid and vibrant evocation of the gaudy and dangerous 80's punk nightclub scene, delivers the expected sizable quota of sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll, and ably creates and maintains a good deal of nerve-rattling tension. Moreover, this episode astutely nails the decadence and nihilism of lost 80's youth, has a valid central message about the potential perils of seeing too much, and further benefits from an inspired and dynamic use of a hand-held camera (frequent series cinematographer Thomas Burstyn does some of his best, most wired, and impressive work here). The bitterly ironic surprise grim ending packs an extremely potent and wicked punch. Well worth seeing for fans of this show.
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