Page Fletcher stars as The Hitchhiker, a roaming philosophizer who offers insight into the minds of the fatally flawed people he meets during his travels.

A Canadian made TV-series, The Hitchhiker aired on HBO for four erratic seasons between 1983 and 1991. Each of the series' 85 30-minute episodes tells an unrelated story; with the only common bond being that The Hitchhiker appears to deliver his trademark psycho-babble narrative. It's a bit like a violence-and-nudity-laden version of The Twilight Zone, only with a greater focus on the human condition.

HBO Video's two-disc The Hitchhiker Volume 2 includes 10 episodes chosen from the entire span of the series. The episodes are as follows…

O.D. Feelin'
Directed by: Richard Rothstein
Season 1, Original Air Date 1/28/86

Small-time drug dealer Rat (Sandra Bernhard) witnesses a shootout during a cocaine deal gone wrong. With everyone dead, Rat steals a hefty bag of dope from the drug-lord.

Unfortunately the dope is a trouble magnet, and Rat is soon dead. The cycle continues as each successive holder meets his or her doom. Finally the bag makes its way into the hands of crime-lord Mr. Big (Gene Simmons), the dope's rightful owner. Or is he?

This episode is largely a goofy mess, and although the actors play it for laughs the script is humorless. A great ending isn't enough to save it.

True Believer
Directed by: Carl Schenkel
Season 1, Original Air Date 3/11/86

Detective Frank Sheen (Tom Skerritt) is sent to an abandoned convent to investigate a holy father's suicide.

Upon arriving, Sheen finds the building locked. He goes to the local church - passing The Hitchhiker along the way and promptly giving him the finger - to ask Father Dowling (Walter Learning) for the keys. Dowling warns Sheen not to enter the convent because it was "demonically infested" when a nun committed suicide on the altar.

Unshaken, Sheen ignores the warnings. He enters the building to face the demons that will manifest as his own greatest personal fears.

With top-notch story-telling True Believer is a gem. Excellent direction, dynamic camera angles and movement, and impressive set design combine to really pack a punch. The result is a genuinely scary affair.

Perfect Order
Directed by: Daniel Vigne
Season 2, Original Air Date 2/17/87

Famous photographer Simon Hopper (Steve Inwood) is in search of the ultimate human perfection - a goal he pursues by practically torturing female models while photographing them.

Christina (Virginia Madsen) is a model who wants, above all, to be famous. She begs Hopper to photograph her, agreeing to go along with whatever he wants her to do.

Let's just say that Hopper's search for perfection involves pain, suffering and lots of crazy blue laser beams. He's more than a little bit crazy.

A good episode held back by a predictable ending.

Cabin Fever
Directed by: Clyde Monroe
Season 2, Original Air Date 5/12/87

Rick Henson (Michael Woods) is a player who leaves a trail of seduced women in his wake.

When he meets Miranda (Season Hubley), aboard her sailboat, it is lust at first sight. Miranda hires Henson as a "cabin boy," and informs her husband Cameron (Jerry Orbach) that he will be staying with them for a weekend on their personal island.

At the island cabin Cameron, a surly horror film-director who treats Henson with constant disrespect, plunges heavily into the tequila and begins to yell at Miranda. Before their argument escalates to violence, Cameron goes outside to check his animal traps.

Miranda and Henson use their alone time to explore the basement wine cellar, which is accessible through a hatch under the kitchen. When Cameron comes home they have sex right under his feet.

Miranda reveals that her husband sometimes hits her, and pulls out a gun she proposes Henson use to take Cameron out. Although he doesn't agree to kill Cameron, the cocky Henson concocts a plan to lock him in the basement.

But the plan doesn't go smoothly. In the words of the Hitchhiker "like all gamesman, Rick [Henson] had finally met his match."

Another good episode highlighted by a strong performance by Orbach. Thankfully he is convincing enough to offset Wood's soap-opera style delivery.

A Whole New You
Directed by: Patricia Mazuy
Season 4, Original Air Date 2/1/91

No one kills Augie Benson.

But Benson (Elliot Gould), a psychopathic killer himself, enters a witness protection program just in case. Part of the protection afforded him is a stay at a plastic surgery hospital where he will "get a new face."

After a week of extensive medical tests, Augie demands that surgery commence the next morning. But that night Augie sneaks into the operating room. He sees MRI scans of his brain and medical tools used to cut through bone. He stumbles into a recovery room where several senseless patients rest - each lobotomized.

Needless to say Augie makes a break for it.

A Whole New You is a claustrophobic, tense episode brought to realization by an incredible psychopathic performance by Gould and skillful direction and camera movement by Mazuy.

Dead Heat
Directed by: Kees Van Oostrum
Season 2, Original Air Date 3/3/87

Fred Ward plays Luther, an obsessed-with-death sculptor who takes inspiration from real-world tragedies and recreates them with mannequins.

Luther's helper and lover is Arielle (Denise Galik), who he routinely abuses and very nearly kills. Luther also recruits a helper named Cal (Scott McGinnis). But when Cal and Arielle become romantically linked, Luther decides to turn the tables and create the ultimate work of art.

Dead Heat is well made but it ultimately feels uninspired. It's certainly redundant in this collection, as it explores a theme very similar to Perfect Order.

The Curse
Directed by: Phillip Noyce
Season 1, Original Air Date 2/25/86

In a run-down apartment building a tenant falls through a broken stairway railing to the ground two stories below.

Landlord Jerry (Harry Hamlin) goes to investigate the building - the first time he has ever been there - and is shocked at its state of disrepair. He promises tenant Serita (Beah Richards) that he'll fix the place up.

Unfortunately for Jerry, Serita practices voodoo. And when a voodoo curse and snakes are involved Jerry better be a man of his word.

This episode features some great makeup effects, as the curse takes the form of a mysterious snake tattoo that causes Jerry to bleed uncontrollably as it slowly winds its way from his foot towards his neck.

Great stuff here for horror fans, except the tacked-on cop-out of a moralistic ending.

Out of the Night
Directed by: Brian Grant
Season 1, Original Air Date 10/29/85

Killer on the run Peter (Ricky Paul Goldin) escapes to a hotel where his friend, and the only person that will help him, Baxi works.

In search of Baxi, Peter meets the hotel's stage magician Angelica (Kirstie Alley). And let me tell you when she demonstrates her magic things start to get really weird.

What follows is an indescribable series of surreal, disjointed scenes that will have you scratching your head until everything comes together nicely at the end.

Secret Ingredient
Directed by: Colin Bucksey
Season 2, Original Air Date 5/5/87

Super-salesman Chris (Dean Paul Martin) is obsessed with the bottom line.

He charms women of all ages into becoming distributors, at a cost of thousands, for his Fit Forever nutritional supplement. He stoops so low that he even peddles his products to old ladies in nursing homes.

But Chris's newest client Belinda (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) has another idea in mind, one that that leads Chris to a fateful meeting with the occult.

Secret Ingredient is a good episode that rewards our internal desire to give those crooked used-car salesman types what they deserve.

Man of Her Dreams
Directed by: Phillip Noyce
Season 1, Original Air Date 4/8/86

Jill (Marilyn Hassett) is always dreaming about the perfect man - a man who no living person can match.

But recently Jill's dreams have taken a darker tone, as her ideal man ends turns into a murderer. When the same exact murders start taking place in real-life Jill can no longer separate her fantasies from reality.

Is Jill having psychic premonitions or is she just nuts? Will she be the next murder victim?

This is an interesting episode that provides a couple real chills, but its anti-climatic ending softens the impact.

Unfortunately HBO Video's DVD presentation of The Hitchhiker Volume 2 is blemished by unrelenting problems that affect the picture quality of almost every episode. Digital artifacts blemish skin tones, and scan lines and distortion are momentarily visible during quick cuts. Both of these prove to be progressively distracting over the course of the five-hour running time. On a good note sound quality is excellent throughout.

Scarce extras include audio commentary by director Carl Schenkel for True Believer, and director Phillip Noyce joins actor Harry Hamlin to commentate The Curse. English, French and Spanish subtitles are also available.

The episodes included in The Hitchhiker Volume 2 represent the series well, with the only real stinker being O.D. Feelin'. This two-disc set is an enjoyable ride for both long-time Hitchhiker fans and newcomers alike.