Skunkyrate
Gripping story with well-crafted characters
Portia Hilton
Blistering performances.
Darin
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
alexanderdavies-99382
In spite of how "The Avengers" series is best known, the opening season was a completely different kettle of fish.The season from 1961 - mainly missing sadly - was more of a conventional police thriller. None of the programme's quirky humour was displayed, there was no female leading character and John Steed was technically the second lead behind Ian Hendry as Dr. David Keel. The general synopsis was usually as follows: Keel would be approached by Steed who would seek the good Drs help in the fight against the latest villains of the show. Dr. Keel was most reticent about becoming involved in Steeds assignments but invariably was.Only 3 episodes from 1961 exist and including the first 15 minutes of the opening episode.Judging by the existing 3, the more gritty and realistic style works very well. Ian Hendry and the only John Steed - Patrick Macnee - compliment each other. After Ian Hendry decided to focus on a film career, Patrick Macnee was made the show's leasing character. In addition, he would be the actor who would appear in more episodes than anyone else. The series seemed to struggle in finding it's form/style. The characters of Dr. Martin King and that of the pop star Venus Smith, aren't all that interesting but one or two episodes they are in are quite good.When Honor Blackman joined the series in 1962 for its second season, everything changed for the better. The series became ground-breaking in having a regular female character who was just as tough, brave, resilient and intelligent as John Steed.The second and third seasons feature some marvellous episodes - too many to list them here. The series was firmly established as a huge success with Britain and the two leading actors became very popular with the viewers.With Honor Blackman leaving in 1964 to appear in "Goldfinger" opposite Sean Connery, major changes were about to occur for "The Avengers" series.Having been shot on video and in whole takes as though filmed live, now the show would be filmed on film and eventually in colour. In particular though, the most popular female character of them all would help tremendously in pushing the series to its peak of popularity - Diana Rigg as Emma Peel.The on-screen chemistry between the characters of John Steed and Emma Peel was both natural and highly effective. The episodes were better than ever - several masterpieces are included and eventually, America became interested in securing the rights in broadcasting "The Avengers."It came as a bit of a shock when Diana Rigg announced she was leaving the series. She had made the Emma Peel character her own.For my money, the series declined in overall quality. The rather eccentric humour from the Emma Peel era worked for those episodes. Now with Linda Thorson was cast as Tara King, the stories became a bit too silly and I find many of the last season's episodes rather irksome.The other problem I find with the last episodes, is that Linda Thorson has neither the acting ability nor the kind of personality that Diana Rigg brought to "The Avengers." 1969 was the right time to bring the series to a close. It had lasted over 180 episodes since 1961 and has earnt its place in British television history.
aa56
Did anyone care if the show had severe failings?"...made them ever so slightly ludicrous - because we thought that life was ludicrous anyway, which it is! To stay alive and all, you have to be slightly mad - but you also had to be basically cool. We used that, we tilted it a bit, we made it funny and the show worked." – Patrick MacneeIt had farcical, formulaic stories. Examples: -- someone arranges to meet Steed or Emma somewhere and then gets killed just before the latter arrives; -- the time-filling banter with an eccentric Englishman (pardon my redundancy); -- very rarely are doors locked. Steed and Emma simply open them and walk in no matter what the facility is; -- Emma often gets tied up so old English gentlemen can have their private fantasies; -- no one ever kills Steed or Emma when they have opportunity and motive--they simply secure them or knock them out; -- a minor character shown in the beginning often is the chief villain; –- obvious back-screen projection and stunt doubles; –- villains are rendered unconscious with the slightest of falls, hitting some object, or being lightly struck; –-reused sets, locations, props, and actors (such as Jack Watson); –- amateur special effects and some props (a revolver with a silencer?!).Someone wrote that "Honey West" was canceled because there wasn't room or budget for both of these shows to be on the air, and The Avengers won, but Honey West tried to take itself seriously, whereas The Avengers didn't, so it's too bad they didn't keep both, for Anne Francis and Diana Rigg were the only reasons for males to watch either show. The best episodes for seeing the most Rigg flesh are "The Girl from Auntie," "A Touch of Brimstone," and "Honey for the Prince."So did anyone care if the show had severe failings? No, because it had Diana Rigg.
Robert J. Maxwell
I can only comment on the episodes using Patrick MacNee and Diana Rigg between 1965 and 1968.What a diverting show it was. MacNee is John Steed, the proper gentleman in bowler hat, wielding his deadly brolly. His character and appearance are perfect for a vehicle like this. It isn't so much that he was never nonplussed, so much as that he was always plussed. Rigg is Emma Peel in her jump suits, zippered up front, with that tantalizing, over-sized ring dangling from the zipper just below her sternoclavicular notch. Diana Rigg has a curious beauty. She sports a pair of wide-set eyes, elevated cheekbones, a perfunctory nose and tiny lips, like a Hentai cartoon. She's a good actress too. Did a fine job as one of the bad daughters in Lawrence Olivier's TV production of "King Lear." She was so popular at the time she left this series that she was whisked off to Broadway for "Abelard and Heloise," which included a topless scene. I understand the theater was jammed, but then the story has always been immensely popular with the masses. There are Abelard and Heloise fan clubs in every dusty little town in the world.The two of them work off each other very well, whether popping the cork of a champagne bottle or fending off evildoers. Their, um, relationship is never fully explained. They both work for some ultra-secret British government organization apparently. Each show opens with Mrs. Peel uncovering a message from Steed, coyly hidden in a box of chocolate or under some peeling wallpaper -- "Mrs. Peel. We're needed." The forces they battle are absurd. Some fantastic organization is breeding a horde of robotic soldiers in a vast, excavated place under a cemetery, and they plan to emerge and take over the British Isles. Or another cabal -- P.U.R.R. -- has invented a device that turns ordinary pussy cats into demonic, homicidal beasts that will be used to eliminate the world's leaders so that P.U.R.R. can take over. Somebody is always trying to take over the world. And Steed and Mrs. Peel are always there to thwart their plans.It isn't broad comedy. A viewer is more likely to smile than laugh out loud. But the scripts are quietly witty and suggestive. The episode about felines -- "The Hidden Tiger" -- has an uncountable number of references and puns on the subject. P.U.R.R. is run by a Mr. Cheshire. (Cheshire cat, get it? "Alice in Wonderland"?) The manager's name is Mr. Manx. Too many puns on pussies and cats to enumerate, but the last word spoken in the episode is "cat-astrophe." The fashion is that of Britain in the period of the early Beatles, and Carnaby Street, and the general sense conveyed is that of a loose-limbed freedom from earlier conventions. Nothing is taken seriously. If a man drops dead in front of Steed and Mrs. Peel, they kneel down, check his pulse, and look at each other with a slight, quizzical frown.The plots are convoluted, and it's easy to lose track of what's going on. At times, one's mind drifts. A series like this must walk a tightrope. "Whimsy" can too easily slip into "cute" or, worse, the abyssal "silly." But the plot is never very important anyway.Everything is handled with style and panache. Bowler-hatted or coiffed auburn, these episodes are heads and shoulders above most of the junk that fill the TV screens today.
inframan
The best in terms of plot. The best in terms of invention. The best in terms of style. The best in terms of acting. The best in terms of direction. The best in terms of documenting a classic era. The best in terms of showcasing all kinds of brilliant actors in early stages of their careers (Peter Bowles, John Wood, Donald Sutherland...ad infinitum...) The best in term of originality & freshness. Just the very best!
