1965-1967
(TV Series)
This is supposed to be just a movie review blog, but I can't resist adding this one TV show. I watched The Avengers when it was originally aired, but I hadn't seen any of the episodes since then until about a year ago, when I felt a sudden nostalgic yearning to own copies of the episodes that featured Diana Rigg as Emma Peel. I found out this set was available, and pulled out my charge card.
I didn't remember the show very well except for Emma Peel, having been a child when the episodes first aired. But I sure remembered Mrs. Peel - I wanted to grow up to be Emma Peel! She karate-chopped, sword-fought, out-smarted her foes, solved mysteries and crimes, wore great 60's clothes, had the perfect flip hairstyle, and saved her male partner John Steed from certain death as often as he saved her! All with a wry sense of humor, collected, the epitome of classy, and beautiful.
The episodes with Emma Peel comprised only a 2-year time frame of the series, but what a memorable time! The Megaset also includes galleries of rare, high-quality production stills from the archives of The Avengers. All the Avengers episodes ever made featuring Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel are in the set. I've been trying to watch them in sequence, but my husband prefers to pull out his personal favorites to watch, such as "The Queen of Sin", "The Winged Avenger", and "The Cybernauts".
Playful, stylish, classy, campy...and visually, these digitally remastered epsiodes are amazing. The black and white ones are very clear, and the color ones are extremely rich, lush in color. The beautiful and captivating theme music was some of the best of the times in TV shows. As for the scripts, as an adult, I can actually understand and appreciate the tongue-in-cheek humor inherent in the show! What a fun show. And with Patrick MacNee as the suave, jovial and warm John Steed, her partner in crime-solving, MacNee and Rigg - who had wonderful chemistry on-screen - made for some of the best years of "The Avengers."
2 comments:
I've only seen one episode of the original series. I can tell you really love it and I'm kinda curious as to how you felt about the remake made a few years ago with uma thurman and ray fienes (meh). Just cause. :o)
The movie version of the series was terrible. I think Ralph Fiennes is great, but he was terribly miscast in that role, although it was fun seeing him in a bathtub. ;)
And Uma Thurman was awful as Mrs. Peel. A better Mrs. Peel would have been Elizabeth Hurley, for instance. I don't know offhand who would have been great as John Steed but Fiennes never would have been my choice in the first place. He was far too serious and cold in that part. And Sean Connery should never have stooped to his role in it. The film was bad in a way that was boring, not funny even. Dull, dull, dull.
So that's what I thought of the film of the series! It tanked.
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