It’s about time for a Random Carusometer, I think. This time, it’s the turn of Eli Stone, which only scored a three on The Carusometer for its third-episode verdict. It’s done a bit better this time.
Continue reading “The Random Episode Carusometer: Eli Stone”
Well, folks, I did say there was going to be a chance I did episode by episode reviews of Ashes to Ashes and here I am, not doing a review of the fifth episode of Ashes to Ashes. Sorry, I had to go pick my wife up from the station midway through and I haven’t watched the end of it yet.
More to the point, I’ve had every chance to but I haven’t. I haven’t felt motivated. Last night’s seemed quite well written, like the writer (who also wrote last week’s) knew what he was doing. I just didn’t really enjoy it, right up until the moment I turned off the telly.
I’m trying to work out what the problem is with Ashes to Ashes. Why is it just not very interesting?
Glen A Larson was the king of 1980s action series. He created Magnum, Knight Rider, Battlestar Galactica, The Fall Guy, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as well as less well known shows such as The Highwayman, Manimal and Automan.
Recently, he’s become all the rage again with a rather good remake of Battlestar Galactica now about to enter its fourth season and Knight Rider having been made into a TV movie that will probably be a series in the Fall.
So, what do you reckon should (or will) be the next remake on the cards – because you know there will be one? Magnum‘s been in development as a movie for ages. Do you reckon it will emerge into the light first? Or will it be something else? And who do you think should star in it? Or how should it be altered for the new millennium, if at all?
Some enterprising soul has uploaded the whole of Callan: The Movie (aka This is Callan) onto YouTube. God bless ’em.
For the unenlightened, Callan, starring future Equalizer Edward Woodward, was one of the best spy shows of the 60s, eschewing the flash and escapism of James Bond, The Man From UNCLE, The Avengers et al in favour of a far more downbeat, Ipcress File approach to spies.
David Callan, a regular ex-army working class man who lives in a grotty flat and does menial clerical jobs to make ends meet, is really one of the guys who does the dirty work for the British government: assassinations, blackmail, kidnappings and more. Although the plots are cracking Cold War fun, as much of the show is about Callan’s feelings of guilt over his work, as well as his fear that if he can’t do the job any more, he’ll end up in a ‘red file’ just like his victims. There’s also the interplay with his rather smelly informant (Russell Hunter), understandably nicknamed ‘Lonely’, his far posher partners Meres (played first by Peter Bowles then by Anthony Valentine) and Cross (Patrick Mower), and his revolving series of bosses, all of whom are called ‘Hunter’.
It’s quite dark and nasty, so I love it. I’ve droned on about it elsewhere so you can read there for more info. It’s worth checking out – particularly the black and white episodes if you can find them, but the colour ones are available from various bargain stores, I’m sure (they’re a bit over-priced on Amazon at the moment), and the movie is available from Amazon at a more reasonable rate.
The movie is really just another adaptation of the original Armchair Theatre play that launched the series in the 60s, A Magnum For Schneider. It has few of the original cast, only Woodward and Hunter, with Peter Egan stepping into Valentine’s shoes and Eric Porter becoming the last in a long line of Hunters (until the 80s ‘reunion episode’ Wet Job). It also has an awful theme tune, which is sad, because the Callan title sequence is one of the most iconic in TV history – and I’ve put it below for your enjoyment. Nevertheless, the movie does give you a flavour of the show’s downbeat style and is better than nothing. It should be easily digestible in nine minute chunks and the first part, which I’ve put at the top of the post, gets to the point very quickly.
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