The
Equalizer: The Complete Series - Limited Edition
(1985 - 1989/Universal/VEI DVD Box Set)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B Episodes: B
Television
in the 1980s saw a serious decline in quality and most of the shows
greenlit were boring or a joke, especially later in the decade and it
took a long time to TV to recover as it has. CBS put a new show on
their schedule in Fall 1985 with an odd premise that no one knew how
to read at first. A mysterious man places ads to contact him if you
need help and are in trouble with nowhere else to turn. Was it a
religious, feel-good show? Was it a comedy? Was it just a gimmicky
joke? It sounded like the networks were greenlighting any idea just
to waste the viewers' time, but something else was going on. How
would the person placing the ad deliver said services?
Then
comes the title, The
Equalizer.
Was this a joke too, the name of a component for hi-fi systems?
Then there was this British man, an extremely well-spoken, smart,
confident, well-dressed man played by an actor few in the U.S. had
heard of, but big fans of British film, and TV knew: the mighty
Edward Woodward. Surfacing in important historical and crime drama
feature films, his biggest hit TV show had never reached the U.S.,
but Callan
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) had him as a deadly, old school
hitman pulling off the most dangerous secret missions while still
fighting with his bosses. One of the great spy shows of all time, it
only made it to home video in the U.S. a few years ago, and only the
later full color episodes at that.
Writer/Producer
Michael Sloan was a big fan and knew how great Woodward was, so he
decided to create a new kind of show that had the odd premise, but
was secretly a spy show about old, unfinished business (even taking
off from the lost agent theme of the British hit Man
In A Suitcase
(one of the only British TV shows ever to make U.S. prime time TV,
also reviewed on this site) about an agent who had run afoul of the
CIA and was traveling Europe redeeming his past while battling evil.
His name was McGill.
Now
finally arriving with its full; 4-year run in one amazing DVD set,
The
Equalizer: The Complete Series - Limited Edition
(1985 - 1989) includes the second, third and fourth season never
issued in North America before and a ton of extras doing justice to
what turned out to be the last great Cold War era spy series.
Woodward is McCall, the man you call when the
odds are against you
and he fixes things, doing this to make up for the ugly things that
happened in his spy past and in part, his failures to be a full time
father to his artistic, smart, good son Scott (highly underrated work
by William Zabka). However, the Cold War is not over, ugly new
enemies are showing up in New York City (et al, prophetically as it
turned out) and he gets many a visit from his old contact only known
as Control (Robert Lansing) who he has civilized conversation with
half the time... and gets into intense fights and shouting matches
with the rest of the time.
Driving
around in his U.S. 4-door Jaguar XJ-6 S2, McCall is as bookwise as he
is streetwise, does not care what he has to do to finish a mission
and is the threat hardly anyone suspects. Woodward gets to pick up
where Callan
left off in a way that that series never seemed to have the proper
closure (even after a 1974 theatrical film and later reunion TV
movie, the latter of which was late in the game) so there was much
left to say, show and do. Best of all was having a man with his
superior command of English giving high class speeches about how
these people were scum and made him feel dirty, that he had to lower
himself to their lowest level, all while beating them up, slamming
them and yelling speeches at them in the process. McCall was more
than original in this respect, dealing with the nihilism that had
just surfaced in 1980s America and a pre-revived New York City. The
show holds up well, especially in its first two seasons, where most
of the shows defy their age, especially in the Cold War storylines,
because the show's action was not always about Cold War spying at all
and then, it was also a character examination of the people, the
world and the man himself asking dark questions TV rarely does on
either side of the Atlantic.
Season
One
immediately established McCall as a no-nonsense force who was not
going to tolerate any kind of rot, corruption or foolishness. As an
assistant when needed, he hires Mickey Kostmayer (Keith Szarabajka)
when tactical activities get tougher than expected, as well as
turning to Mark Margolis as Jimmy and Sal Rubinek as Jason when
needed. Jerry Stiller turns up in the pilot involving advanced
blackmail. A Triad/Chinatown gang thinks they kidnapped the son of a
wealthy Chinese couple, but grab the maid's son instead. McCall
intervenes as the script deals well with class division. Melissa Leo
shows up in a show about a Soviet defector, while Adam Ant (not in
the episode enough) plays a seductive pimp who kidnaps the daughter
of a tourist couple (J.T Walsh is the father) in an early darker show
and Karen Young (The
Sopranos,
Heat,
Hoffa,
9 1/2
Weeks,
Birdy)
in Lady
Cop
has to deal with three corrupt male cops, so you-know-who gets
involved in another classic show.
No
one was laughing and the show was a much-needed hit for CBS, Woodward
became a star all over again and the show was on a roll, including
actors who were known or about to become big names in almost every
episode. The lack of quality TV drama by this time only helped the
show and the show never sold out its dark side when most everything
else on 1980s TV did. Yes, there are odd moments, like McCall
sounding more like De Niro in Taxi
Driver
or some of the triumphant moments that contrast oddly with the rest
of the show, but the show had guts and would try things most shows
would not. That ambition also helps it hold up today.
Linda
Thorson (The
Avengers)
shows up (again, not long enough) as a deadly operative in No
Conscience,
though not as Tara King, of course. We also get shows where the
interests of the Company lands up crossing into McCall's client's
serious troubles, which always makes for great conflicts throughout
the show. Austin Pendleton shows up in too few episodes as Jonah.
The great journeyman director Russ Mayberry, who sadly just passed
away not long ago, helmed some of the strongest shows in the series
and they stand up with his remarkable best career work. Alan Metzger
(who also lensed some shows), Donald Petrie, Richard Compton, Ron
Holcomb, Michael O'Herlihy, Paul Krasny and Gordon Hessler were among
the other solid directors helming various episodes.
By
Season
Three,
Woodward was having unexpected health issues so to get real life
treatment (as I've noted before), the makers, Universal, CBS and
Woodward
had to allow his character to be kidnapped (Robert Mitchum was hired
to play an old friend who could help out in what also looked like a
potential spin-off idea that never happened) and Richard Jordan
(Logan's
Run)
became an assistant who was once a killer hired to kill McCall. At
the same time, the scripts were running into the trouble of the
weekly TV grind, especially in the days when an hour-long season was
over 22 episodes, so that threw its momentum off. As noted before as
well, I enjoyed the opening two-parter where a priest played by Telly
Savalas was being tormented by a terrorist played by William Atherton
(Die
Hard)
and we get a Christmas episode about a child with AIDS being
threatened that is more in line with how daring the show could be.
However, Woodward was getting tired as indicated by his not yelling
enough at enough people. We see some other familiar faces including
a young boys who gets kidnapped played by a then unknown Macaulay
Culkin, whose name is only in the end credits. There are three
two-parters altogether, Tobe Hooper directs the No
Place Like Home
episode and the writers try to deal with more of McCall's secret
past, but the developments here start to strain credibility
By
the final season of Season
Four,
as noted, it was obvious that Woodward was no longer in the total
health to do the role and the writing was sadly becoming thin despite
adding new talent behind the scenes with those already making the
show. At least the final episodes here have some watchable moments
and the show ended with its dignity in tact. Unknown to anyone at
the time, the Cold War would end one year after the show, with ironic
timing at that. In the end, Woodward became a permanent part of U.S.
pop culture and the show at least a minor classic of its genre.
Thus,
it comes as no surprise that only serious Academy Award-winning
actors (Russell Crowe was first considered before Denzel Washington
signed on in the new, varied remake) were in the running to just
begin
to step into Woodward's shoes. He was that great and the proof is
across all 30 DVDs in this set including all 88 episodes of the show.
The
1.33 X 1 image on the episodes are different than the U.S. Universal
Home Video Season
One
DVD set or the four Umbrella Entertainment DVD sets for all four
seasons offering darker, even redder transfer with less depth and
detail than the Australian sets in particular, but not as watery as
any of those releases. I favor the early Australian seasons, but
consider the differences at a draw, as some VEI transfers are better
and less red than others. The show was shot well on 35mm film and
that one reason it holds up as well as it does, along with
Moonlighting,
St.
Elsewhere,
early Hart
To Hart
and early Dynasty
seasons as among the best-shot U.S. TV shows of the 1980s. This one
happens to be the darkest, so DVD can only capture the range of black
and darkness so well, while color range is still not bad.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on all shows is not as distorted as it
can get on the Australian sets, but not always as clear as the U.S.
Universal Home Video Season
One
DVD set, falling in between the two. The sound needs a little work
(wish we had isolated music tracks for Stewart Copeland's music) and
VEI added a disclaimer about the limits of the video masters used for
the set. Possibly one of the last filmed TV shows not finished on
NTSC standard definition video, HD upgrades are needed for all the
shows, but a DVD version would only show limited improvements versus
the likes of Blu-ray in this case.
Extras
in this excellent box packaging with a solid flip top includes a
well-illustrated booklet on the series including informative text, a
classic audio commentary track by co-creator Michael Sloan on the
pilot episode, stills section, a great new Making Of featurette
called The
Story Of The Equalizer,
Woodward's
last professional work in a feature film called A
Congregation Of Ghosts
and
an amazing bonus in CI5:
The New Professionals: The Complete Series,
making its North American home video debut before its big hit
predecessor The
Professionals
(now out
on Blu-ray in the U.K.!) does. Woodward was the head of the new team
of the troubleshooting group, but the show was very mixed and failed
to catch on despite his presence. It is still worth a look just for
him in it.
So
as they did for the underrated In
Search Of..
speculative TV series with Leonard Nimoy (also reviewed elsewhere on
this site), VEI has again delivered a top rate box set that all
serious collectors should have. The
Equalizer
is not just a cult show, but was a legitimate hit series worth your
time all over again.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
