 The Avengers '67 – Set 1 (1998) That description and the unexplored flirtatiousness of the two leads (Patrick MacNee as John Steed and Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel) peg The Avengers as a precursor to The X-Files, although its sense of humor puts it more in league with Batman or Third Rock From the Sun, though not so slapstick. For everything in the show that seems dated, there are ten other things that make any given episode immediately enjoyable, and though it takes a few episodes to "get into" the humor of the show, once you are in, it fast becomes a favorite. The Avengers '67 makes available the show's fifth season – the first season of the series to be broadcast in America, also the first season of the show that was filmed in color. It also may have been the series' best season, which would lose Diana Rigg to James Bond in '68. The video transfers are excellent and make today's television look like last week's Sunday comics, with brilliant cinematography and a deliberately buoyant use of color schemes. Each episode follows somewhat of a formula (strange death leads Steed and Mrs. Peel to an eccentric organization headed by a quirky villain; one or the other lead is put in peril; victory, and champagne) but the plots are so inventive that you hardly notice the theme for all the variations. Adding to the enjoyment are little in jokes here and there that poke fun at contemporary TV (there's a great Batman parody in "The Winged Avenger") and/or intentionally pander to American audiences (with exaggerated depictions of British speech and behavior). Too self-aware and genuinely funny to be considered camp, The Avengers is a rare show that succeeds in blending oddness, action, and brilliant visuals without getting too obtuse (hear me, Twin Peaks fans?! Oh wait, I'm a Twin Peaks fan). The first '67 box set (of four) contains three tapes, each with two episodes per tape; the DVD box is two discs. The episodes: "From Venus With Love" (eccentric organization obsessed with the planet Venus is finding its members are being murdered); "The Fear Merchants" (eccentric organization specializes in terrorizing people with their own deepest fears … for a fee); "Escape in Time" (eccentric organization assists fugitives from justice in hiding by means of time-travel); "The See-Through Man" (eccentric organization seems to have found a formula for invisibility); "The Bird Who Knew Too Much" (eccentric organization uses pigeons and parrots for miltary and political purposes); and "The Winged Avenger" (eccentric organization that publishes a popular comic book is finding its members are being murdered). These synopses don't do justice to the wide range of odd characters that populate the series, and ultimately, the show is much more about style and presentation than plot. Steed and Mrs. Peel have perhaps the greatest rapport in the history of television, and I'm including Briscoe and Logan from Law and Order! What makes the series so enjoyable to watch and re-watch is that so much goes unexplained – details such as how Steed always manages to notify Mrs. Peel that "We're Needed" in the most elaborate ways (such as by means of a stoplight that Mrs. Peel just happens to be driving toward). The dialogue is priceless, the costumes are endlessly entertaining (no catsuits in this box, unfortunately, but plenty of wild jumpers and bowler hats), and both leads are perennially charismatic. The Avengers is a smart show with tons of sex appeal, and A&E has done a great job of packaging it all nicely for retail, appealing to the perennial sucker for merchandising in me. I haven't seen the more recent film version of The Avengers, which has been so widely panned, but even so I suggest you skip that and head straight to the source to see what the buzz is all about. Just don't be surprised if you start fancying champagne and infiltrating eccentric societies with acronymic names.
Review by David Pea |