Jason King

I'd heard for years that JASON KING was a campy badly dated clown show, but after watching it I strongly disagree. There are several good to very good to excellent episodes.

There are also some clunkers, not so much for their comical fashions and out-of-style mores, but for how dull they are as entertainment.

My picks for top quality are:

E01 - "Wanna Buy A Television Series?" E04 - "A Deadly Line of Digits" E05 - "Variations on a Theme" E09-E10 - "All That Glisters..." (Parts I & II) E14 - "Uneasy Lies the Head"

The two-part movie length adventure (9-10) is the best of the series, maybe the best of the entire DEPARTMENT S/JASON KING run, thanks to its sprawling cast, obvious larger budget & location shooting around Paris.

Peter Wyngarde was a unique actor, Jason King is his signature role. DEPARTMENT S, when it worked, had better and more intriguing plots overall, plus a terrific trio of stars, but several episodes of JASON KING are as good (though the failures are duller and worse).

After the huge success of 'Department S', in which the character of Jason King had quickly become dominant, a spin-off series was developed called (not surprisingly) 'Jason King'.

King had left Department S and was working on his novels - the 'Mark Cain' stories. The rest of the cast of Department S did not appear at all, and were never mentioned.

The general premise for the show was that King wandered around the world living a playboy lifestyle and each week was somehow drawn into a crime which he neatly solved in time for the end credits. British Intelligence were often hounding him to work for them as a freelance which he generally resisted until they reminded him of his back-taxes. The series was made on location around Europe, in contrast to Department S which never left the back-lot at Pinewood.

Overall the series lacked much of the original sparkle and zest of Department S, the plots were much thinner and less original, and Wyngarde was becoming to old to play the part of a trend-setting playboy convincingly.

This is by way of a comment on one of the other reviews.

The episode "All that Glisters..." was playing recently on a TV that I could hear but not see. "Thunderbirds!" I thought since I could clearly hear the voice of Scott Tracey. On going in to actually watch the TV I was amazed to see that it was Jason King rather than Thunderbirds and that bizarrely Clinton Greyn was speaking with Scott Tracey's voice. The lip-sync was excellent but it was clearly a dubbed voice since the acoustic was different. And of course, rather than Greyn's rounded Welsh tones we were getting the distinctive Canadian sound of Shane Rimmer. Cant understand why they did this - and then not credit it? Weird.

Compared to its predecessor Department S, Jason King was a generally enjoyable but sometimes uneven show which pointed to the impending decline of the ITC adventure series. Though many of the stories were good with excellent guest actors, and there was an emphasis on style, the series suffered from budgetary constraints compared to its contemporaries in 1971. These included grainy 16mm film, too much studio filming/stock footage and no matter where in the world a particular episode was set, any cars used tended to be right hand drive including in particular a recurring Vauxhall Viva that turned up in episodes set in France, Turkey and the Far East among others. Other ITC series disguised these discrepancies better.

It was also sometimes slow moving and lacking in atmosphere, concentrating on King's style, flamboyance, social graces and relationships with whichever guest actress(es) were in the particular episode, rather than other characters and the ultimate plots, which were becoming clichéd. The show may have benefited if there had been regular support actors to play with/against King in every episode.

Nevertheless, Jason King is one of the most memorable TV characters of that era, if not of all time, and the best episodes were very good indeed. Being forever identified as Jason King, and unfortunately caught up in a minor scandal, whether Peter Wyngarde could have continued to be (or wanted to be) a convincing leading man in subsequent years is debatable. He would have been excellent in lighter fare such as sitcoms and perhaps even as a Doctor Who. His relative obscurity is a loss to TV and movies.

Well, I may have a different view on this type of show than other reviewers. When I put on one of these DVD episodes I'm not expecting a mind bending plot experience or to be blown away by production values.

I put this on and I just go back. Back to the 70's and 80's (where I find my favorite TV programs, it was just a special time) and I can overlook a very lot of flaws. Thing is I'm American and never heard of Peter or this or the previous series until around 3 months ago, yet it still gives me nostalgia and I love British TV, maybe because there are so many new things to find I didn't have before.

This was just a different time and I can feel it and really enjoy everything about this. As far as Peter being the sole protagonist, this is actually fine with me. He is so entertaining that I enjoy every second of him being on screen. Yes I plan to get the Section "S"(I think that is the correct name) DVD's as well as honestly it's true they were better, the same "sniper" pistol is used over and over and over as a prop in this series due to budget, and the film isn't mega-HD (in fact I thought I bought a bootleg when first watching my copies) But I really don't care.

Peter is great and it's just fun. I love it but I'm hella nostalgic, I love to put on the series and just to watch or maybe let it run while I do something else, who wants today's TV in the background making you depressed with how terrible everyone is to each other as that seems to be what makes you "interesting" nowadays's--how much of a jerk you can be to others. Even as a womanizer Peter (Jason) is still more polite and a gentlemen than anyone on TV now. The reason I longer have cable.

As someone mentioned, at least these old shows HAD characters, flawed or not. Something you can not find in today's TV.