Night Man

Fantastic show, for the reasons that all others have disliked it. It's cheesy, very predictable, and great fun to watch because it's so poor. I cannot say anything positive about the quality of acting or production, (and the the blue-screen flying sequences are some of the worst I have ever seen!), yet the overall appeal comes from the enjoyment of seeing such low quality pulp TV. Surely to become a cult classic, as long as audiences don't take it too seriously, or expect too much!

Well, I tuned in to see something very funny and was not disappointed. I laughed till my cheeks were numb and I nearly went into a catatonic state. Only then did I slowly realise that this was supposed to be a serious sci-fi drama! Silly me! The plot was pathetic but what really made my laugh was the costumes! Why it was ever made is a mystery to me.

I always enjoyed this show. The Malibu comic that this was based on was fantastic. When they turned it into a syndicated TV show it looked quite a bit cheesier in flesh and blood than on the printed page, but I still really enjoyed it. The show did add some gadgets to the character that he didn't use in the original comic. Steve Englehart created the character of Night Man and he was okay with those changes. He wrote for the show and didn't think that the high tech gadgets got in the way of the heart and soul of the character. I agree. This was a fun show. Rumor has it that it would have gone another season if Marvel hadn't bought Malibu comics and then gone bankrupt. That's too bad. I always enjoyed Night Man. It was good fun!

I will not hold the producers of this series accountable for the drastic changes made to the character of The Night Man. In the comic books all he has is the one power, and though it is a really cool power, it is not extremely valuable on its own. The plot line of a first season episode actually revolves around this somewhat humbling fact. Because of this, The Night Man is not what you might call "made for TV", so I think some changes had to be made so that his character would look good in a Fantasy/SciFi/action genre. On a syndicated budget, this is a very tall order, yielding the cheesy results that have been mentioned in other posts. As far as the acting, it may not have been award-winning, but neither was it career-killing, and the music was excellent, thanks to Marc Bonilla. The writers did do a poor job with continuity, and some of the dialog seems a bit forced, but that just makes it even cheesier and thus much more enjoyable if you are in the mood for it. Syndicated TV series have, for a long time, been providing cheap thrills and guilty pleasures. At this, The Night Man series excels, making it a show well worth watching.

To all those superheros out there, I ask you this: "Can you play the saxophone and fight crime all in one day?" Director Nick Daniel brings a fresh new look to an overplayed theme of superheroes. Using his sheer brilliance, Daniel created the character Jonny Domino, aka Nightman, who is an amazing saxophone player but is "tuned to the frequency of evil." Domino is able to hear the plans of criminals, so he built a crime fighting suit that makes him look like a cross between Robocop and the Pumaman. I love this show but because it is only showed after 12am, I hardly get to watch it. I give this show a 10!