Jack, le vengeur masqué

Yesterday, I sat down to watch the series premier of "Jack of all Trades." I was expecting something in the tradition of "Hercules: the Legendary Journeys." I was wrong. Bruce Campbell has never been funnier. And I really enjoyed his boss, Angela Maria Dotchin. This is the first time in like six years since Bruce Campbell had his own series. I can't wait to see where it goes.

Bruce Campbell shines in this action series set in the early 1800's. Bruce plays an American spy named Jack who is assigned to an island to keep Napoleon at bay. Not wanting the U.S. to become a French-speaking country, Jack agrees. Once there, Jack finds himself with a beautiful British woman assigned as his partner. Over the course of his adventures, Jack finds himself having to occasionally assume the role of a swashbuckling local folk hero named the Daring Dragoon.

Bruce Campbell is very entertaining to watch in this show, playing his Jack character as sort of a cross between Zorro and Ash. A must-see for any Bruce fan. The only drawback is that it's only 30 minutes long. So just as things are starting to take off, the show suddenly ends. I guess we can hope that the awful "Cleopatra 2525" gets cancelled and the show gets expanded to an hour.

The Plot overview here isn't entirely correct. It is the early 19th century when "Jack of All Trades" takes place and he is an American agent working with Emilia, a British agent, against the evil Imperialist forces of Napoleon. "J.O.A.T" has almost everything that one could demand in a TV show, swashbuckling, sword fighting, action, early 19th century hotties and a super hero (That's right Jack (already a secret agent) gets to have a mask wearing dual identity, called the Dragoon), and most importantly it stars Bruce Campbell. Jack also has something else that most shows have been lacking these last few years, that being a rocking, rollicking theme song. The song is sung by dancing Pirates, Bar Maids and Revolutionary Soldiers as well as a singing parrot. Jack himself is the perfect hero for Bruce Campbell to play, described as a "Scoundrel with a Heart" by the theme. Jack is like a fusion between James Bond, the Scarlet Pimpernel (except not as fopish), Zorro and most importantly now Ash. The only shame is that unlike it's older siblings "Hercules" and "Xena", "Jack of All Trades is only half and hour long. Oh well maybe this will draw in people with short attention spans.

yes people will complain about the cheesy dialogue or the predictable plots. but its Bruce Campbell doing what he does best. The shows main fault was the plots were too rushed. It should have been a hour long like Xena and Hercules. Oh well it will always be better than that dismall Cleopatra 2525.

JACK OF ALL TRADES is mostly fun and spectacle, in the twenty minutes of each episode we have great slapstick as only Bruce Campbell can do, great swordfights, really bad ( but funny, often politically incorrect ) one-liners, talking parrots, jokes about the french and to summarize it, it can be very immature. But good executed. So a whole lot of fun. It's comparable to Brisco County in the fact that modern inventions are often used as deus ex machina, but it is not as emotionally. The whole setting reminds more of the Wild,Wild West Movie than of Brisco. The guests are great fun, for instance Verne Troyer as Napoleon goes where Mini-me of Austin Powers not even dared to.

Watch it for the fun of it.