Once a Thief

The movie is slow, and the writing, acting, and even directing are lame.

I fast-forwarded through most of the DVD. The only cool part is the "twisted leather freak." She's a babe!!

I love this series! Based on the trio antics of the movie by John Woo, this is a Canadian produced action comedy series. Li Ann and Mac try to get out of the Hong Kong Triad, Vic is set up by his dirty cop colleagues. Li Ann and Mac are separated, Mac ends up in jail, where he's approached by a slick high status woman with a proposal; come and work for her secret agency or rot in jail. Li Ann and Vic have gone the same route as Mac does, accepting the offer, and the three are put together as a team, with the woman, The Director, as a puppet master and boss. Cue adventures and intrigue.

It's a series driven by great actor chemistry, one-liners, timing, and the occasional hey-let's-do-martial-arts stuffing. My tastes exactly. A little cliché at first, perhaps, but some episodes are freakishly good. Ivan Sergei and Nick Lea work great together (how great? ask any slasher out there), Jennifer Dale is my GOD, the weird Agency that's always empty of people, camera and lighting, there's so much to love! And only one season's worth of episodes. *sobs*

Seemingly based on an earlier American TV show called "It Takes A Thief" that ran in the late 1960's starring Robert Wagner-this shows premise is different and plays more like a weirded out version of the British show "The Avengers." This show also uses a lot of odd camera angles and darkened shots. The plot lines vary a lot from good to just out and out wacky. I think too many mediocre scripts was a thing that worked against the show being renewed for another season. Shot in Vancouver BC-but you never really felt like it was shot in Canada somehow. Many Canadian shows these days don't show a lot of whats really in Canada-like they never ever show rickshaw drivers when filming something in Toronto-and you never hear mention of anything First Nations on most Canadian drama shows these days even though First Nations are a very visible part of the population in much of Canada. I think this show had too many shortcomings-in fact I think many Canadian TV shows are often too much of "lets play pretend" as if Canada had nothing to offer when it does have things to offer-but it also has some fairly morally ambiguous things-like rickshaw's which are basically the very definition of arduous slave labor. In an era that disapproves of slavery. Also Odd: the Canadian CBC will not not put out the once popular Canadian TV show "The Beachcombers" onto DVD. I find that completely weird-like someone today doesn't want anyone First Nations depicted as a normal part of a Canadian community- since when did Canada turn back the clock to 1865? Jennifer Dale's character on this show seems to continued on into the show Nikita that started in 1997 after this show ended.

This series didn't have even three original episodes. Everything was taken from something else, which explains in part why it failed so badly. Putting John Woo's name on the show didn't help -- especially when anyone who knew his style could tell he had nothing to do with it.

Canadian series' are typically low-budget, low-viewership dives, but "John Woo's Once a Thief" had potential. The two starring cast members, Ivan Sergei and Sandrine Holt, are both semi-talented individuals with a history of stealing the screen. Unfortunately, the non-existent plots and ridiculous story lines and dialogue helped kill this series pretty early. Supporting actors Nicholas Lea and Jennifer Dale both deserved better than filler time, and supporting cast member Vicky Pratt certainly deserved a spot in the opening credits, since her character was not only more interesting than BOTH the stars, she, unlike Lea and Dale, was given a storyline.

Anyone thinking of starting a series in Canada should take note of OAT's ending. This show was so low-rated, it barely finished the year intact. Only a few fervent Nicholas Lea fans (which is precisely why they hired him for the show), who followed him from FOX's soap "The X Files", managed to keep this show on the air long enough to finish the season.

John Woo's Once a Thief is one of the most interesting television which I have the pleasure of watching again and again. With a thick La Femme Nikita-like story-line and John Woo's unparalleled action scenes, Once a Thief is an action-comedy you do not want to miss.