CI5: The New Professionals

I had the misfortune of coming across this one boring evening. The two leading characters are totally characterless, Edward Woodward is not much better, and having a pretty gun toting female cannot save it. Very disappointing. The 'old' Professionals worked well because the two leading characters were interesting, they were likeable, they had some depth, and that's why it worked. This doesn't.

Whilst not as good as the old series this is considerably better than anything currently showing on British tv.The scripts vary in quality but when they work they are superb.The new CI5 is far more in the mode of the CIA and the new cast and characters are more plausible and free of the "loose cannon" attitudes that reduced the old series to caricature. The cast work hard to breathe life into their characters and the action sequences are superior to most movies(although they were needlessly cut for UK transmission).

Stared watching on Amazon because I used to love Edward in the Equaliser in my youth but this show is just painful despite giving it the usual allowances of it being an old show. Who knows if I watch the Equaliser now perhaps, I will think the same thing. I remember Edward being a good actor but in this show at first pass I just thought every actor was beyond bad. On reflection though I do not think it is the actors at all and more the dialogue that just makes everyone seem extremely wooden and fake.

A lot of shows of the time had a high level of 'cheese' which is not necessarily a bad thing, but this paired with the corny dialogue takes it to level that meant I stopped watching halfway through season 1. I say this as someone who has an obsessive compulsion to finish what I start but in this case I failed! I don't like reviewing without giving any positives, but I just cannot think of any.

This series probably tries to capture some of the spark that BUGS had - two beefcake male leads, a spunky female sidekick, hi-tec gadgetry, and an added bonus of around-the-world locations. Well, the scripts were weak, the leads had to struggle with piss-poor dialogue and ludicrous situations - and the worst of it is - they were expected to take themselves seriously. Something that should have been a seventies send-up that ended up like a seventies remake.

The original late 70s / early 80s "Professionals" was all British, politically incorrect, often mindless and frequently placed more emphasis on gunfights and loud explosions than it did on character development. Yet strangely this was part of its appeal and it was (and still is) hugely popular all over the world. The "New Professionals" tries to be a more international and more politically correct show than its predecessor, and that's its main downfall. Two of the main four characters are Americans - one can only assume that these characters were cast with one eye on the American export market. We also now have the male head of CI5 reporting to a female minister and a young and savvy "anything the boys can do I can do too" female sidekick on hand to get the two main (male) leads out of assorted sticky situations. In short, like so many other modern series, pandering to the politically correct lobby. This wouldn't be so bad if the plots weren't so thin and the dialog so weak and corny. "Who are CI5?" asks an FBI man in the pilot episode. "They're the best", replies his colleague, sounding suitably impressed. And so it goes on. A shame - the idea of continuing the CI5 story was a good one. Shame that the end result was such a let-down.