makimaus

This charming film, made when Oliver Reed and Diana Rigg were at the height of their appeal, is what they used to call a "romp", when it wasn't considered to be a putdown. Reed, as Ivan, born and bred to lead an international group of highly-placed assassins, is hired by would-be reporter Sonia (Rigg) to have his group kill him, and realizing that his house badly needs some cleaning out, Ivan accepts the commission. The rest is a whirlwind tour of Europe, taking out substantial portions of the terrain as they go, avoiding bungled attempts on his life as he tries to track down the traitors who would turn the Bureau into a political machine. The dialogue is refreshingly devoid of political correctness, but maintains a firm respect between the unlikely couple as they go from bickering rivalry to bickering fondness. Guest villains include Clive Revill as a gluttonous Italian, and sad stories include the accidental demise of Roger Delgado (Dr. Who, the first Master) while on location. Much worth the time and effort, although sadly almost never seen on TV, and abysmally represented in video release.

There comes a time when every video collector has to go back through their archives, sometimes taped on the fly and never properly watched, and give them another look. And so it was that, after five years, I checked out VR.5. I freely admit that most of my reasons had to do with Anthony Head, but it would be simplistic to say that I haven't found other reasons to mourn its loss. The plotline is labyrinthine, the loyalties are tenuous and constantly changing, yet at the heart of it is a group of characters who learn to love, respect, and trust each other in spite of repeated and persistent efforts from without and within to fragment them. Sydney goes from a withdrawn, antisocial voyeur with a half-suppressed past to a caring, sympathetic crusader; Duncan evolves from her stereotypical eccentric platonic buddy to a strong, creative, supportive hero; and then there's Oliver, who manages to grow from an infuriatingly enigmatic button-pushing Committee Man(literally as well as figuratively) to a rebellious individual whose tragic past has shaped him into someone both caring and terrified of getting involved. Even the amorphous organization known as the Committee progresses, from a standard top-secret non-government agency, dedicated to amorphous and impossible standards, to a global conspiracy frought with schisms and internicine rivalries. Not a bad progression for thirteen measly episodes, three of which didn't even make the series' first run. It would have been nice to at least see what happened next, as the final episode was both a downer and a cliffhanger.

What's not to love about this series? Granted, particularly in this season the heroine is getting a good deal too full of herself, but she's more than offset by some of the most well-grounded and sympathetic supporting characters around: curious, sensitive, broadminded Willow, just beginning to discover her own strengths; sweet, self-effacing, humorous Xander, just beginning to understand and compensate for his own weaknesses; and of course brilliant, passionate, self-sacrificing Giles, reinventing his persona for.. what is it .. the third (or fourth) time now? Add to that as sharp and savvy a set of scripts as I've ever seen, constantly changing directions for all of the characters, terrific music, both original and borrowed, and by far the best choreographed action sequences on T.V. today, and you have the only series I watch now on a consistent basis. Apropos of nothing, I am also firmly not in the twentysomething set who seems to be the primary audience for this show; I'm closing in on fifty faster than I'd like, and am so grateful for a show that features an array of types, and doesn't portray adults as de facto idiots or Nazis or teenagers as de facto saints or trendsetters. I'm definitely looking forward to what Joss Whedon has planned next.