Le Retour des Incorruptibles

One of my favorite movies of the 80s was "The Untouchables," and when I saw that a show was coming out on the same subject, I thought it would be another crummy TV spinoff like "Uncle Buck."

But, despite the fact that the TV show didn't have the big names of the movie version, I found the show to be much more believable and suspenseful, without the glaring anachronisms that the movie had (e.g. Frank Nitti being killed at the Capone trial in the movie).

William Forsythe (Capone) does an INCREDIBLE job...he AT LEAST equals the great Robert DeNiro's performance of the same character. Also, John Rhys-Davies and Tom Amandes give great performances and the show's writing was excellent. It's a shame it had such a crummy time slot and was canned so soon.

"The Untouchables" had many great elements:

1. An excellent cast, including several familiar faces from TV and films: Tom Amandes ("Everwood"), William Forsythe ("John Doe," "UC: Undercover," "Out for Justice"), John Rhys-Davies ("The Lord of the Rings," "Raiders of the Lost Ark"), and David James Elliott ("JAG").

2. Some entertaining -- if historically unrealistic -- stories, combining gangster action stories with looks into the personal lives of the characters, especially the relationships with Al Capone (Forsythe) and Eliot Ness (Amandes) and their respective wives and children.

3. Fantastic theme music by Joel Goldsmith (I'm still humming it, and I haven't seen the show in 10 years). I wish they had released a soundtrack album for the series.

Though the show was on for only a year and a half, "The Untouchables" was able to tell a complete story, fleshing out both the heroes and the villains into complex characters, and it wrapped up most of the plot lines by the final episode.

This series would make an ideal DVD box set. Are you paying attention, Paramount?

I saw this show early on in its first few episodes and was very favorable impressed by the great performances of Tom Amandes as Elliott Ness( by the way, Mr Amandes looks enough like Jimmy Stewart to almost be his twin brother, I could,'t believe the very close resemblence), and Robert Forsythe, who played Al Capone. Mr Forsythe brought a measure of depth to the usual Capone gangster portrayal. I hope that this show will still be viewable even as reruns. It was canned way too soon.I would even like to see it on vhs. It would be well worth the buying price.

I really liked the development of the characters throughout the episodes I have been able to watch. Especially the character of Paul Robbins played by David James Elliott. The story lines were clever and kept me watching from episode to episode. The actor that portrays Elliott Ness does indeed remind me of Jimmy Stewart. With the onset of reality TV programs, I miss the scripted dramas of old and would really like a revival of good series programs such as The Untouchables. If you enjoy gangster movies and shows where the good guys win, you will enjoy this program. In my opinion, it was canceled way too soon. If it were to come out on DVD, I would buy it in it's entirety.

I liked the series very much. the acting was top notch, particularly by William Forsythe. the series format definitely allowed the principle characters to be much more elaborately portrayed than the limited two hours available in a movie. I have been hoping that this series would become available in DVD format. I think it would be a must buy item for any serious videophile.