For years, The Equalizer was TV's best series. Employing the great British actor Edward Woodward as a combination of the Knight Errant, Don Quixote and the Existential Hero was a stroke of genius. Woodward's Shakespearean style and personality, overlaid against the grimy, ugly business of problem-solving in urban America, made his character and dialogue stand out even further in bold relief. And having the City of New York as the Extra Player gave each episode a grittiness, pressure, suspense and excitement all its own.
There have been lots of spy series and CIA shows, but never one about a repentant agent until this. Demonstrating that repentance by helping the needs of Everyman was the heart of the show. But each segment retained the "espionage flavor" by using current "agency" personnel, protocol and paraphernalia.
That repentance presupposed moral absolutes, and the segments are replete with a high view of right and wrong. Right is heroic, and sleaze is truly scuzzy. Indeed, this tension forms the basis for Robert McCall's involvement with his clients. After mortally wounding one adversary who still won't reveal a kidnapped victim's whereabouts, McCall asks the dying man about to slide into eternity, "What if there is a God?"
But successful people (and shows) tend to stop doing the thing that made them successful. So later episodes of the series began delving further into the bizarre to try and retain viewer interest. Those experiments didn't work (and never do).
Yet Stewart Copeland's early techno compositions, rhythm work and "Police" chord progressions kept the interest level high, even when the scripts waned at times.
Thankfully, the other genius element was the casting. Kevin Spacey, Ray Sharkey, Will Patton, Patricia Clarkson and many others (like Copeland himself!) got their first crack or big break through The Equalizer. And veteran actors like Tovah Feldschuh, Dennis Christopher, Edward Binns and Robert Lansing came back to the tube via the series. The only problem was, that, next to Woodward, even our best actors sometimes paled (and the scripts were weighted to his lines, and didn't always do the other actos justice).
But the current episodes on air (it was a Universal series, so Universal/NBC has run it on Sleuth and Universal HD networks) are some of the brighter spots on the TV day. Thanks for that!
There have been lots of spy series and CIA shows, but never one about a repentant agent until this. Demonstrating that repentance by helping the needs of Everyman was the heart of the show. But each segment retained the "espionage flavor" by using current "agency" personnel, protocol and paraphernalia.
That repentance presupposed moral absolutes, and the segments are replete with a high view of right and wrong. Right is heroic, and sleaze is truly scuzzy. Indeed, this tension forms the basis for Robert McCall's involvement with his clients. After mortally wounding one adversary who still won't reveal a kidnapped victim's whereabouts, McCall asks the dying man about to slide into eternity, "What if there is a God?"
But successful people (and shows) tend to stop doing the thing that made them successful. So later episodes of the series began delving further into the bizarre to try and retain viewer interest. Those experiments didn't work (and never do).
Yet Stewart Copeland's early techno compositions, rhythm work and "Police" chord progressions kept the interest level high, even when the scripts waned at times.
Thankfully, the other genius element was the casting. Kevin Spacey, Ray Sharkey, Will Patton, Patricia Clarkson and many others (like Copeland himself!) got their first crack or big break through The Equalizer. And veteran actors like Tovah Feldschuh, Dennis Christopher, Edward Binns and Robert Lansing came back to the tube via the series. The only problem was, that, next to Woodward, even our best actors sometimes paled (and the scripts were weighted to his lines, and didn't always do the other actos justice).
But the current episodes on air (it was a Universal series, so Universal/NBC has run it on Sleuth and Universal HD networks) are some of the brighter spots on the TV day. Thanks for that!