One of my favorite episodes as a kid and over 30 years later I still enjoyed it!
Simon & Simon (TV Series)
Almost Completely Out of Circulation (1984)
User Reviews
Review this title2 Reviews
Very enjoyable even today
darextrodinare4 January 2021
The Condor and Janus
jarrodmcdonald-15 December 2016
Warning: Spoilers
This is an interesting story about the death of a well-known comic book artist. The deceased man's young grandson and daughter hire the Simons to find his killer. When the culprit is finally revealed, it's a bit shocking. By that point, we've been introduced to several relatives who had a reason for the old man to die.
The story is very carefully plotted. We learn about the hero of the comic books, called the Condor, and his arch-enemy Janus. Whoever Janus is based on must be the killer, and I thought that was a clever way to set-up the murder mystery. One weakness, however, is that it is never explained why the artist was about to unmask Janus in his last book when he was brutally murdered. Nor is it explained how the killer knew the exact moment that frame was being created so he could be there to prevent it from being drawn. But we can probably overlook this.
There are many good moments in this episode. Early on Rick discovers A.J. threw out a box of valuable old comic books he had been storing at their mother's home. Rick tries to make A.J. feel guilty about it in some of the scenes which follow. Plus we see the brothers breaking into a lawyer's office by posing as window washers, then dangling from the platform when it nearly collapses. It almost seems like something out of a Charlie Chaplin movie. Finally, there's a climactic scene where the killer and his henchmen are fighting with the Simons along the ocean. It is nicely staged, especially when one of the villains falls off the side of a cliff.
The story is very carefully plotted. We learn about the hero of the comic books, called the Condor, and his arch-enemy Janus. Whoever Janus is based on must be the killer, and I thought that was a clever way to set-up the murder mystery. One weakness, however, is that it is never explained why the artist was about to unmask Janus in his last book when he was brutally murdered. Nor is it explained how the killer knew the exact moment that frame was being created so he could be there to prevent it from being drawn. But we can probably overlook this.
There are many good moments in this episode. Early on Rick discovers A.J. threw out a box of valuable old comic books he had been storing at their mother's home. Rick tries to make A.J. feel guilty about it in some of the scenes which follow. Plus we see the brothers breaking into a lawyer's office by posing as window washers, then dangling from the platform when it nearly collapses. It almost seems like something out of a Charlie Chaplin movie. Finally, there's a climactic scene where the killer and his henchmen are fighting with the Simons along the ocean. It is nicely staged, especially when one of the villains falls off the side of a cliff.
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