On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 6:10 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Even more trivially....For some time I had been nostalgic for Bancek, and > > bitter that it was not streaming on the Netflix. I finally broke down and > > ordered them on the disks, allocated some quality time to sit down and > savor > > them and....wow, did they not hold up well. > > I mildly disagree. I think they hold up well as period pieces, and the > mysteries are not without their degree of fun. I concur that Peter > Falk's series was better at storytelling and character development, > but I can still sit down and enjoy George Peppard as a post Tiffanys > and pre A-Team hipster. > > And the short skirts worn by many of the female guest star and > extras... well, they hold up well. > I will give you the short skirts, but the hair and make-up were a joke, and the dialogue was even worse. It is not so much a period piece as a gross caricature of what out of touch middle aged white guys must have thought was hip and groovy 10 years before. The mysteries were often fun, but turned on implausible plot points and clues so subtle as to be indistinguishable from background noise and writing and acting imperfections. You might be able to guess who the bad guy was using some rule of tv formula (second most obvious, or second least obvious, suspect), but no chance figuring out the specifics of the how or the why until Banacek's great reveal. I still did get a bit of a kick out of Peppard hamming it up, but that was not nearly enough to sustain the thin gruel of the stories. Columbo on the other hand I can (and do) watch over and over again, and enjoy the writing and the acting and the characters and the plot as much today as 35 years ago. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
