It’s also fair to note that at this point, he only had a couple years of credits behind him at all, and for such a relative newby, he’d definitely mastered an impressive screen presence already. “Acting” aside, some people are just born to be stars.
It’s also not that hard to see the “shark” on the horizon even at this early stage, at least with the benefit of hindsight. The pilot plays as a fun “caper” but when Brosnan’s character (in my head cannon we never learn his real name) decides to stick around LA and keep up the “Steele” impersonation, we know it’s because he’s not yet ready to tear himself away from Laura. That tension is crucial to season 1: he’s only really in his element when he’s grifting, and on the move, but something won’t let him leave this woman even though the longer he stays in one place, the more likely it is his past will catch up with him. Meanwhile, she’s worked all her life to build a reputation as a respectable and above-board professional woman and if she wants a partner at all, wants one she can trust, while this guy won’t even tell her his real name and is more likely than not a wanted criminal. Nonetheless she’s hooked on him in spite of the fact that his full past, once revealed, could ruin them both. Indeed maybe his appeal is that he’s the one mystery she can’t solve: he sticks around in hopes of finding an identity he’s content to keep for life, while she convinces herself she’s keeping him on the line until she can crack the case.
Anyway it’s a really cool dynamic for a relationship-oriented series, but as time passes, we all realize he’s never going to just up and disappear on her, that he’s actually pretty virtuous by nature so any past indiscretions can’t amount to much, and eventually through a combination of his own adaptive skills and plenty of practice, he evolves into the skilled sleuth he originally (and delightfully) once only pretended to be. So he becomes just another TV detective and theirs just another TV romance.
It’s the classic dilemma of romance novels, really: the woman falls for the rogue, but she can’t have the rogue unless she tames him, and then he’s not a rogue anymore, so what has she got?
Yes, Stephanie Zimbalist was going to have the Nancy Allen lead role in RoboCop before NBC renewed Remington Steele.
And I loved Remington Steele when it was on. That, and Hunter, were my favorite TV shows. And yes, like most everyone else, I thought Pierce Brosnan would make a great James Bond taking over for Roger Moore. I was very disappointed when he didn’t end up getting the role, but in hindsight, it was better for him that he didn’t get it back in 1986. At the time, I didn’t think he looked too fresh-faced and young, but looking back the ensuing nine years of life’s trials and tribulations aged him well for the 007 role.
A couple of years ago, my wife and I recently went through the entire Remington Steele series and it was a lot of fun with a lot of laughs for both of us. It really was a well-written show that, due to its central conceit of a female detective “needing” a male figurehead to succeed in a male-dominated field, could only have been made in the 1980s (any earlier and people largely wouldn’t have considered hiring a female private detective under any circumstances, and any later, she wouldn’t have needed a male figurehead as it wouldn’t have been an issue to hire a female P.I. at all). Regardless, the series still holds up well today and the two leads really have great chemistry. Still one of my favorite shows.
Feel free to swap which of the 2 overqualified actors would be good for which perfect for the job writer (I’m representing Newton in this gif, obviously)
Interesting times for Doctor Who and I have thoughts.
I don’t hate the current era like many seem to but it has been a little hit and miss (haven’t they all?). There have been some good individual stories but the TImeless Child storyline casts a large shadow over everything else.
I’ll be happier once the new showrunner is announced. Legend has it that Moffat only stayed on as long as he did due to difficulties in finding a replacement so whatever issues I have with Chibnal I prefer there to be someone steering the ship.
While we’re firmly in rumour territory right now I’ve heard Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Gentleman Jack) tipped as the new showrunner. I’m not familiar with anything she’s done so can’t really comment on her suitability but her work is well regarded and so far reactions I’ve seen to the story have been positive so I remain optimistic.
I’m curious to see how this plays out with the anniversary. Whittaker’s final episodes are supposed to be 2022 but 2023 will be the 60th anniversary and the expectation will be for a multi-Doctor story. Will she return so soon after departing or can they swing things so that the anniversary special can be her final story too?
My theory is that we’ll get the year of specials in 2022, just the anniversary special in 2023 and then the new series/ Doctor kicking off properly in 2024.
As for the next Doctor, right now I can’t see past Jo Martin. She absolutely nailed the role Fugitive of the Judoon and it seems a waste for her to just be a one off like that. I know that she wasn’t supposed to be a future incarnation but this is Doctor Who, pull whatever wibbly wobbly, timey wimey retcon you need to and make it happen!
I must say, while I liked Whitaker as the female Doctor I think they really did her a disservice surrounding her with too many companions. Not only did those subtract from her screentime, they also forced her into the all to traditional role of „Mother for this family“.
I hope this will be corrected in the next season.
Also, the reliance on old villains has gotten so tiresome. Please, invent new ones and don‘t bring back the Daleks ever (absolutely not threatening anymore).
As for the next Doctor: I fear they will go very young. I would prefer a cantankerous older one, someone who is dangerous at times, rather unreliable. Capaldi was great but became too nice too soon.
Agree on the companions, 3 was definitely too many. Graham seemed to work best, mostly as Bradley Walsh had the biggest personality, while Yas felt like she was constantly lost in the shuffle. I was actually looking forward to a series of just the Doctor and Yas but they’ve decided to shove new companion in as well.
But at least the ones that left left of their own choice, I was getting a bit tiered of every companion being forced out of the TARDIS.
In previous years I’d have agreed about the classic villains but in this era they’ve more interesting and led to better stories than any of the new monsters they’ve created. The Lone Cyberman was a great villain, I loved the parasitic Dalek and really enjoyed Sacha Dhawan as the Master. We do need more new monsters going forward but I’m happy to see a fresh spin on the classics.
I don’t think you can ever do away with the Daleks completely as any future Doctor’s tenure would feel incomplete without at least 1 Dalek story. But less is more and they do need a break. In fact if I was the next showrunner I wouldn’t bring them back until the 14th Doctor’s final story.
Hoping they skew a little older for the next Doctor too, you have the companions on hand to be young and trendy.
Gotta say: I did love Tennant‘s tenure although he was mainly the quirky good guy. But his relationship with Rose worked fabulously and came at the perfect time to reestablish the show.
Maybe since then the pressure to deliver one season after the other was too high to sustain the quality. Going on a longer hiatus could work wonders.
Excellent insight. Also, they were probably afraid that a woman could not carry the show. So they are daring in casting a woman, and retrograde in how they (over)support her.
Kind of, Moffat was going to finish with The Doctor Falls, but Chibnall didn’t want to start with the Christmas special, so Moffat, 12, Bill and Talalay made an epilogue with the Christmas special.
I did loath Chibnall’s writing as a guest writer (people were either horny or psychotic, nothing else) but as show runner he was slightly better, particularly when given the classics (his Dalek, Cybermen and Master stories are really good)
I gather Moffat also considered finishing with The Husbands of River Song (hence it leading directly into the story he wrote after he got the head writer job) but was convinced to do one more series.
Shows that my wife and I have recently enjoyed include:-
Deadwater Fell
The Stranger
The Undoing
Too Close
Behind Her Eyes
A Teacher
But my absolute favourite, favourite show is the wonderful, brilliant, Inside No.9.
I’ve now seen all 6 series, including the live Halloween special. For those who don’t know, it’s a brilliant British BBC anthology show, with each episode a self-contained story, at 30 minutes each. It is both dark and funny, it can have horror elements, but also sexual innuendo jokes, and comes from the creative minds of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton (from The League of Gentlemen), who also appear in the episodes.
It continues to attract impressive cameo actors for example David Morrissey, Julian Glover, Helen McCrory (RIP), Rory Kinnear, David Warner, Gemma Arterton, Tamsin Greig, Kadiff Kirwan and Denis Lawson.
Agent Hamilton (2020 Dramacorp Pampas Studios, C More Entertainment)
This is, sadly, a very conventional, at times even pedestrian affair. Think of a compilation of typical genre clichés, lone agent betrayed by his handlers, fabulously expert with firearms and in close combat.
While the last two are actually taken directly from the source material - Jan Guillou’s Coq Rouge was an early example of the near-invincible special forces robot - this new version has acquired the by now obligatory trauma experience and the ensemble team of computer nerd and female counterpart playing by the rules (but with a seriously troubled private life that has no effect on the plot and is just there to provide another cliché of the emotionally confused policewoman that flees to her job for comfort).
Gone are the original’s more interesting sides, politics and idiosyncrasies all cut to tell a comparatively uninspired story about evil CIA machinations and just-as-evil Russian counter-schemes. Ten episodes of mildly interesting espionage action set in and around Stockholm, with the few sorties into Europe and the Middle East not adding up to more than a pile of beans.
The cast with Jakob Oftebro, Nina Zanjani and Krister Henriksson are playing against a seriously lacking script that makes generous use of things immediately playing into the hero’s hands. A secret agent breaking cover to a childhood friend who immediately is able to fix him up with the contacts he needs? Seriously?
The photography itself is solid, though the wavering camera element is a bit passé since - at least - season three of 24. But we get a few nice shots of Stockholm and the Archipelago. The action is staged and shot with verve, although it traditionally misrepresents the effects of explosives and military grade firearms. As action entertainment regularly does.
It’s a bit of a shame that Agent Hamilton hasn’t turned out better. There’s plenty of potential in Guillou’s books, even if we ignore the superman shenanigans. In fact, the most interesting element about them is how little Hamilton’s abilities help him avoiding a most unsavoury fate. Agent Hamilton uses almost nothing of this potential - but was apparently already successful enough to kick off a second season.
John Constantine has now left the Arrowverse. Matt Ryan was pitch perfect from start to finish (see; my avatar) so I’m glad they left him open for a return.
Also, unlike the many op-Ed’s online, his false death was completely wrong for what this character is! John is, always has been and always will be, a clever bastard. He beats everything personally, regardless of cost.
I’m a huge fan of Gaiman so it’s great to see so many adaptations of his work right now, especially as Neil himself is staying involved so it all comes with his seal of approval. The only thing that strikes me as odd is that Kirby is playing dual roles. I seem to recall that characters commenting that the brothers didn’t look alike so would have thought it would make more sense to cast a different actor for Spider. Plus that’s got to be easier from a filming perspective.
Then again, I trust Gaiman knows what he’s doing.
Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez. Funny, poignant, subversive, narratively daring - what a delightful suprise. Four episodes in, and I can’t wait to see the next episodes.
