[net.tv] Equalizer

gnome@olivee.UUCP (GNOME) (10/04/85)

I just got a chance to see The Equalizer this week and have to
admit that, unlike all of the Miami Vice and Dirty Harry ripoffs
that are new to this season, this show has class.

It's about an ex-"agency" operative who has quit battling the
bad guys of international espionage and started using his skills
to help regular folk with nowhere else to turn.

Even though he has quit the "agency", he still has run-ins with
people from both sides.

Edited and paced like a movie, the results are excellent.
Unfortunately, the name may make people think this is a
TV-ized version of Death Wish.

So far, it's far better.

Gary

chod@gypsy.UUCP (10/07/85)

I completely agree with this poster's opinion of "The Equalizer".
I first tuned in because I am interested in espionage fiction,
and I had read that this show uses an ex-CIA agent as a
consultant.  I found the program to be subtle and intelligent,
unusual these days.  It is not the kind of program where all of
the plot lines and character motivations are spelled out
explicitly via dialogue.  The watcher has to pay some attention.

I find the style of this program similar to that of the British
productions of John Le Carre's, George Smiley novels; "Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy", etc.  They could pick worse programs to
emulate.

There have been some "shoot-em-up" action sequences in the
program for which the Equalizer enlisted the aid of acquaintances
whose backgrounds are left a mystery.  I find even these
believable, because the action was similar to the kind of thing
in which Delta Force specializes.  You would expect a CIA agent
of long experience to know ex-Delta Force people.

Finally, one aspect of the program aired on Wed. 10/2 solidified
my high opinion of the show.  The Equalizer was trying to aid a
longtime agent and friend.  The man was a minor economic attache
in the Soviet embassy, who had been passing information to
MaCall(sp) (the Equalizer) for many years.  For one thing I
believe the writers chose realism over pizzazz in creating this
character.  Not every useful human source of information has to
be a politburo secretary.  For another, the name of the character
was Feliks Dzherzinski.  In real life Feliks Dzherzinski was the
creator of the Cheka, the first Soviet secret police.  That makes
him the father (grandfather?) of the modern KGB.  At last,
scriptwriters with subtlety and some knowledge of their subject.