This is a review on the 2002 A&E release of Dangerman the complete episodes excluding the first season of 30 minutes shows. I just bought the megaset, after having rented several of the Dangerman discs in the past. The show is top notch, my cup of tea, one of my favorite actors and shows 10 of 10. I grew up on the Prisoner first (as a very young lad) on CBS (I really remember ROVER as a 4 year old!) and than as a teen watching every episode as it aired weekly on the local PBS, finally I bought that A&E set about 5 or so years ago and watched it with my family. Now I own Dangerman and it is first rate, better than the 30 minute first season which I also have.
The packaging though from A&E is only 3 stars in my opinion. First, its big and bulky. This is because A&E sold mini sets of this show and didn't repackage it for the megaset, I believe that they are selling the size since its a substantial price, but for those of us who are buying TV shows in quantity, this is a disadvantage for shelf space. Second, The episodes are in the American airing order. I was watching disc 1 episode 1 in the set and after I watched it I went to an episode guide online and that is actually the 8th episode to be aired in the UK. I strongly suggest you watch this in the UK (original) air order as a lot of elements are brought out to set up the show that are not explained as well when you start on the 8th episode.
The first episode originally shown ever was Yesterdays Enemies, I think it may be the best episode I have seen of this show (after watching 20 or so episodes). We meet Drake's boss the Admiral (great hard nose character), we also see Drake go to Lebanon and get rebuffed by the British Embassy when he asks for help, these are elements that define the show and need to be explained early on, like in the FIRST EPISODE! Later in that first episode we see Drake question his superiors motives, I had watched this episode before but I had no idea it was the first one aired and it's very important to set up the rest of the series. Who is Drake, who is he working for, what are his and his agencies limitations? Start at this episode and not The Battle Of The Camera's (which is only an average episode, I think it was shown first in America because it has a "gaget", a machine gun killing in the intro, and doesn't raise Drake's questioning his superiors like Yesterdays Enemies did). I guess after watching Yesterdays Enemies it wont matter so much what order they are in but I am sticking to the UK air date schedule.
I just finished the first 3 episodes Yesterdays Enemies, The Professionals, and Colony Three. I think those three are the high water mark of the show, all top notch. To see those three which were in the original order you have to watch 3 different DVD's, so definitely 3 stars for the packaging. Other criticism's, no closed captioning, and the sound level is low, I'm not looking for Dolby Digital here but I had to turn my systems volume up higher than normal (pretty high). The print quality was average, I saw some print errors on the video which is a shame. I looked on UK web sights and surprisingly they are not selling a complete Dangerman set, so America is ahead when it comes to this show.
A couple of last comments. The Prisoner was a major show in my life, if you are a Prisoner fan also see Colony Three! Watching the episode Colony Three (The third episode that aired) brought chills up my back, if this was a movie where I didn't know if Drake would survive, I would rank it up with The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, maybe better. The Colony is also very similar to "The Village" from Prisoner fame. Not to give too much away but the grief he gets from his boss the Admiral at the end is a wonderful touch of great writing.
Despite my comments on the packaging, I'm very happy I finally got this set, the show is great and even watching episodes I've seen before is still very entertaining because I missed a lot in prior viewings. To see the UK air order go to google several sites have it listed I looked at the one on epguides.com.
The packaging though from A&E is only 3 stars in my opinion. First, its big and bulky. This is because A&E sold mini sets of this show and didn't repackage it for the megaset, I believe that they are selling the size since its a substantial price, but for those of us who are buying TV shows in quantity, this is a disadvantage for shelf space. Second, The episodes are in the American airing order. I was watching disc 1 episode 1 in the set and after I watched it I went to an episode guide online and that is actually the 8th episode to be aired in the UK. I strongly suggest you watch this in the UK (original) air order as a lot of elements are brought out to set up the show that are not explained as well when you start on the 8th episode.
The first episode originally shown ever was Yesterdays Enemies, I think it may be the best episode I have seen of this show (after watching 20 or so episodes). We meet Drake's boss the Admiral (great hard nose character), we also see Drake go to Lebanon and get rebuffed by the British Embassy when he asks for help, these are elements that define the show and need to be explained early on, like in the FIRST EPISODE! Later in that first episode we see Drake question his superiors motives, I had watched this episode before but I had no idea it was the first one aired and it's very important to set up the rest of the series. Who is Drake, who is he working for, what are his and his agencies limitations? Start at this episode and not The Battle Of The Camera's (which is only an average episode, I think it was shown first in America because it has a "gaget", a machine gun killing in the intro, and doesn't raise Drake's questioning his superiors like Yesterdays Enemies did). I guess after watching Yesterdays Enemies it wont matter so much what order they are in but I am sticking to the UK air date schedule.
I just finished the first 3 episodes Yesterdays Enemies, The Professionals, and Colony Three. I think those three are the high water mark of the show, all top notch. To see those three which were in the original order you have to watch 3 different DVD's, so definitely 3 stars for the packaging. Other criticism's, no closed captioning, and the sound level is low, I'm not looking for Dolby Digital here but I had to turn my systems volume up higher than normal (pretty high). The print quality was average, I saw some print errors on the video which is a shame. I looked on UK web sights and surprisingly they are not selling a complete Dangerman set, so America is ahead when it comes to this show.
A couple of last comments. The Prisoner was a major show in my life, if you are a Prisoner fan also see Colony Three! Watching the episode Colony Three (The third episode that aired) brought chills up my back, if this was a movie where I didn't know if Drake would survive, I would rank it up with The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, maybe better. The Colony is also very similar to "The Village" from Prisoner fame. Not to give too much away but the grief he gets from his boss the Admiral at the end is a wonderful touch of great writing.
Despite my comments on the packaging, I'm very happy I finally got this set, the show is great and even watching episodes I've seen before is still very entertaining because I missed a lot in prior viewings. To see the UK air order go to google several sites have it listed I looked at the one on epguides.com.