I saw this one, and I'm not quite sure how--it aired once and then disappeared without a trace. As an avid Destroyer book reader, I felt the concept of a television series based on the books was a can't-miss prospect. Then I saw this. When it comes to re-creating the books, the movie may have missed the boat, but this series missed the water entirely. The biggest problem is the lead actor. The grinning, poofed-hair goofball they brought in to play Remo almost certainly never read any of the books. He missed the dark, brooding persona that even Fred Ward managed to capture in the movie.
The next problem is similar to that of the movie--it tries to create a new plot line instead of just using one of the 120+ available in the books. This deteriorates quickly into some nonsense about a hit man trying to kill Remo to take his place and some kind of a fight with a photon-torpedo shooting robot guarding a chemical weapons plant (I'm not making this up). The Sinanju training and Chiun's hilarious antics were kept inexplicably in the background for the whole episode.
Surprisingly, the supporting cast isn't too bad. McDowell does an admirable job as Chiun, although he doesn't quite lose himself in the role the way Grey did. It's hard to imagine anyone being more Harold W. Smith than Wilfred Brimley, but the seasoned vet they brought in for this role did a fairly nice job (a little more gruff than he needed to be, but not bad). There were also a few funny lines like "There has never been a Master of Sinanju named Big Mac" (okay, I thought it was funny). All in all, a bad series based on the Destroyer is better than most good series based on other subject matter, but this one comes nowhere near the potential of the concept. It's not quite "The droppings of a diahrettic duck" as Chiun would say, but not really good, either.
The next problem is similar to that of the movie--it tries to create a new plot line instead of just using one of the 120+ available in the books. This deteriorates quickly into some nonsense about a hit man trying to kill Remo to take his place and some kind of a fight with a photon-torpedo shooting robot guarding a chemical weapons plant (I'm not making this up). The Sinanju training and Chiun's hilarious antics were kept inexplicably in the background for the whole episode.
Surprisingly, the supporting cast isn't too bad. McDowell does an admirable job as Chiun, although he doesn't quite lose himself in the role the way Grey did. It's hard to imagine anyone being more Harold W. Smith than Wilfred Brimley, but the seasoned vet they brought in for this role did a fairly nice job (a little more gruff than he needed to be, but not bad). There were also a few funny lines like "There has never been a Master of Sinanju named Big Mac" (okay, I thought it was funny). All in all, a bad series based on the Destroyer is better than most good series based on other subject matter, but this one comes nowhere near the potential of the concept. It's not quite "The droppings of a diahrettic duck" as Chiun would say, but not really good, either.