Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)

Gordon_4

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The Professionals (1970s) - 9/10

This show is the silliest shit but it’s eminently enjoyable. The show follows Bodie and Doyle, ex-SAS and ex-Copper respectively, as agents of CI5 - MI5 with the serial numbers filed off - responsible for doing dirty deeds to dirtier criminals, spies (Cold War and all that), terrorists, and other assorted ne’er do wells that threaten Britain. To round out the three man band is George Cowley, their boss: a gruff and dour Scotsman with a taste for single malt scotch and a level of cunning usually reserved for a shithouse rat.

As this his a pre-story arc era of television each episode tells a single story and is wrapped up by the time the credits roll. Once upon a time I’d have thought the stupid things Bodie and Doyle do like securing a prototype rifle in an airing cupboard would be out of character for men of their experience but as recent events have shown, it probably skews closer to the truth than anyone would care to admit.

But it’s got guns, car chases, birds, 70s era police brutality (but only against the baddies), Cold War, race, sexual and criminal politics and humour to match. Also one of the most over-used generic rock tracks the BBC archives can supply. If you can jive with it, Bodie and Doyle are still one of the best double acts television on either side of the pond has ever produced and even the dumbest episodes can coast by on their chemistry alone.
 

Thaluikhain

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The Professionals (1970s) - 9/10

This show is the silliest shit but it’s eminently enjoyable. The show follows Bodie and Doyle, ex-SAS and ex-Copper respectively, as agents of CI5 - MI5 with the serial numbers filed off - responsible for doing dirty deeds to dirtier criminals, spies (Cold War and all that), terrorists, and other assorted ne’er do wells that threaten Britain. To round out the three man band is George Cowley, their boss: a gruff and dour Scotsman with a taste for single malt scotch and a level of cunning usually reserved for a shithouse rat.

As this his a pre-story arc era of television each episode tells a single story and is wrapped up by the time the credits roll. Once upon a time I’d have thought the stupid things Bodie and Doyle do like securing a prototype rifle in an airing cupboard would be out of character for men of their experience but as recent events have shown, it probably skews closer to the truth than anyone would care to admit.

But it’s got guns, car chases, birds, 70s era police brutality (but only against the baddies), Cold War, race, sexual and criminal politics and humour to match. Also one of the most over-used generic rock tracks the BBC archives can supply. If you can jive with it, Bodie and Doyle are still one of the best double acts television on either side of the pond has ever produced and even the dumbest episodes can coast by on their chemistry alone.
Started watching it, but the politics put me on, very Jack Bauer esque in ho they do things. Shame, cause otherwise it had potential.
 
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Gordon_4

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Started watching it, but the politics put me on, very Jack Bauer esque in ho they do things. Shame, cause otherwise it had potential.
Well the politics are simply of the era of production. The show makes no bones about what the organisation’s brief: indeed Cowley outlines the organisation’s purpose and remit in the second episode. So it’s honest if nothing else.
 

Thaluikhain

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Well the politics are simply of the era of production. The show makes no bones about what the organisation’s brief: indeed Cowley outlines the organisation’s purpose and remit in the second episode. So it’s honest if nothing else.
Oh sure...odd that the second ep wasn't the first, it seemed like an introduction. And then someone points out that he sounds a bit fascist, and then he proves it isn't, cause he got shot by a fascist in Spain...which doesn't prove you're not being fascist.

Mind you, you don't often get characters who'd have a backstory like "fought for the communists in Spain" nowdays, gotta give them that.
 

Gordon_4

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Oh sure...odd that the second ep wasn't the first, it seemed like an introduction. And then someone points out that he sounds a bit fascist, and then he proves it isn't, cause he got shot by a fascist in Spain...which doesn't prove you're not being fascist.

Mind you, you don't often get characters who'd have a backstory like "fought for the communists in Spain" nowdays, gotta give them that.
They swapped because even though episode two (as aired) introduces everything, they felt that the scene with Bodie and Doyle shooting cans, being smart arses and being told by Cowley to get on their bikes and get to work was a better introduction to the three in terms of characterisation.
 

Dwarvenhobble

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Star Trek Picard Season 3

Score: 9/10

Watched on: Amazon Prime UK.

Tagline: "One Nerd boldy tries to fix years of Star Trek Franchise mismanagement"

Thoughts:

So I've read some of the takes here about it being bad.

I've read the piece the Escapist Darren Mooney put out


And

I DISAGREE

Full disclosure I only watched Season 1 of Picard and skipped Season 2 mostly watching Red Letter Media do overviews of the episodes because Season 1 was kind of bad in many ways. Season 1 had some redeeming moments. At the time I theorised in the writers room were multiple writers one of whom wasn't allowed much power but was an absolute Star Trek nerd and most of their input was in adding less mainstream bits of Star Trek lore into the mix like references to alien races whose total screen time amounted to less than 30 seconds in an Alex Kurtzman film and beyond that only ever appearing in extended universe material and the old kids cartoon Star Trek stuff. Or actual well thought out additions to lore like the fact Romulan warning signs are green, why? because Romulan's have green blood so while human society evolved with red warning signs due to red being something that makes people pay attention due to psychology and stuff related to human blood colour it makes sense the Romulans would evolve with green being their go to warning colour.

Picard Season 3 feels like the nerd in the room was given a shot after a fairly abysmal Picard Season 2 reaction and the nerd in the room heard everyone's criticism right down to Riker's pizza looking a bit burned in season 1 and people mocking Riker's log cabin.

Just for entertainment's sake lets go through some of what I spotted as attempts to correct the course of Star Trek or address criticisms: (spoiler warnings)

The CGI Data in Season 1 was uncanny valley and crap - (yes they used CGI to try and make Brent Spiner look younger and do his look for Data in season 1) = OK Season 3 other than contacts it's Brent Spiner and they've figured out a way to write it in.

But Picard and Data weren't super best friends he was more friends with Geordi - Brings back Geordi

I've already mentioned the pizza and log cabin stuff.

Jesus who thought it was a good idea to imply a possible romantic relationship between Raffi and Seven of Nine? - Yeh they broke up they weren't good together and both are embarrassed it ever happened.

Isn't the Romulan lady Picardhas feelings for way younger than him and it's a bit weird cause isn't she his housekeeper - You get one scene and the show wrote her out and doesn't bring her back up.

Too much bullshit action sequence ship fights etc - An entire episode long ship battle that really is "Big ships in space" where it's not about blasting but tactics and strategy with barely any weapons fired.

JJ Abrams Lens flares being used way too much - I spotted maybe 2 lens flares in the entire thing maybe 3 done very tastefully without the white glare bit of it ending up on screen.

Raffi is all kinds of awful and unlikable - We took all the messed up Raffi and turned it into a base for character development turning her into basically martial arts trained Reginald Barclay

"We don't like the Enterprise E" - Enterprise D is back baby.

The Federation is meant to be a really good altruistic future society how did it get so screwed up? - Here's a plot that could explain why it's all so messed up.

Admiral Shelby was just vile in Season 1 - Watch her get her comeuppance in Season 3 as she gets blasted




One thing Darren and people in this thread are right about, the show looks back to the past a lot this season but what people are seemingly mistaking for "Memberberries" or Nostalgic fan pleasing is actually shockingly in keeping with the theme of this season which is generational legacy and trauma. This is a season that invokes the Dominion wars and the idea maybe Star Fleet committed War Crimes, including what impact that would have on a society. It looks at the idea of the good and bad of what we pass on to the next generation.

One great example is captain Shaw and his sort of arc on the show with his traumatic past as a survivor of Wolf 359 colouring his actions.

This season was looking to the past, to put it to rest properly, not to rebel and to use a Star Wars line "Kill the past" to try and make it seems like something that needs replacing for being bad. No the replacement is part of the progression of time itself it's not replacing it, it's carrying on the legacy of the past still. It's kind of notable the season finale is literally the collective borg taking control of the younger crew mates to turn them against the older ones which you can interpret quite easily as a shot at the kind of disrespect for legacy characters being seen from many writers these days feeling their new characters must take over from, beat and replace the older ones.

Side Note: The final episode of Season 3 also felt like almost reaching out a hand as a gesture of peace to the Star Wars Fandom by having the Enterprise do a basically a Death Star Trench run.

Also the series is called Picard, looking to the past is a bit in the name plus probably doesn't help they killed off / wrote out most of the new characters in season 2 already so the writers lost the majority of the new established characters so quickly had to establish some new ones and fill out the rest with people who Star Trek fans hopefully would know.

The only reason I gave this season a 9 not a 10 is it's literally so much about dealing with the baggage of previous season and also the franchise as a while and taking on that much repair work at once I felt did drag the show down slightly.
 

Dwarvenhobble

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I watched RLMs final episode review of the season and I think I kind of get it. One thing they bring up is that the movies ended things on a downnote for the crew and the enterprise being destroyed, PIcard seasons 1&2 were apparently miserable nightmares. I, however, never really paid much attention to the movies after Generations, dropped Picard after 2 episodes. To me TNG ended with the card game. I guess to fans though the criticisms can be washed away under the blanket of this being fun and ending on a happy note for the crew. "They fixed TNG". I don't think fans are stupid, in this context. It just wasn't for me.

I'm not being a hipster, I'm dead serious when I say I still remember being at Phantom Menace opening day and the crowd losing their minds at the credits, light sabers waving and I literally looked around feeling like crazy person because I thought it was fucking awful. There's just no amount of nostalgia that can make me overlook lazy, shoddy writing.

There's a part in this where the Borg Queen, a concept I never really liked, angrily yells "The BORG will no longer assimilate, we will now ANNIHILATE THE GALAXY!" and I just kinda died inside. It's like smart scifi just died. That's the writers going "fans want the pew pew pew!". I always kind of dug the moral ambiguity of the goals, not technically being out to hurt or conquer, they don't think they are evil. That's what makes Star Trek special. So many of the conflicts being about dilemmas and perspectives. That's what I watch Star Trek for and this didn't deliver that.
Except on a meta commentary level the Borg Queen is a corpse in this basically, some-one who didn't get her way and so wants to destroy things now.............Totally could be coincidence but also the number of people becoming writers from older franchises claiming to be fans and then later on social media and other places almost bragging about how they're in control and can do what they want and the old show was never good etc etc. Well not that hard to suggest the Borg queens represents a way of thinking that a writer or multiple writers on Season 3 now see and a dying approach to things.
 

Phoenixmgs

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Star Trek Picard Season 3

Score: 9/10

Watched on: Amazon Prime UK.

Tagline: "One Nerd boldy tries to fix years of Star Trek Franchise mismanagement"

Thoughts:

So I've read some of the takes here about it being bad.

I've read the piece the Escapist Darren Mooney put out


And

I DISAGREE

Full disclosure I only watched Season 1 of Picard and skipped Season 2 mostly watching Red Letter Media do overviews of the episodes because Season 1 was kind of bad in many ways. Season 1 had some redeeming moments. At the time I theorised in the writers room were multiple writers one of whom wasn't allowed much power but was an absolute Star Trek nerd and most of their input was in adding less mainstream bits of Star Trek lore into the mix like references to alien races whose total screen time amounted to less than 30 seconds in an Alex Kurtzman film and beyond that only ever appearing in extended universe material and the old kids cartoon Star Trek stuff. Or actual well thought out additions to lore like the fact Romulan warning signs are green, why? because Romulan's have green blood so while human society evolved with red warning signs due to red being something that makes people pay attention due to psychology and stuff related to human blood colour it makes sense the Romulans would evolve with green being their go to warning colour.

Picard Season 3 feels like the nerd in the room was given a shot after a fairly abysmal Picard Season 2 reaction and the nerd in the room heard everyone's criticism right down to Riker's pizza looking a bit burned in season 1 and people mocking Riker's log cabin.

Just for entertainment's sake lets go through some of what I spotted as attempts to correct the course of Star Trek or address criticisms: (spoiler warnings)

The CGI Data in Season 1 was uncanny valley and crap - (yes they used CGI to try and make Brent Spiner look younger and do his look for Data in season 1) = OK Season 3 other than contacts it's Brent Spiner and they've figured out a way to write it in.

But Picard and Data weren't super best friends he was more friends with Geordi - Brings back Geordi

I've already mentioned the pizza and log cabin stuff.

Jesus who thought it was a good idea to imply a possible romantic relationship between Raffi and Seven of Nine? - Yeh they broke up they weren't good together and both are embarrassed it ever happened.

Isn't the Romulan lady Picardhas feelings for way younger than him and it's a bit weird cause isn't she his housekeeper - You get one scene and the show wrote her out and doesn't bring her back up.

Too much bullshit action sequence ship fights etc - An entire episode long ship battle that really is "Big ships in space" where it's not about blasting but tactics and strategy with barely any weapons fired.

JJ Abrams Lens flares being used way too much - I spotted maybe 2 lens flares in the entire thing maybe 3 done very tastefully without the white glare bit of it ending up on screen.

Raffi is all kinds of awful and unlikable - We took all the messed up Raffi and turned it into a base for character development turning her into basically martial arts trained Reginald Barclay

"We don't like the Enterprise E" - Enterprise D is back baby.

The Federation is meant to be a really good altruistic future society how did it get so screwed up? - Here's a plot that could explain why it's all so messed up.

Admiral Shelby was just vile in Season 1 - Watch her get her comeuppance in Season 3 as she gets blasted




One thing Darren and people in this thread are right about, the show looks back to the past a lot this season but what people are seemingly mistaking for "Memberberries" or Nostalgic fan pleasing is actually shockingly in keeping with the theme of this season which is generational legacy and trauma. This is a season that invokes the Dominion wars and the idea maybe Star Fleet committed War Crimes, including what impact that would have on a society. It looks at the idea of the good and bad of what we pass on to the next generation.

One great example is captain Shaw and his sort of arc on the show with his traumatic past as a survivor of Wolf 359 colouring his actions.

This season was looking to the past, to put it to rest properly, not to rebel and to use a Star Wars line "Kill the past" to try and make it seems like something that needs replacing for being bad. No the replacement is part of the progression of time itself it's not replacing it, it's carrying on the legacy of the past still. It's kind of notable the season finale is literally the collective borg taking control of the younger crew mates to turn them against the older ones which you can interpret quite easily as a shot at the kind of disrespect for legacy characters being seen from many writers these days feeling their new characters must take over from, beat and replace the older ones.

Side Note: The final episode of Season 3 also felt like almost reaching out a hand as a gesture of peace to the Star Wars Fandom by having the Enterprise do a basically a Death Star Trench run.

Also the series is called Picard, looking to the past is a bit in the name plus probably doesn't help they killed off / wrote out most of the new characters in season 2 already so the writers lost the majority of the new established characters so quickly had to establish some new ones and fill out the rest with people who Star Trek fans hopefully would know.

The only reason I gave this season a 9 not a 10 is it's literally so much about dealing with the baggage of previous season and also the franchise as a while and taking on that much repair work at once I felt did drag the show down slightly.
Is it worth watching if you wouldn't know the references or fan service?

I never got into Star Trek long ago and have been trying the new shows but they all have sucked. Picard season 1 was awful and a shit version of Mass Effect. I watched the opening 2 parter of Discovery and it was so shit I had no interest in continuing on. Lower Decks is a ton of fun. And I liked the first new Star Trek movie, but the 2nd and 3rd ones sucked ass.
 

Dwarvenhobble

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Is it worth watching if you wouldn't know the references or fan service?

I never got into Star Trek long ago and have been trying the new shows but they all have sucked. Picard season 1 was awful and a shit version of Mass Effect. I watched the opening 2 parter of Discovery and it was so shit I had no interest in continuing on. Lower Decks is a ton of fun. And I liked the first new Star Trek movie, but the 2nd and 3rd ones sucked ass.

Ok it's kind of hard to really gage I'd say you might find it it to be OK to good as long as you're OK with the fact you might have to stop the episode sometimes and google stuff like the Battle of Wolf 359 and another thing I mentioned in my previous post in spoilers. It mostly tries to fill you in or do flashbacks though I did have to google who one character was at one point so it was deep enough stuff it threw me at least once into going "Wait who is this?" because unless you're very into it remembering the one mostly secondary character who appeared in the later 3 seasons of TNG is a bit of a stretch.

Thing is if you made it through Picard Season 1 you have the main stuff from Picard you really need to know. The issue is really it's built on ideas of generational trauma etc and brings in elements and characters from TNG, Voyager and some plot elements from DS9. You saying you preferred the first new Star Trek film but not the other two when I enjoyed the 3rd one (not the 2nd) and will say the 3rd one is more Star Trek than the first two might give you an idea of the level of this but then you've said you're enjoying Lower Decks and like 90% of that show is riffing on Star Trek plotlines, themes and ideas so if that show isn't off putting to you then you might well be able to get into Picard Season 3.
 
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Phoenixmgs

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Ok it's kind of hard to really gage I'd say you might find it it to be OK to good as long as you're OK with the fact you might have to stop the episode sometimes and google stuff like the Battle of Wolf 359 and another thing I mentioned in my previous post in spoilers. It mostly tries to fill you in or do flashbacks though I did have to google who one character was at one point so it was deep enough stuff it threw me at least once into going "Wait who is this?" because unless you're very into it remembering the one mostly secondary character who appeared in the later 3 seasons of TNG is a bit of a stretch.

Thing is if you made it through Picard Season 1 you have the main stuff from Picard you really need to know. The issue is really it's built on ideas of generational trauma etc and brings in elements and characters from TNG, Voyager and some plot elements from DS9. You saying you preferred the first new Star Trek film but not the other two when I enjoyed the 3rd one (not the 2nd) and will say the 3rd one is more Star Trek than the first two might give you an idea of the level of this but then you've said you're enjoying Lower Decks and like 90% of that show is riffing on Star Trek plotlines, themes and ideas so if that show isn't off putting to you then you might well be able to get into Picard Season 3.
I guess pop-culture osmosis gives me a really good idea what Star Trek is so I generally get the gist of riffs in Lower Decks in an indirect way but don't get the specific references they are making... I think? It's like I watched The Shining for the 1st time a few years back and it felt like a rewatch to me due to how much other things reference it. The 2nd new Star Trek movie was just bad and the 3rd one I was just pretty uninterested with it, I just recall loving the Beastie Boys Sabotage bit.
 
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Dwarvenhobble

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Name: El Internado Las Cumbres / The boarding school Las Cumbres : Season 3

Watched on: Prime video

Rating: 8/10

Tagline: Everything is backwards now but the truth will come to light


The trailer is the Season 1 trailer because it's a literally continuing plotline and linking the season 3 trailer would spoil some of the previous seasons plots also there's was no season 3 official trailer in English

Thoughts: A thankfully slightly shorter 6 episode season finishing off this rather well put together horror series as after great cost the killer was stopped and this season picks up 3 months after the previous one people carrying on with their lives but one of the main cast has been looking into some of the remaining mysteries. However everything changes when new girl Zoe witnesses a certain main cast member get pushed out of a window and when she runs to get help she comes back to fight the person missing.

After one of the other main villains fled at the end of Season 2 new villains are brought in too.

Also worryingly a new series of killings has started up, this time targeting the monks at the monastery. But who is the new killer and why are the Monks so intent to cover up their own being targeted?

Is the lodge of the crows nest really dead? What happened at the fateful last official meeting? Who has been sending up lanterns to summon the lodge? And importantly what happened to the knowledge of the Lodge and the other 2 volumes of their advanced research knowledge the Draco Musca? Well time to find out.

Honestly if I'm sounding a bit vague it's because I don't want to spoil too much of season 1 or two which are kind of well worth a watch. Season 3 feels like an end cap to them wrapping up most of the major plot points and completing a few long standing character arcs of characters you likely didn't think would be given them or characters whose arcs you thought were over. A series that has you regularly questioning just whose side characters are on quite often as the different groups at work seems ready for an incoming collision with the Crows Lodge, The Monks, The Holy inquisition, Chlorax labs and the police / authorities all in play this season.

The reason this is an 8 and not more is because the season 3 plotline seems to be a sort of repeat of the season 1 plotline only changing characters round a bit and even characters remarking how it's like previous events. It does go somewhere with it but I feel like they needed to do something a bit different to differentiate things maybe have it be more of a wild goose chase with people initially thinking it's not just another disappearance but some-one actually being taken care of officially but not. Also there's kind of very little foreshadowing of the final villain reveal even in this season let alone looking back at the previous 2.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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Citadel

Oof. Another Amazon stinker in a row. Like Rings of Powers it boasts an insane production budget of 300 mil yet looks cheap and fake. Where the hell did the money go? Madden and Chopra are TV B-listers with dubious film cred. They can't be that expensive. Is it Tucci? He'll show up in anything. He was in Jolt like a year or two ago, doing more or less the same thing.

This is produced by the Russos (Avengers famous) but that's meaningless trivia. Disney either hires actual filmmakers like how you'd stunt cast an actor (Raimi, Gunn, Waititi, Zhao) or simply resorts to hacks (Reed, Taylor, Russos); either way you end up with hired hands. What the hell are the Russos going to bring to the table? How to CGI singles of celebs into a digital wide shot for a variety of poses?

I don't wanna harp too much on them because they're not actually directing this (because somebody watched Gray Man) but the action here is rote beyond imagination. Look at the scene where Ikaris fights a dude in the bathroom of a speeding train - a classic spy set-piece, right? Whoever's directing this never uses the fact that the space is too cramped for movement and simply shoots the scene like it's two people in a warehouse (because it is). No real sense for space. Look up the fight in From Russia With Love to see how it's done.

Then there's a gunfight in the dining car and the editing is too choppy to follow any of the action. Again, no sense of space or movement. None of it is shot like anybody working on that scene enjoys action - real office worker, let's get this over with energy. I don't expect anybody to top Stahelski anytime soon but... Couldn't they get somebody who at least wanted to shoot an action scene?
 

bluegate

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I never got into Star Trek long ago and have been trying the new shows but they all have sucked. Picard season 1 was awful and a shit version of Mass Effect. I watched the opening 2 parter of Discovery and it was so shit I had no interest in continuing on. Lower Decks is a ton of fun. And I liked the first new Star Trek movie, but the 2nd and 3rd ones sucked ass.
Try Strange New Worlds.

It's the best Trek has been since... the early 00s ( ENT ) or late 90s ( VOY/DS9 ).
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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Try Strange New Worlds.

It's the best Trek has been since... the early 00s ( ENT ) or late 90s ( VOY/DS9 ).
I watched the first episode and it felt like such a sad tour through the expected beats of a Next Generation episode that I was turned off.

I think... Star Trek is not relevant any more. At least Discovery found its own voice in season 3 so I'll watch the last season whenever it comes out, but then I think I'm done with Trek. The reason they're re-hsahing not only characters (Picard) but entire themes and plots is because there's a billion trillion hours of this stuff and there's nothing left to say.
 

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The Professionals (1970s) - 9/10

This show is the silliest shit but it’s eminently enjoyable. The show follows Bodie and Doyle, ex-SAS and ex-Copper respectively, as agents of CI5 - MI5 with the serial numbers filed off - responsible for doing dirty deeds to dirtier criminals, spies (Cold War and all that), terrorists, and other assorted ne’er do wells that threaten Britain. To round out the three man band is George Cowley, their boss: a gruff and dour Scotsman with a taste for single malt scotch and a level of cunning usually reserved for a shithouse rat.

As this his a pre-story arc era of television each episode tells a single story and is wrapped up by the time the credits roll. Once upon a time I’d have thought the stupid things Bodie and Doyle do like securing a prototype rifle in an airing cupboard would be out of character for men of their experience but as recent events have shown, it probably skews closer to the truth than anyone would care to admit.

But it’s got guns, car chases, birds, 70s era police brutality (but only against the baddies), Cold War, race, sexual and criminal politics and humour to match. Also one of the most over-used generic rock tracks the BBC archives can supply. If you can jive with it, Bodie and Doyle are still one of the best double acts television on either side of the pond has ever produced and even the dumbest episodes can coast by on their chemistry alone.
My dad loved that show.