The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Reviews

Channeling my inner Rod Serling,...

Imagine, if you will: the year is 1964. The United States is still basking in the afterglow of Kennedy's visionary Camelot society. At the cinemas, the Western World was being introduced to that entertainment juggernaut of a suave, British spy with the three-digit moniker.

Well, this is post-WWII America and anything that Europeans can do, the Americans can do better, right? Well,...

The premise was terrific: take the premise of Bond's role as a righter of wrongs at any cost and serialize it. Give the main characters a numerical ID like Bond! Make the setting what was then arguably the West's center of entertainment, finance and politics, New York City, and nestle it into that center of global politics, the United Netw,...um,....Nations! (Originally, the "U.N." was meant to be ambiguous, but the show's producers feared legal issues with the real UN and fleshed out the name).

The first season, in black and white, as well as the technicolor second season, achieved the show's objectives: despots, dictators and any organization, such as THRUSH (a nod to Bond's SPECTRE) that threatened to disturb the UN's attempt to sow peace and self-reliance throughout the world were usurped by Napoleon Solo, Illya Kuryakin and a who's who of the 60's character actors. And they were done in a cold, dramatic style that made many believe these were real global exploits. And, like SPECTRE, THRUSH was originally meant to have a leader who could easily change identities. Lee Meriwether's character, the ice-cold Dr. Egret, was meant to be the original, but the idea was never fully fleshed out.

The show rapidly became a global, iconic success. But like much of the entertainment industry of the latter 60s, the show because both a victim of its own success. Numerous TV shows and movies, like Dean Martin's Matt Helm and James Coburn's Flint made the concept all-too-ubiquitous. Then there was the acid-dropping silliness that infused Western culture. A poorly-made spinoff, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., failed to launch. The show devolved away from it's original plan. Now, lunatics with outlandish, camp visions of godhood and global domination often fell victim to their own gimmicky plans, simply with the help of U.N.C.L.E.

Ratings took a nose dive. The 4th season attempt at returning to the more serious, real-world escapades failed to recapture that early glory and the show limped off into the kaleidoscope sunset of 1968.

Sigh,...oh, what it could have been if it maintained the laser-like focus and discipline of similar shows like Mission Impossible!! And that 007 guy? Yeah, he's still around at the movies, isn't he?