![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
And yes, that is the name of the show. Men. Plural. Because there's more than one of them - distinctly more than one.
It's weird watching the first season though, as I've been doing recently. I've seen a few episodes of it before, a little earlier this year, and I've recently been watching some more. They really did seem to think that Solo was the star, didn't they; and that he could carry on being the star. Ha. I'm sorry. I mean, I'm sure he does have fans - real fans, who like him best. But when he's up there on the screen with Illya, then who you gonna choose?! The smart alec smoothie, or the multi-lingual scientific genius, with a slightly murky past?! It's not a very hard to decision to make. I do feel sorry for Illya, though. Okay, so he's the smart one, and the interesting one; but this is the first season, and he gets sidelined all the time at the drop of a hat. It's infuriating. On one occasion he even gets booted aside on a really lame pretext, just so that Solo can spend the episode partnered by a twelve year old boy. Oh goody. Yes, okay, so the boy in question is played by Kurt Russell, who did at least usually manage not to be the desperately annoying, precocious type - but I'd still much rather have Illya. You're not going to get mini-Kurt infiltrating gypsy gangs, speaking half a dozen languages, and being fully versed in Physics and Chemistry. All he seems to do during that episode is try to set Solo up with his widowed mother, and play catch with a big dog. Hang on in there, Illya. Pretty soon you'll be getting equal billing. On the downside, you'll have to drive every car, carry every suitcase, pilot every helicopter, and get captured nearly every week. Mind you, you do get to wear the better clothes. If that helps.
Another reason to feel sorry for Illya is that all the bad guys seem to be bigger than him. No fair. Can't THRUSH hire a few little guards? Or littler, at any rate. Poor little fellow looks so astonishingly young in season one. And there's all these big mean bad guys towering over him. That's just plain unfriendly, that is.
I can't remember all the titles of the episodes that I've watched, so no real attempt at episode reviews. There was The Kurt Russell Isn't As Good A Sidekick As Illya Affair, which was rubbish, as it didn't really have much Illya in it; The Terbuf (I think) Affair, which should really have been renamed The Very Dodgy Hat Affair; and then The Bonkers Prince From Some Made-Up Country Affair, and The Quadripartite Affair, whose title I do remember, and not just because it had a lot of Illya in it, honest. Odd one that, as the Girl Of The Week is played by David McCallum's then-wife Jill Ireland, so rather than Solo going after her, it's Illya who looks at her photograph and comments on her looks. That's so out of character for Illya. Still, it was the first season - and early in the first season, too, so I suppose that's forgivable. It's a good episode, anyway. There's a scene where Illya gets a dose of a sort of fear gas, which turns him into a terrified, whimpering mess. It's so well done, and quite heart-breaking. I miss that sort of drama in the later seasons. There were good episodes later on, obviously, but they went too far down the comedy road for me at times. I'm now trying hard not to think about Solo dancing with that gorilla in season three. Ouch.
So, to the pretty pictures, then:
Kurt Russell. Not as good as Illya Kuryakin.
And definitely not as good at fighting spies.
See? Men. Plural. And no, I haven't copied and pasted the one bloke across,
and I haven't badly painted his hair blond. Honest.
Illya demonstrates his unique method of checking for bombs.
Step one, lift lid of suspect box. Step two, stick nose inside box. Okay...
Girl Of The Week also has a novel approach to hiding from possible bombs.
Poor Illya. Fear gas isn't nice. Kudos to David McC here, though.
Richard Anderson! Hurrah!
Although interestingly he's far more bald here than he ever was in his later career.
Aw. He looks about six. Mean old Solo, making him do all the dangerous bits.
Though as a pay-off, he also gets to do all the fun bits.
Has to wear the spectacularly dodgy hats, too, mind.
Aw, again. Problem is, this is post-The Great Escape, so maybe not "aw" after all.
Oops. Don't seem to have done any proper shots of Solo. Golly gosh, what an oversight. Ah well.
It's weird watching the first season though, as I've been doing recently. I've seen a few episodes of it before, a little earlier this year, and I've recently been watching some more. They really did seem to think that Solo was the star, didn't they; and that he could carry on being the star. Ha. I'm sorry. I mean, I'm sure he does have fans - real fans, who like him best. But when he's up there on the screen with Illya, then who you gonna choose?! The smart alec smoothie, or the multi-lingual scientific genius, with a slightly murky past?! It's not a very hard to decision to make. I do feel sorry for Illya, though. Okay, so he's the smart one, and the interesting one; but this is the first season, and he gets sidelined all the time at the drop of a hat. It's infuriating. On one occasion he even gets booted aside on a really lame pretext, just so that Solo can spend the episode partnered by a twelve year old boy. Oh goody. Yes, okay, so the boy in question is played by Kurt Russell, who did at least usually manage not to be the desperately annoying, precocious type - but I'd still much rather have Illya. You're not going to get mini-Kurt infiltrating gypsy gangs, speaking half a dozen languages, and being fully versed in Physics and Chemistry. All he seems to do during that episode is try to set Solo up with his widowed mother, and play catch with a big dog. Hang on in there, Illya. Pretty soon you'll be getting equal billing. On the downside, you'll have to drive every car, carry every suitcase, pilot every helicopter, and get captured nearly every week. Mind you, you do get to wear the better clothes. If that helps.
Another reason to feel sorry for Illya is that all the bad guys seem to be bigger than him. No fair. Can't THRUSH hire a few little guards? Or littler, at any rate. Poor little fellow looks so astonishingly young in season one. And there's all these big mean bad guys towering over him. That's just plain unfriendly, that is.
I can't remember all the titles of the episodes that I've watched, so no real attempt at episode reviews. There was The Kurt Russell Isn't As Good A Sidekick As Illya Affair, which was rubbish, as it didn't really have much Illya in it; The Terbuf (I think) Affair, which should really have been renamed The Very Dodgy Hat Affair; and then The Bonkers Prince From Some Made-Up Country Affair, and The Quadripartite Affair, whose title I do remember, and not just because it had a lot of Illya in it, honest. Odd one that, as the Girl Of The Week is played by David McCallum's then-wife Jill Ireland, so rather than Solo going after her, it's Illya who looks at her photograph and comments on her looks. That's so out of character for Illya. Still, it was the first season - and early in the first season, too, so I suppose that's forgivable. It's a good episode, anyway. There's a scene where Illya gets a dose of a sort of fear gas, which turns him into a terrified, whimpering mess. It's so well done, and quite heart-breaking. I miss that sort of drama in the later seasons. There were good episodes later on, obviously, but they went too far down the comedy road for me at times. I'm now trying hard not to think about Solo dancing with that gorilla in season three. Ouch.
So, to the pretty pictures, then:
Kurt Russell. Not as good as Illya Kuryakin.
And definitely not as good at fighting spies.
See? Men. Plural. And no, I haven't copied and pasted the one bloke across,
and I haven't badly painted his hair blond. Honest.
Illya demonstrates his unique method of checking for bombs.
Step one, lift lid of suspect box. Step two, stick nose inside box. Okay...
Girl Of The Week also has a novel approach to hiding from possible bombs.
Poor Illya. Fear gas isn't nice. Kudos to David McC here, though.
Richard Anderson! Hurrah!
Although interestingly he's far more bald here than he ever was in his later career.
Aw. He looks about six. Mean old Solo, making him do all the dangerous bits.
Though as a pay-off, he also gets to do all the fun bits.
Has to wear the spectacularly dodgy hats, too, mind.
Aw, again. Problem is, this is post-The Great Escape, so maybe not "aw" after all.
Oops. Don't seem to have done any proper shots of Solo. Golly gosh, what an oversight. Ah well.
Tags: