Secret Agent Man-The Complete Series (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	517:16 (Case: 500)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Perry Lang Bo Welch Andy Wolk Craig Zisk
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Costas Mandylor Dina Meyer Dondre Whitfield Paul Guilfoyle Musetta Vander Frida Betrani Grace Park Jsu Garcia Carrie Fleming
Case	?
RPI	$34.95	Music	Steve Barri David Bergeaud P.F. Sloan

    Some US television series get cancelled very early in their life despite being a little different and needing some time to develop. Others get cancelled because they are crap. This one falls squarely into the second category. As a reviewer I like to give things a go on the off chance that I may enjoy them and I chose this one on the basis that it was executive produced by Barry Sonnenfeld who was responsible for the fun Men in Black movies and another cancelled television series which I really love, The Tick. Unfortunately this one is really lame, featuring wooden acting, poor writing, bad special effects and uninteresting characters. All of which just makes the very ordinary title worse. I think it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek and wryly amusing but it isn't.

    The concept is that a group of secret agents working for a mysterious government agency have to save the world repeatedly from another mysterious organisation, Trinity. The one classy thing about the production is that the main characters are all named after jazz stars. They are Monk (Costas Mandylor), Holiday (Dina Meyer), Davis (Donde Whitfield), the weapons and technology guy and Brubeck (Paul Guilfoyle from CSI), the boss.

    Another thing which really annoyed me about this series, especially the pilot, is that the action sequences (which aren't great to begin with) are peppered with either freeze frames or slow motion sections.

    This three disc set includes the 12 episodes made of this series in 2000 before it was cancelled, as follows:

1. From Prima With Love - How a pilot this bad could get the show greenlit is beyond me. The convoluted story involves Prima, a spy from Trinity, who contacts Monk saying she wants to defect after Trinity show off a new weapon.
2. Back to School - The centre for disease control is broken into by twins who steal smallpox. Monk & Holiday investigate which leads them to Holiday's old school.
3. Whupsumass - Now this one is really silly. Trinity are finding and trying to restore the memory of government scientists who had their memory erased after a secret weapons project. One of them is now a professional wrestler and Davis has to try to convince him he used to be a scientist.
4. Like Father like Monk - When Trinity destroy an Air Force base, the team call in Monk's father, who is a retired tracker.
5. Supernaked - A model at a fashion catwalk show kills the team's French bureau chief. Someone is using models as super killers.
6. The Elders - A secret organisation which controls the US is infiltrated to try and rig a senatorial election.
7. The Face - A meteorite which contains a flesh eating virus gets stolen from NASA.
8. Sleepers - The Y2K bug wakes up a Russian nuclear submarine which decides to start World War III.
9. Uncle S.A.M - A Chinese spy in Hong Kong contacts the agency trying to sell the plans for a missile which cannot be detected.
10. Fail Safe - A Trinity agent obtains a nuclear weapon in a suitcase and tries to destroy New York.
11. TKO Henry- A boy with telekinetic powers is the subject of a race to capture him by the agency and Trinity.
12. The Breach - Agency headquarters are infiltrated by an enemy agent.

    I cannot recommend this at all.

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The transfer is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is probably the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was quite clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was quite good.

    The colour was mostly very good with only some minor issues of inconsistent colour to report such as the opaque green lines at 12:30 in Episode 1.

    The only noticeable artefact was aliasing which was quite regular but generally mild in nature such as on car grilles.

    There are subtitles in English and English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read, although a little small.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is average.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was generally clear and easy to understand although some lines were a little muffled. There was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this series by David Bergeaud is pretty good, cool and funky.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    None.

Menu

    The menu included the ability to select episodes, scenes and subtitles.

    This series does not seem to be available in Region 1 at this stage.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is average.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall