The viewers have spoken and therefore @gregmccambley will make it so. No. 2 put this week’s programming to a vote and the Tom Selleck mustache has arisen victorious.
9:00pm ET – Magnum P.I. “All For One” Parts 1 and 2
Welcome to the third broadcast of #Bond_age_TV Presents: Remington Steele. We’re jumping up to Episodes 9 and 10 from Season One. As always, keep your eyes open for those classic movie references (especially in our second episode this evening). Follow the #Bond_age_TV hashtag on Twitter, supplement with #SteeleTweet so the innocent bystanders get a whiff of what we’re talking about.
9:00pm ET: “In the Steele of the Night” – #Bond_age_TV #SteeleTweet
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10:00pm ET: “Steele Trap” – #Bond_age_TV #SteeleTweet
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My anticipation for each of these Remington Steele live tweets has been growing with each new episode double feature. I wanted to start with a heavy dose of early Steele episodes because they showcase the development of showrunners’ growing confidence with the characters. Consequently we’ve viewed four of the first five episodes through the first two Volumes. For Volume 3, we’re going to jump ahead to Episodes 9 and 10. Not because I dislike anything in between, but because Remington Steele begins to hit its stride during these middle episodes of the first season. If you want to go back and view other episodes I strongly considered, check out Episode 6 – “Steele Belted” – Remington Steele has to team up with Murphy to solve the case and it’s a bit like the Seinfeld episode where Elaine and George have to hang out without Jerry. Also check out Episode 8 – “You’re Steele the One For Me,” which is one of the more outlandish early episodes as it involves Remington Steele and Laura clashing with the Yakuza. Nice. Now you have some homework.
For our live tweet purposes, however, it’s Episodes 9 and 10 and I’m sticking with those picks. Episode 9, “In the Steele of the Night” was actually an episode I’d forgotten about until Pam (@fallonthornley) mentioned it in one of our programming discussions. Laura and Murphy attend a professional reunion, and Steele tags along. When the host turns up dead, the party attendees turn to Remington Steele to solve the whodunnit. Except of course that Remington has no idea how to conduct a proper investigation and has to secretly turn to Laura, the proper PI, for help.
The perfect Laura Holt #facepalm from “In the Steele of the Night.”
Episode 10, “Steele Trap,” contains a similar set up and therefore functions perfectly as the second half of this double feature. Steele and Laura attend and island party thrown by a magazine publisher to investigate why a client committed suicide. One by one, the host and his guests turn up dead. The episode is also notable because Steele attempts to tell Laura more about himself. I’ll let you see how this turns out, but it’s an important statement by the series about how it’s going to approach the mystery behind the character of Remington Steele. Also, good luck keeping up with the cinematic references in this episode.
Join us Wednesday, August 3rd @ 9pm ET for #SteeleTweet Vol. 3. Embeds for the episodes will be provided. Follow #Bond_age_TV, supplement with #SteeleTweet.
Here’s the movie. Watch with us, will you?
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And now for the finale. Our MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE retrospective is coming to a close with the excellent action spectacle that handily out-Bonded Bond in 2015. By the time SPECTRE arrived in theaters in late November, it felt like stale potatoes. Threads of the plot eerily recalled this fifth entry in the Mission: Impossible movie series. Some may argue my feelings on this matter, but The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and M:I – Rogue Nation ran laps around Bond for pure fun and spectacle entertainment. James Bond in SPECTRE felt like EON chasing pop-culture, but pulling up halfway with the dry heaves.
Then when the whole Emily Blunt/Gillian Anderson as Bond Internet rabble gained momentum, I couldn’t help but consider how Mission: Impossible had again stolen even Bond’s hypothetical thunder. Rebecca Ferguson is the star of this here movie. Tom Cruise, of course, is Tom Cruise/Ethan Hunt… but Rebecca Ferguson makes herself a legitimate star in Rogue Nation and made a strong case for taking over the entire series when Ethan Hunt does finally retire. No farcical Internet hyperbole or shoehorning necessary. Our female espionage heroine has already arrived…
Anywho. Commentary aside.
Join us on Wednesday, July 27th at 9pm ET for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation! Follow #Bond_age_ hashtag, supplement with #MIRN. Embed will appear on this here site Wednesday before showtime.