06.30 It Takes A Thief
07.30 The Avengers
It Takes A Thief. Episode 6. "Totally By Design" This one has a really great story. Once again, we get to see Al doing that stuff that only Al could do: lying his way into a place no other spy could possible get. Watching him is a joy. It's excting and he's funny. But, in the second half, the episode really kicks into high gear. Several guest characters take on extra dimension.
Al has been pretending to be a designer, so he can get close to a woman (Mari Blanchard) and steal something from her husband. She's actually a very nice lady. We (and Al) are sorry that Al has to dupe her. She's just a lonely woman, who loves her husband and wishes he would pay attention to her again, like he used to do before they were powerful. Everything about the story rings true. Later, Al is forced to save the life of he man he came to steal from (because somebody even worse has revealed themselves) and it serves to re-unite husband and wife is very satisfactory fashion.
The Avengers. Episode 136. "My Wildest Dream" Lots of neat twists in this one. The bad guys are brainwashing ordinary people to commit murder (as is often the case on The Avengers!). Except that is not quite what is happening. In the end, we discover the person we perceived as the evil mastermind is actually not evil at all (Just innocently doing some amateur aggresso therapy! As you do.) and the person we thought was helping Steed is actually the genius behind it all. We also thought we were witnessing someone help Steed by snitching on the bad guys. Wrong! They, too, are part of the plot. Clever storytelling. Playing with the perceptions/expectations of the audience. It's also great that Steed and Tara (very much working as a team, by now) are never fooled for very long.
Tara kicks ass, too, in a couple of great fight scenes. And uses her shoe to save Steed at the very end. Really.
Highlight? It Takes A Thief (good story)
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Fri, Dec 5, 08 - It Takes A Thief, The Avengers
