101 of 104 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Prince of Spies, June 9, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Secret Agent AKA Danger Man Megaset (DVD)
What was golden about "Secret Agent" in 1965 remains golden: it tackles the familiar spy-story themes---duty, honor, country; loyalty, brotherhood, betrayal---with a theatrical style, with romanticism, wit, and grace, often with deep human feeling. In 1965, when the moral norms in television and movies were starting to go to hell in a handbasket and the spy genre was characterized by the comic-book vulgarity of the James Bond films and the moral pessimism of John Le Carre, the strong moral tone and absence of promiscuity in "Secret Agent" were remarkable. That turned out to be a deliberate device, at the personal insistence of the star. Certain of the writers and directors seemed to recognize the possibilities and seize on them, deftly exploiting their star's unique characteristics to create some fascinating, unforgettable television.
With this reissue of the complete '65-'66 series on DVD---and now that things in the culture have gotten a lot darker---my own thanks go to Patrick McGoohan for that particular moment in his career: for the glowing, graceful Cold Warrior he made of John Drake; for his insistence on a principled approach to the character; for the enduring mystery of personality he brought to a small-screen hero.
Can't go to the theater? Watch McGoohan, with his strange quality of aggressive shyness, in a repertory of amusing impersonations: the tipsy playboy, the wheeler-dealer businessman, the shy schoolteacher, the crisp colonial officer, the langorous beachcomber, the insolent artist, the veddy English butler, the flirtatious German encyclopedia salesman, the supercilious physician ("It's Bailey-Carpenter---ehm---there's a hyphen"). The darkness of "The Prisoner" and 35 years of villain roles haven't dimmed the glow of this princely performance, or the image of the decent, thoughtful man behind it, who seemed to care so genuinely about his influence on the television audience.
Faulkner said, "The artist's duty is to lift up men's hearts and help them endure." The people who worked on this series did their duty.
So spend your money. This is great stuff.
M.E.M.
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
See The Show In It's UK Aired Order, 5 Star Show, 3 Star Packaging, October 17, 2006
This review is from: Secret Agent AKA Danger Man Megaset (DVD)
I just bought the megaset, after having rented several of the Dangerman discs in the past. The show is top notch, my cup of tea, one of my favorite actors and shows, 5 Amazon stars all the way. I grew up on the Prisoner first as a very young lad on CBS (I really remember ROVER as a 4 year old!) and than as a teen watching every episode as it aired weekly on the local PBS, finally I bought that A&E set about 5 or so years ago and watched it with my family. Well the show is first rate, better than the 30 minute first season which I also have.
The packaging though from A&E is only 3 stars in my opinion. First, its big and bulky. This is because A&E sold mini sets of this show and didnt repackage it for the megaset, I believe that they are selling the size since its a substantial price, but for those of us who are buying TV shows in quantity, this is a disadvantage for shelf space. Second, The episodes are in the American airing order. I was watching disc 1 episode 1 in the set and after I watched it I went to an episode guide online and that is actually the 8th episode to be aired in the UK. I strongly suggest you watch this in the UK (original) air order as a lot of elements are brought out to set up the show that are not explained as well when you start on the 8th episode.
The first episode originaly shown ever was Yesterdays Enemies, I think it may be the best episode I have seen of this show (after watching 20 or so episodes). We meet Drake's boss the Admiral (great hard nose character), we also see Drake go to Lebanon and get rebuffed by the British Embassy when he asks for help, these are elements that define the show and need to be explained early on, like in the FIRST EPISODE! Later in that first episode we see Drake question his superiors motives, I had watched this episode before but I had no idea it was the first one aired and it's very important to set up the rest of the series. Who is Drake, who is he working for, what are his and his agencies limitations? Start at this episode and not The Battle Of The Camera's (which is only an average episode, I think it was shown first in America because it has a "gaget", a machine gun killing in the intro, and doesn't raise Drake's questioning his superiors like Yesterdays Enemies did). I guess after watching Yesterdays Enemies it wont matter so much what order they are in but I am sticking to the UK air date schedule.
I just finished the first 3 episodes Yesterdays Enemies, The Professionals, and Colony Three. I think those three are the high water mark of the show, all top notch. To see those three which were in the original order you have to watch 3 different DVD's, so definetly 3 stars for the packaging. Other critism's, no closed captioning, and the sound level is low, I'm not looking for Dolby Digital here but I had to turn my systems volume up higher than normal (pretty high). The print quality was average, I saw some print errors on the video which is a shame. I looked on UK web sights and surprisingly they are not selling a complete Dangerman set, so America is ahead when it comes to this show.
A couple of last comments. The Prisoner was a major show in my life, if you are a Prisoner fan also see Colony Three! Watching the episode Colony Three (The third episode that aired) brought chills up my back, if this was a movie where we didn't know if Drake would survive, I would rank it up with The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, maybe better. The Colony is also very similiar to "The Village" from Prisoner fame. Not to give too much away but the grief he gets from his boss the Admiral at the end is a wonderful touch of great writing.
Despite my comments on the packaging, I'm very happy I finally got this set, the show is great and even watching episodes I've seen before is still very entertaining because I missed a lot in prior viewings. Here is the order I will be viewing these in case you want to see them in UK order as well (from epguides-dangerman page):
Series 1964 60 min
40. 2- 1 048 13 Oct 64 Yesterday's Enemies
41. 2- 2 043 20 Oct 64 The Professionals
42. 2- 3 049 27 Oct 64 Colony Three
43. 2- 4 047 3 Nov 64 The Galloping Major
44. 2- 5 042 10 Nov 64 Fair Exchange
45. 2- 6 040 17 Nov 64 Fish on the Hook
46. 2- 7 044 24 Nov 64 The Colonel's Daughter
47. 2- 8 051 1 Dec 64 The Battle of the Cameras
48. 2- 9 052 8 Dec 64 No Marks for Servility
49. 2-10 050 15 Dec 64 A Man to be Trusted
50. 2-11 041 22 Dec 64 Don't Nail Him Yet
51. 2-12 054 29 Dec 64 A Date with Doris
52. 2-13 046 5 Jan 65 That's Two of Us Sorry
53. 2-14 055 12 Jan 65 Such Men Are Dangerous
54. 2-15 056 19 Jan 65 Whatever Happened to George Foster?
55. 2-16 057 2 Feb 65 A Room in the Basement
56. 2-17 058 9 Feb 65 The Affair at Castelevara
57. 2-18 053 16 Feb 65 The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove
58. 2-19 045 23 Feb 65 It's Up to the Lady
59. 2-20 059 2 Mar 65 Have a Glass of Wine
60. 2-21 060 9 Mar 65 The Mirror's New
61. 2-22 061 16 Mar 65 Parallel Lines Sometimes Meet
3rd Series 1965
62. 3- 1 062 23 Sep 65 You Are Not in Any Trouble, Are You?
63. 3- 2 067 30 Sep 65 The Black Book
64. 3- 3 066 7 Oct 65 A Very Dangerous Game
65. 3- 4 065 14 Oct 65 Sting in the Tail
66. 3- 5 069 21 Oct 65 English Lady Takes Lodgers
67. 3- 6 070 28 Oct 65 Loyalty Always Pays
68. 3- 7 064 4 Nov 65 The Mercenaries
69. 3- 8 068 11 Nov 65 Judgement Day
70. 3- 9 063 18 Nov 65 The Outcast
71. 3-10 071 2 Dec 65 Are You Going to be More Permanent?
72. 3-11 072 9 Dec 65 To Our Best Friend
73. 3-12 073 16 Dec 65 The Man on the Beach
74. 3-13 075 23 Dec 65 Say It with Flowers
75. 3-14 074 30 Dec 65 The Man Who Wouldn't Talk
76. 3-15 076 6 Jan 66 Someone is Liable to Get Hurt
77. 3-16 077 13 Jan 66 Dangerous Secret
78. 3-17 078 20 Jan 66 I Can Only Offer You Sherry
79. 3-18 079 27 Jan 66 The Hunting Party
80. 3-19 080 10 Mar 66 Two Birds with One Bullet
81. 3-20 081 17 Mar 66 I am Afraid You Have the Wrong Number
82. 3-21 082 24 Mar 66 The Man With the Foot
83. 3-22 083 31 Mar 66 The Paper Chase
84. 3-23 084 7 Apr 66 Not So Jolly Roger
Series 1968 colour
85. 4- 1 085 5 Jan 68 Koroshi (1)
86. 4- 2 086 12 Jan 68 Shinda Shima (2)
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