Return to the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
One nice thing about being married to someone exactly your own age is that you have the same pop culture memories. Even though we didn’t know each other as kids, my darling husband and I were obsessed with spy stuff in the 60s — James Bond, The Avengers, Mission: Impossible and, most especially, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Loved it! NEVER missed it! I even had an U.N.C.L.E. board game. When I got the chance to interview David McCallum (Illya!) a few years ago, I could barely get a sentence out. David, a charming Scotsman, was obviously used to that reaction from female Baby Boomers who grew up watching him and Robert Vaughn (Napoleon Solo) saunter through the tailor shop “somewhere in the east 40s” in route to the headquarters of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.
Anyway, a good friend gave us a special Christmas gift: the brand new set of Man from U.N.C.L.E. DVDs packaged in a handy attache case. We popped the first disk in last night feeling a bit of trepidation. Would we still like it? Frankly, Mission: Impossible just doesn’t hold up, and The Avengers isn’t the greatest (other than Diana Rigg’s catsuits) either.
After three episodes, I thought — yes, I could watch more of this! It’s a time capsule, for sure, especially in its dismissive treatment of women as ditsy eye candy. The pacing is odd; our kids, raised on slick action films, would never sit still for something this quaint. I kept getting distracted by the (sleek) decor of the rooms and the women’s (chic) clothes and (silly) hairdos; I would lose the plotline, to the annoyance of my DH.
Weirdly, however, the overall premise of a group of good guys (U.N.C.L.E.) going after a super-secret group of bad guys (THRUSH) with no national identity, bent on taking over the world, seems as timely now as in 1964. As the nasty aims and nefarious methods of THRUSH are described in the pilot episode, my DH said, “They’re like Al Qaeda!” Maybe it’s time for another show that treats spies like tux-wearing heroes and not conflicted, Jason Bourne-like hand-wringers.
Tags: David McCallum, Robert Vaughn, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:53 am
I have a special memory of the show - watched it with my Dad, who has long since departed the scene. Of course we love the Uncle/Sean Connery model of spy hero, who wouldn’t? Gorgeous, well attired men who always triumph - what’s wrong with that? Isn’t that part of Obama’s appeal?
And in the “truth is stranger than fiction” category, this stuff appears to exist in real life. Look at Valerie Plame Wilson, a modern Illya in a dress….