Review for Mission: Impossible '89 Box Set

It’s funny how expectations shape the objectivity of reviews. When I viewed the recently released ’88 set of this classic TV franchise I was dreading the worst. After all, the original sixties show had been great and the consequent DVD releases superb, with great transfers and features. It turned out to be more watchable than I had anticipated. Not as good as the original but a perfectly acceptable eighties show, as much akin to ‘Hustle’ as to the original show, despite Peter Graves presence. So when the follow up season arrived (’89) I was looking forward to watching it. And then felt slightly disappointed by it. It just seemed to fall slightly short.


It’s pure eighties of course with some bleeding edge gadgetry that just looks lame now (rather than ray-gun ‘retro’ like the sixties series) as well as some horrendous keying effects and mullets aplenty. But then so was the previous season and I didn’t mind that.


This remains the show’s final season and, sadly, it’s easy to see why. It did little to the legacy, bringing the show to Sydney Australia and focussing on eighties style crimes (drug cartels for example) which were far less interesting than the cold-war hits of the sixties.


Graves is the real point of continuity with the old franchise though he’s joined for the opening double episode by Greg Morris whose real-life son took up his mantle for the eighties seasons.


Whether it’s an eighties phenomenon or not, the cast just doesn’t seem the equal to the original when Martin Landau, Leonard Nimoy, Leslie Ann Warren and Sam Elliott created a near perfect team. The plots also seem a little convoluted here, generally on a grand scale and requiring more than just sixties ingenuity to sort problems out. This is nearer to the over-blown Tom Cruise epics than the original series and, for me, that’s a real shame.


There are no extras on the discs (other than a cheesy holiday promo or two). Picture quality is adequate if unspectacular (this has none of the 35mm gloss of the original series) and probably an NTSC to PAL conversion. In other words, passable but not great.


Hard-core fans in possession of all previous seasons will naturally want to complete their collection with this and I guess it does have its moments.
The opening episode (The Golden Serpent: Parts 1 and 2) is a James Bond-ish adventure spread over two episodes and it feels like an unnecessarily bloated start, showing the tea, tackling a secret triad gang.


‘Target Earth’ sees the team in space and ‘The Fuhrer's Children’ gets really daft with a redneck nazi youth army on the rampage. "Banshee" surprises with its IRA plot and "Cargo Cult" is a righteous dig at white gold mine owners.


Graves never loses the serious veneer throughout - even in the height of eighties madness the show always took itself seriously.

All in all, one strictly for the fans.