Review for The Equalizer: Season 2 Box Set (6 Discs)

Introduction

A couple of years into secondary school, and my parents still ruled the remote when it came to watching television, and they dictated when I could watch TV. Our house was one that obeyed the strictures of the watershed, and while as a young male I was addicted to the pleasures of action adventure TV, it was restricted to shows like The A-Team (after it had its initial broadcast schedule changed), Knight Rider, and Airwolf. But once in a rare while, I managed to engineer a confluence of events. On one night a week, I would find that I had a backlog of homework that would last me late into the night, and if lucky, that would be the same night that my parents would go out, or turn in early. Then, with the volume turned down low, I'd get to watch the action show that boys my age really wanted to watch, The Equalizer.


Robert McCall is the Equalizer. He was a covert operative working for the mysterious Agency, but disillusioned with the nature of intelligence work, he resigned to become a private security consultant of a sort, and now offers his services to those people in desperate need who can't get justice through normal means. He also wants to use the opportunity to patch things up with his estranged son. But people don't just resign from the Agency, and simply walking away won't let McCall escape his past. It does mean however that when the Agency isn't debating whether to eliminate a liability that knows too much, he does have a whole lot of favours he can call in as he investigates New York's seedy underworld.


Season 2 of The Equalizer comes to UK DVD courtesy of Fabulous Films, several years after Playback released season 1. You get 22 episodes across six discs. I only received discs 1 and 2 to review, so my review will be based on the first eight episodes only.

The Discs

The Equalizer gets a 4:3 regular transfer that reflects the original broadcast ratio. The image is relatively clear throughout, and the film origin of the series gives it a sharper and more pleasant look than many of the videotape sourced shows of the era. That said, there is a smidge of compression, and one frame of pixellation that I did notice, while the film does suffer a bit from print damage, and obvious fading in darker scenes, of which there are many. Audio comes in DD 2.0 flavour, and thankfully the dialogue is audible throughout, despite the odd moment of hiss, as there are no subtitles for the show. There is that awesome theme tune, courtesy of Stewart Copeland of The Police fame. The Equaliser is a show that comes to DVD without benefit of any obvious restoration, but it isn't particularly diminished by that fact, and the viewing experience is much akin to watching the original broadcasts. Disc 1 does have an awkwardly placed layer change though.

Extras

The two discs I saw had animated menus, and the episode select screens led to synopses for each episode, before playing each one individually. There's also a Play All option if you want to skip these.

The Press Release promises stills and bio galleries on the discs, as well as a 16-page colour booklet with the set.

Conclusion

It's often the way of rampant nostalgia that revisiting a gold tinged memory in the harsh light of day tends to diminish it, even undermine it completely. There is a little of that with The Equalizer, as it certainly isn't as good as I remember it to be, but it's a close run thing. Even after close to twenty-five years, good writing, and more importantly good acting will tell. For these are the things that made The Equalizer stand out against its action drama peers. In an era where such shows had simplistic storylines, single note characters, and delivered fun without consequences to the viewers, The Equalizer was all about the consequences, the stories were dark and complex, and the main character of Robert McCall was rich, layered, and multi-faceted. It was indispensable television back in the eighties, and it's downright compulsive viewing today as well.


It's Edward Woodward as Robert McCall that made the show so mesmerising. McCall was the ultimate tough guy, the kind of man that could make Chuck Norris whimper, who could achieve with a withering glance, what would take Jack Bauer 24 hours of running around to accomplish. To the unacquainted, McCall looks like the kindly English grandfather type, but underneath that exterior is a steely will, a righteous fury, and a barely constrained rage that threatens to explode at the slightest provocation. At the same time, he's educated, erudite, and intelligent.


It's his back story that makes the character so rich. His past is only alluded to, in his occasional encounters with Control, and other members of The Agency, but it quickly becomes clear that the years spent working as a covert intelligence operative have deeply marked him. Sickened by that work, he left to become The Equalizer, but that past haunts him still. It's what gives him his edge in his work, the strength and experience to deal with whatever lowlifes lurk in the New York underground, as well as a whole host of contacts to tap when he needs assistance. But he's also acutely aware that his skills set him aside from regular humanity, making him a solitary figure, and there's always an undercurrent of self-loathing, and a need for redemption driving him.


It's when this darkness drives the story that The Equalizer is at its strongest, which for the eight episodes that I sampled occurs in the majority of them. It's just that once in a while, episodes come along which suddenly smack you in the face with the reminder that it's the nineteen-eighties. There was a time when every action show had to have a pop-star cameo in a form of cross format promotion. The nadir of this was when Boy George appeared on The A Team. Fortunately in The Equalizer, Ashford and Simpson aren't required to act, only to perform. It's still a moment that brings the flow of the story to a halt in Nocturne, and shatters the suspension of disbelief. There's also the obligatory "drugs are bad, mmmkay" episode, which it seems was a legal requirement for eighties television at the height of the 'Just Say No' campaign. Even with The Equalizer's depth of writing and higher quality performances, the simplistic approach to drug abuse doesn't do Joy Ride any favours.


Another trope which I recognise, is that of the neighbourhood watch, or rather citizen's patrol turned vigilante. The citizen's patrol was a short lived fad in the eighties but it made enough of an impact to feature in several action shows, and in The Line, McCall has to face community awareness that turns into the worst sort of vigilante justice. Unlike the other two episodes, this storyline fits in perfectly with what The Equalizer is about, and the episode is one of the better ones of the eight.


A couple of weaker episodes aside, The Equalizer proves to still pack a punch as one of the best action dramas of the eighties; the stories, and more particularly the characters still manage to engage the viewer. Looking back at these eight episodes alone, it's amazing to see the talent that this show attracted, with actors like Vincent D'Onofrio, William Sadler, Christian Slater and Jennifer Grey all making appearances. If the remaining 14 episodes of season 2 are as good as the first eight, this is set to be a very delectable release. If you like your drama gritty, edgy and unrelenting, and more importantly, if the odds are against you, and you need help, then The Equalizer is just who you should call.