"The Untouchables" is a show that has aged well, as the shows are still quite enjoyable today. And, even today, a few of the episodes are a bit shocking due to their violence...something that brought this Desilu series a lot of attention back in the day. Killings are often shown vividly and bad guys are, in an odd way, the stars of the show. As for Eliot Ness (Robert Stack), his part in most episodes is actually rather limited...as was Stack's acting range and emotional expression. Mostly, he and his men just appeared here and there and the very charismatic baddies killed each other! And, it's all VERY entertaining due mostly to the writing and broadness of the acting by the guest thugs each week.
Not every episode is a winner and a few of the early ones are poor historically speaking because they claim to be about real life villains (such as Ma Barker and Pretty Boy Floyd) but bear almost no resemblance to these folks. They ARE very entertaining...but also complete fabrications...and much of it because the real life Ness had nothing to do with bringing these folks to justice. Despite this, I generally preferred the earlier episodes because later it seemed as if the writers had a hard time coming up with new plots and so they kept featuring Frank Nitti. Again and again, Nitti would somehow avoid capture...while the baddie of the week almost always ended up dead or in prison. Still, however, these shows, while weaker, were quite entertaining as well...just not to the same degree as the earlier ones.
Not every episode is a winner and a few of the early ones are poor historically speaking because they claim to be about real life villains (such as Ma Barker and Pretty Boy Floyd) but bear almost no resemblance to these folks. They ARE very entertaining...but also complete fabrications...and much of it because the real life Ness had nothing to do with bringing these folks to justice. Despite this, I generally preferred the earlier episodes because later it seemed as if the writers had a hard time coming up with new plots and so they kept featuring Frank Nitti. Again and again, Nitti would somehow avoid capture...while the baddie of the week almost always ended up dead or in prison. Still, however, these shows, while weaker, were quite entertaining as well...just not to the same degree as the earlier ones.