"Remington Steele" started with a good notion: a female investigator invents a figurehead for her agency. Then a suave, handsome, well-dressed and well-spoken man shows up out of the blue claiming he's Steele and winds up with a sinecure. The woman who invented Steele, Laura Holt, tries keeping him separate from the investigative side of things, using him strictly for PR; but because his circles of knowledge dovetail so well with hers, either out of collaboration or sheer, dumb luck he assists her in finding each solution. Meanwhile, the two are falling inexorably in love even when they deny it to themselves.
The series develops in two disparate ways. First, it gets sillier. On the other hand, it gets more serious whenever "Steele" explores his real identity, which is strangely gritty. To let him come off as more honest, they have him not knowing who he is; though Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (real father of Stephanie, who plays Laura) appears occasionally as Steele's old pal, who hints that he knows more than he's telling. (To be fair to Steele, he told Mildred about his past from the beginning but she didn't believe it; the makers of the series hope we've forgotten that little detail.)
At the end of season three Remington disappears. The fourth season opens with his trying to track down his past and Laura trying to track him down.
It's a strangely serious two-part season four opener with a modern day Jack the Ripper (who was bizarrely popular back in the middle 1980s with the centenary of "his" crimes approaching). And features Pierce Brosnan's real-life then-wife, Cassandra Harris. Oh, and Julian Glover, who was getting around a lot, then.
I have an aversion to the more serious episodes, and wish the series had developed a different way. But new seasons have to open somehow, and this season four conclusion to the season three cliffhanger makes more sense than some of the conclusions in its contemporary program, "Dallas."
Nevertheless, "Remington Steele" is one of about a dozen hour-long shows I binge on once or twice a year. Including this episode.
The series develops in two disparate ways. First, it gets sillier. On the other hand, it gets more serious whenever "Steele" explores his real identity, which is strangely gritty. To let him come off as more honest, they have him not knowing who he is; though Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (real father of Stephanie, who plays Laura) appears occasionally as Steele's old pal, who hints that he knows more than he's telling. (To be fair to Steele, he told Mildred about his past from the beginning but she didn't believe it; the makers of the series hope we've forgotten that little detail.)
At the end of season three Remington disappears. The fourth season opens with his trying to track down his past and Laura trying to track him down.
It's a strangely serious two-part season four opener with a modern day Jack the Ripper (who was bizarrely popular back in the middle 1980s with the centenary of "his" crimes approaching). And features Pierce Brosnan's real-life then-wife, Cassandra Harris. Oh, and Julian Glover, who was getting around a lot, then.
I have an aversion to the more serious episodes, and wish the series had developed a different way. But new seasons have to open somehow, and this season four conclusion to the season three cliffhanger makes more sense than some of the conclusions in its contemporary program, "Dallas."
Nevertheless, "Remington Steele" is one of about a dozen hour-long shows I binge on once or twice a year. Including this episode.
