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kerravonsenI did a minor dance of squee earlier this week when a parcel came from Amazon which included the DVDs for the complete series of Stingray. Whenever I mention Stingray, I have to add the parenthetical expression: "the Steven J. Cannell production, not the Gerry Anderson production". Stingray was one of those things I liked as a teen, and it's interesting to see how it holds up years later.
It reminds me of the Pretender, but without the B plots. The A-plots are not quite as formulaic as with the Pretender A-plots, but they're generally nothing to write home about. Last night I watched one episode, and concluded that I still like it. I like the main character, and I like the way he works. More on that in a moment.
If you look at the title sequence for Stingray, you get a rather different impression of the series than what is actually there. I suspect that it was dreamed up by some executives looking out the window on the parking lot. "We need a mid-season replacement - let's make a show about a guy with a cool car! Yeah! A 1965 black Stingray, I love those. And he'll be cool (well, of course, he has a cool car, he must be cool) and an International Man Of Mystery.And a chick-magnet. Yeah! It'll be great!" Then someone went away and made a title sequence based on this concept; shots of a black stingray, and a strong hand moving the gearstick, a guy in sunglasses with "Identity: Unknown" and "Origins: Unknown" stamped over the image, hot chicks in veils, diamonds and limousines and security system diagrams, yep.
What the actual show was like, was something a bit more like The Equalizer, though The Equalizer had more substance and lasted longer. Oh-ho - I've just looked them up, and they both were initially made in 1985. Interesting probably-not-coincidence. The similarity is that the main character is someone who is PI-like who helps people in dangerous jams who have no-one else to turn to. The difference is that with Stingray, the main character deliberately does not want to be paid; however, he doesn't do it for free. "A favour for a favour" he says to the guest-character after he's solved their problem. There's a great speech in the pilot where he says that the reason he doesn't work for money is that every man has a price in his head, what he will sell himself for; it may be a very high price, but it's there; and that he doesn't want to fall into that trap. I really like that concept. The other fun thing about that concept is that we get to see him calling in favours, because he often uses an earlier client's favour to help in resolving his current client's problem. Sometimes he doesn't need to call in favours (he's an impressive undercover guy all on his own) and sometimes he does. Most of the time the previous client is someone we haven't seen before, but I think there might have been one or two times when we got to see a client from an early episode return their favour in a later episode.
The other ongoing fun bit is trying to figure out who Our Hero is, because, yes, his identity and origins really are unknown. However, little tidbits get dropped, what with the things he knows and abilities he has, and if I recall correctly, there's one episode where someone from his past comes back and causes him trouble. Some day I might go through all the episodes and write down all the clues and see if they make a consistent picture. What does seem clear is that he's ex-military, probably Viet Nam, probably a spy or some sort of elite unit. But one mainly deduces this from the skills he has.
The other thing of interest for me is that Nick Mancuso, the star of Stingray, also starred in Matrix (which has nothing to do with the movies, it was made much earlier) a Canadian TV series about an ex-hitman, which was far more intelligently written than one would expect from the premise. I've only seen about half-a-dozen episodes of Matrix, but I was really impressed and I wish I could get hold of all of them. Alas, it seems very unlikely it will come out on DVD. 8-(
It reminds me of the Pretender, but without the B plots. The A-plots are not quite as formulaic as with the Pretender A-plots, but they're generally nothing to write home about. Last night I watched one episode, and concluded that I still like it. I like the main character, and I like the way he works. More on that in a moment.
If you look at the title sequence for Stingray, you get a rather different impression of the series than what is actually there. I suspect that it was dreamed up by some executives looking out the window on the parking lot. "We need a mid-season replacement - let's make a show about a guy with a cool car! Yeah! A 1965 black Stingray, I love those. And he'll be cool (well, of course, he has a cool car, he must be cool) and an International Man Of Mystery.And a chick-magnet. Yeah! It'll be great!" Then someone went away and made a title sequence based on this concept; shots of a black stingray, and a strong hand moving the gearstick, a guy in sunglasses with "Identity: Unknown" and "Origins: Unknown" stamped over the image, hot chicks in veils, diamonds and limousines and security system diagrams, yep.
What the actual show was like, was something a bit more like The Equalizer, though The Equalizer had more substance and lasted longer. Oh-ho - I've just looked them up, and they both were initially made in 1985. Interesting probably-not-coincidence. The similarity is that the main character is someone who is PI-like who helps people in dangerous jams who have no-one else to turn to. The difference is that with Stingray, the main character deliberately does not want to be paid; however, he doesn't do it for free. "A favour for a favour" he says to the guest-character after he's solved their problem. There's a great speech in the pilot where he says that the reason he doesn't work for money is that every man has a price in his head, what he will sell himself for; it may be a very high price, but it's there; and that he doesn't want to fall into that trap. I really like that concept. The other fun thing about that concept is that we get to see him calling in favours, because he often uses an earlier client's favour to help in resolving his current client's problem. Sometimes he doesn't need to call in favours (he's an impressive undercover guy all on his own) and sometimes he does. Most of the time the previous client is someone we haven't seen before, but I think there might have been one or two times when we got to see a client from an early episode return their favour in a later episode.
The other ongoing fun bit is trying to figure out who Our Hero is, because, yes, his identity and origins really are unknown. However, little tidbits get dropped, what with the things he knows and abilities he has, and if I recall correctly, there's one episode where someone from his past comes back and causes him trouble. Some day I might go through all the episodes and write down all the clues and see if they make a consistent picture. What does seem clear is that he's ex-military, probably Viet Nam, probably a spy or some sort of elite unit. But one mainly deduces this from the skills he has.
The other thing of interest for me is that Nick Mancuso, the star of Stingray, also starred in Matrix (which has nothing to do with the movies, it was made much earlier) a Canadian TV series about an ex-hitman, which was far more intelligently written than one would expect from the premise. I've only seen about half-a-dozen episodes of Matrix, but I was really impressed and I wish I could get hold of all of them. Alas, it seems very unlikely it will come out on DVD. 8-(
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 02:49 am (UTC)Check this out:
http://www.amazon.com/Stingray-Complete-Nick-Mancuso/dp/B00144H00Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1230778016&sr=1-1
For Matrix, there are some YouTube clips. Not much. It also had Carrie-Ann Moss in it as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhVv2JTsaDI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9gOCG27wc4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVGSBxob8B0
no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 04:37 am (UTC)Neither did I!
Check this out
Yes, that's the DVD set I just bought and have been viewing.
For Matrix, there are some YouTube clips. Not much.
Indeed, hardly anything. I want Matrix! Waaaaah!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 06:46 am (UTC)That said, I also remember the Gerry Anderson Super-Marionation STINGRAY as well. But I always preferred FIREBALL XL-5....
no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 01:23 pm (UTC)Thanks for the rec!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-01 10:30 pm (UTC)