Light and Dark
The Avengers 2.1 "Mr. Teddy Bear"
Sometimes, I go off on a 60s spy fi tick. Especially The Avengers given Emma Peel...let's just say as a girl I couldn't decide if I wanted to be her or be with her.
Starting with season two because season one...met the same fate as much early Doctor Who. Only two episodes are known to exist and while they're around on DVD, they aren't available on Tubi right now. Season two stars Patrick Macnee as John Steed, and, mostly, his first beautiful assistant, Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman). Blackman isn't Rigg, but she's still a fine actor playing a reasonably badass character.
Preliminaries out of the way, this episode, appropriately campy (it's billed as a comedy, but it's more camp than traditional hero), One-Ten, Steed's boss, is convinced that Mr. Teddy Bear, a hired killer who comes at a high price and prefers to kill people who deserve it, was responsible for killing a man who is a double agent for many countries. Steed is set up as bait and Gale is the woman hiring the hit man.
What ensues is a romp involving multiple attempts to kill people by gadget, a suave (and hugely dishonest) killer and, of course, Steed being Steed. You're supposed to want to strangle him.
The spy-fi element here is pills with a watch mechanism timed release. I don't think anything like that was ever made in our reality...
The Handmaid's Tale 2.13 "The Word"
Oh, where do I even start. (CW: There is a mild strobe effect a bit over 11 minutes from the end of this episode).
This feels like the beginning of the end of Gilead. The Marthas are in full blown rebellion. The Wives are starting to have enough. And a Commander is risking everything to help a Handmaid escape.
Dystopia isn't sustainable, and one which relies on the subservience of 50% of the population...
It lasts until the women start thinking about their daughters. It's no accident that Angela and Nicole are both girls.
And June, oh, June, what are we going to do with you? What, exactly, are you planning on blowing up?
There's a definite shift at this point, from exploring oppression to Nolites te bastardes carborundum.
I think we all need more Nolites te bastardes carborundum.
And Serena...
The Avengers 2.2 "Propellant 23"
Don't use rocket fuel as hair restorer, is the lesson here. Long story. They're picking up rocket fuel from a courier. Who is murdered. And the rocket fuel is disguised as hair restorer. Thankfully it wasn't in the flask...
This is just a bunch of shenanigans with multiple spies from multiple agencies all trying to get hold of a sample of Chinese rocket fuel (the titular Propellant 23). Silly, no depth, just how this show should be.
It is very 1960s.
The Handmaid's Tale 3.1 "Night"
One thing this show is good at is iconic images. The visuals are just fantastic.
And one of the images here subverts an ancient slut shaming trope: The walk of shame.
Emily walking into the hospital in Canada with Nicole in her arms is the opposite...the walk of pride. The walk to freedom.
Meanwhile, Serena snaps altogether and sets fire to the bed in which the Ceremony took place...and apparently there are no firefighters in Gilead, because she manages to burn down the entire house. With Nicole gone...officially kidnapped...June receives a new posting (after being punished for being a bad Handmaid).
And it is, of course, Joseph.
June is being judged for not leaving with Emily and Nichole (the kid should be Nichole Holly or Holly Nicole, why not use both names), but what mother could abandon her other child. She sends the baby to safety.
But then she goes back for her older child.
And who wouldn't?
The Avengers 2.3 "The Decapod"
In a few episodes, Honor Blackman is replaced by Julia Stevens, playing a nightclub singer named Venus. She reminds me of my grandmother. My grandmother had a better voice. Ahem.
The tagline on Wikipedia is "fake tour with real wrestlers." I don't believe the wrestlers are actually real, but at least we get shirtless guys to balance out the camera lingering on Venus' breasts.
"I want asylum!" "We want you for murder." "I want to go back to my own country."
Nothing is serious about this show, although I admit I prefer Blackman to Stevens. No offense...Stevens was always more a presenter than an actor. And Blackman, IMO, is the hotter one...which I think the producers disagree with, but they’re wrong. As usual.