Monday, February 13, 2017

Mission: Impossible -- Episode 11: The Greek


To Watch: Click Here

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:
An IMF agent is killed by a wealthy Greek drug smuggler who conducts his business aboard his private yacht.  Grant and Phelps pose as part of the crime ring in order to get on board ship and in the inner circle where they plan to turn the criminals against each other.

Memorable Quote:
What's the story, Colonnades, are we supposed to do business with this clown?  ~Woodward

Highlight:
I enjoyed the performance by Nicholas Hammond as Woodward, the American.  Even if he sometimes dressed more like a golfer than a crime boss, I liked the edginess and snark that he brought to the role.  Fun fact: Hammond played Friedrich, the oldest Von Trapp boy, in The Sound of Music.

Lowlight:
The ending was untidy.  Maybe the years of watching MacGyver have forged in me a nonviolent sensibility, and I would have preferred a resolution apart from "we'll just let the two bad guys shoot each other, and then we'll nod in approval and drive away in acknowledgement of a job well done."

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:
  • The boat looks too small to accommodate the dozens of people who are supposedly staying on board.

  • Phil Morris does a great job as the African smuggler, even if the character is overly stereotypical.  I like the moments where he changes his expression from funny to serious and back on the drop of a hat.  And fun scene where he's forced to hide submerged in the bathtub.
  • When Woodward and Nicholas are in their faux prison cell, Max and Casey play a recording of Colonnades's mistress singing.  But after they escape and are revealed to be in an abandoned ruin, wouldn't Woodward wonder where the singing was coming from?

Final Analysis:
I liked this one.  I wouldn't call it outstanding by any means but it's good enough for 3rd on my list so far.  The Mediterranean setting was fun, the plot was decent, and I thought all the actors did a good job.  

4 comments:

  1. Yikes....I couldn't get into this one at all. It was just a snoozer all around. Sometimes the pacing on this show is unbearably slow and that was my problem with this episode. Phil Morris' smuggler character was amusing despite the aforementioned stereotype. That was pretty much my only takeaway from this one. About two-thirds in I just surrendered and realized this wasn't working for me. I may or may not have drifted into unconsciousness a couple of times. A slow episode of this show is way better than an Ambien pill! I was awake enough to catch the ending though and dislike it for the same reason you did.

    My three least favorite episodes thus far have been the past three, so the episodes ABC aired on Saturday night have not been working for me. I'll rate this one #10 as it wasn't quite as nutso as "The Lions". Nonetheless, I now long for cogent and fast-paced storytelling of "The Haunting" which seemed like it was gonna be a series low two episodes ago.

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    1. Yeah I agree that this one is pretty slow -- the series as a whole has more of an old school 60's/70's vibe than a late 80's one with the slow pace. It's really only at 3 by default since I really liked my top 2 but after that it's been relatively disappointing. Hopefully it picks up a bit. You're watching the first season for the first time, right? Where are you at right now in your watch?

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    2. Sometimes the show has a late 80s vibe and other times it doesn't. Most adventure shows of the era were faster paced. I don't mind it when there an interesting sting operation in play, but when the sting operation is thin gruel as I felt it was here, then it's really a long 48 minutes. What I'm most impressed with with the series is the location work. Filming the series in Australia offers a unique and believable litany of locales that do justice to the exotic settings.

      There have been two episodes thus far I've really enjoyed as well, but one of them is different than your two. I'm one episode ahead of your reviews and did enjoy the next one more than the last three. Going back to 1989, I saw one (or maybe one and a half) of these but for the most part I'm going into season 1 entirely fresh. I watched most of season 2 on ABC back in the day and since I was most familiar with those episodes I got season 2 on DVD three years ago. So when it comes to season 2, I've seen them recently. There were some clunkers in season 2 as well, but there were also a number of episodes I really liked...a better batting average than the 2 out of 11 thus far in season 1.

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    3. I agree on the location work -- they've done a great job creating some realistic looking and varied settings.

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