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Vintage TV and Me
Mar. 21st, 2019 04:25 pm I find myself watching less and less contemporary television as I get older--maybe it's because with real life events being so ghastly I don't want ultra-violence and "gritty" realism served up to me as entertainment. Or maybe it's because there are so many shows these days spread over so many platforms that I can't decide what to watch or how to keep up with it all.
Luckily there are now many vintage TV shows available online and on DVD for me to watch! My televisual viewing these days has taken a decidedly retro turn (not that I haven't always included a lot of that in my entertainment schedule). *g*
Which leads me to... I've been watching some more of The Untouchables. I find the episodes are divided into two kinds: those which follow "The Untouchables", and those which focus on the crooks. And really, the latter are the more interesting (so far, at least). "The Untouchables" are the Good Guys, they fight crime, and by the end of each episode they win. The Bad Guys on the other hand.... Well, to start with, they are not necessarily pure evil, though some of them come close. They each have their own motives for what they do. Because they're not constrained by the show in the same way the heroes are, they can be unpredictable. You know they will be defeated in the end, but you never quite know what they'll do next.
I watched the first season episode "The Underground Railway" the other night, where Cliff Robertson (under a heavy layer of prosthetics) played a very ugly armed robber who escaped from jail. He's helped to the other side of the country by the titular underground railway in order to get his share of the loot from his last job. Along the way he gets all sorts of cosmetic jobs done and winds up looking quite handsome (Cliff Robertson without the makeup). Sadly, he's just as ugly inside as he's always been...
Luckily there are now many vintage TV shows available online and on DVD for me to watch! My televisual viewing these days has taken a decidedly retro turn (not that I haven't always included a lot of that in my entertainment schedule). *g*
Which leads me to... I've been watching some more of The Untouchables. I find the episodes are divided into two kinds: those which follow "The Untouchables", and those which focus on the crooks. And really, the latter are the more interesting (so far, at least). "The Untouchables" are the Good Guys, they fight crime, and by the end of each episode they win. The Bad Guys on the other hand.... Well, to start with, they are not necessarily pure evil, though some of them come close. They each have their own motives for what they do. Because they're not constrained by the show in the same way the heroes are, they can be unpredictable. You know they will be defeated in the end, but you never quite know what they'll do next.
I watched the first season episode "The Underground Railway" the other night, where Cliff Robertson (under a heavy layer of prosthetics) played a very ugly armed robber who escaped from jail. He's helped to the other side of the country by the titular underground railway in order to get his share of the loot from his last job. Along the way he gets all sorts of cosmetic jobs done and winds up looking quite handsome (Cliff Robertson without the makeup). Sadly, he's just as ugly inside as he's always been...
