Thu 3 May 2012
A British Television Review by Geoff Bradley: HUSTLE (Series Four: 2007)
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[12] Comments
HUSTLE. BBC-TV, UK. Series Four: April 18 to May 23, 2007. (Seen on the American Movie Classics cable channel in US.) Marc Warren, Robert Glenister, Jaime Murray, Robert Vaughn, Rob Jarvis. Created by Tony Jordan.
Hustle has returned for a new series (the fourth: one hour each, no adverts) about the ‘lovable’ group of London conmen (one woman) who, of course, delight in fleecing those that deserve to be fleeced.
In the first episode we hear that leader Mickey Stone is pursuing a mark in Australia (actually actor Adrian Lester has left the series) and so the group go about pursuing an oil-rich Texan (played by Robert Wagner) by flying to Los Angeles and attempting to sell him the Hollywood sign.
These stories are, in general, quite enjoyable but the problem is that they tend to be very similar and we have already had 24 of them. This first tale, with its Californian setting, seems particularly unlikely, but then realism is not the aim.
The second story returns to England with a story involving passing a dud horse off as a high-flying racer and selling it to an upstart cockney millionaire. Very watchable, but you run the risk like with a box of chocolates of eating too many all at once — and you don’t want to look too closely at what’s gone into it.
Editorial Comments: This review was reprinted from Geoff’s apazine Caddish Thoughts #127, July 2007. The series has proved successful enough that four more seasons of episodes have appeared since he wrote this review. (The eighth season, which ended in February 2012, is reported to be the last.) Only the first four seasons have been released on DVD in the US.
May 4th, 2012 at 2:55 pm
For anyone who might be curious, TNT’s LEVERAGE, with a similar premise premiered in 2008.
But the con man as forces of good has been a popular premise since the movie THE STING (1973) and the ancient legends of Robin Hood.
And this is not Robert Vaughn (MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.) first British TV series. He also did Gerry Anderson’s THE PROTECTORS (1972-73) as one of three rich PIs/troubleshooters who join up to protect the innocent.
May 4th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
I don’t know very much about this series, as I have been boycotting AMC ever since they started to louse up their movie presentations by sticking commercial breaks into them. (Haven’t seen LEVERAGE either, but that’s only a case of my not having gotten around o it yet.)
In any case, when I saw Geoff’s review in that old zine of his, I decided to post it, even though anyway, even though it’s obviously well out of date.
It was time to find out more, I thought. And doing some investigating, I’ve learned that the episodes shown in the US (and therefore on the DVDs sold in this country) were edited and chopped down, by how much I don’t know.
From wikipedia: “Several series of the show have been released on 2-disc DVDs in both Europe and North America. The UK, Region 2, release of Series One erroneously contained the US edited versions of the episodes, and not the full uncut episodes as originally seen on BBC One. A revised edition was released some time afterwards. The revised edition has a 15 certificate whereas the cut DVD has a PG certificate. The back of the revised case also contains the words ‘Each episode approx. 59 mins’ under ‘Run Time’ in the information table.”
So I’m doubly glad I didn’t watch it show when it was on AMC. Even though they’re on cable, what might have been in these shows that needed to be cut for the US market?
May 4th, 2012 at 3:28 pm
I see that Robert Vaughn will be 80 this year. Good for him! And David McCallum will be 79. Both active, with long careers behind them, and ahead of them, too. We should all do so well!
May 4th, 2012 at 3:35 pm
It has been too long since I have seen it to remember anything but I didn’t like it. It being edited might be the cause, because I vaguely remember the episode didn’t make much sense.
As for AMC, I don’t watch movies on TV that are edited, this includes TNT, F/X, USA and most of cable. Of course there is TCM, but there is also Starz’ Encore various free channels. With Netflix, pay TV, DVDs, and downloading, I use cable TV networks only for their original programming. My favorite on AMC was the spy series RUBICON and my most hated is THE KILLING.
May 4th, 2012 at 3:38 pm
#3. Steve, McCallum just resigned to continue as Ducky on NCIS (last time I checked the series was the number one rated scripted TV drama).
May 4th, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Michael
You scared me for a minute. When I first read your last comment, what I thought you said was that McCallum “resigned,” as in quit, not “re-signed,” as in signed up again, for two more years.
Here’s the news notice for the event, as posted on TVGuide.com:
http://www.tvguide.com/News/David-McCallum-NCIS-Contract-1046752.aspx
May 4th, 2012 at 4:59 pm
Michael, backing up to Comment #4:
I don’t know if AMC makes cuts in their movies. If they do, it’s one more strike against them. But apparently they did cut the episodes of HUSTLE they showed (only the first four seasons), so maybe they do.
But now as you say, there are so many other sources for watching movies that there is no reason to watch movies with commercials in them, as we used to have to do, unless there is absolutely no other way to watch one, and that hasn’t happened in a long time.
I also hate big fancy logos in the corner, and animated activities in the other corner plugging what comes on next week. I watch TCM, some news shows, some sporting events, and I can’t think of anything else, not since DVDs came on the scene.
But getting back to HUSTLE, I think I will go see what Amazon.UK has to offer. Once again, thank goodness for multi-region players.
May 4th, 2012 at 9:36 pm
David McCallum was the reason I tuned in to NCIS in the first place (with season 4) and then I stayed around to see what would happen next. The show seems to pull so many “fast ones” that I finally decided not to take any of it very seriously. Much of the time there seems little logic behind the identification of the culprit. They often run through the suspects, turn to identify someone you had never suspected, and sometimes pull the rug out from under you again. Yet I go back again and again just to see what may happen next.
May 5th, 2012 at 1:53 pm
HUSTLE is a fun show, although it’s probably best to watch it on DVD, as cutting can really damage a show like this (I don’t like to see any show edited, but stuff where the plotting is important is especially vulnerable).
NCIS is a show that I enjoy, although it’s one that I tend to watch every now and then, rather than one that I have to watch every week. It’s lovely to see both Vaughan and McCallum still around and still hard at work, as they’ve been in so many series that I love. A few years ago, Vaughan was being interviewed by someone on British TV, and you could tell that running through the interviewers mind was the thought “My God! It’s The Man from Uncle!!!”
May 5th, 2012 at 5:43 pm
Just to make clear what I mean by edited. Virtually all movies shown on networks with commercials are edited. The most common reason for editing is time. A hour long series in first run is typically 44 minutes long (the reason theme music has nearly disappeared), in syndicated the length is less. Try to fit a movie in a two hour time slot with all the commercials taking up space means programs get edited.
This also applies to all collector to collector copies not taken from original airing or original print.
Sometimes it is minor stuff, sometimes you miss stuff that could help explain what is going on.
May 5th, 2012 at 8:07 pm
Michael
You’re right. Old movies are often cut to fit a particular time slot, and the more commercials they want to run, the more trimming they do. In the case of HUSTLE, though, that paragraph I quoted from Wikipedia way back in Comment #2 suggested that the cuts made by AMC in the US also removed some “mature content,” of what nature I do not know. I’m sure that AMC also wanted more space for commercials, but being a cable station they wouldn’t have needed to fit a fixed time slot, or so I’d have thought.
May 9th, 2012 at 4:06 pm
It’s a fun show that inevitably got quite repetitive before the final season but always got by on the class of the actors and a strong sense of humour. The finale was definitely made as a conclusion with the whole of the original season 1 cast reunited one last time, the fourth wall was completely demolished and they even threw on a reference to Vaughn classic THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN for good measure.