Rating: 
Summary: Finally!
Review: Despite the presence of excellent bad guy Ray Sharkey (as Steelgrave), the Steelgrave arc's stock characters, one-liners and snappy comebacks branded Wiseguy as merely a capable crime drama. Ironically, the Steelgrave shows achieved greatness by coming to an end, when two episodes with vastly superior writing fulfilled the show's potential. Sonny Steelgrave became more convincingly human than the gangster-charmer of previous episodes, and undercover cop Vinnie Terranova (Ken Wahl) finally showed the authority we longed to see from him. Would Wiseguy ever reach such heights again? You bet it would. The Steelgrave arc had the disadvantage of being first out of the gate with all the growing pains. But the story arc which follows is a journey with many interesting characters and side trips - which we don't get in Steelgrave because Ray Sharkey is the whole show. Vinnie's investigations into a contract killer and the billionaire drug dealers for whom he works are woven into one magnificent melodrama known as "The Profitt arc". Re-visit any episode and one is again caught up by the compelling characters and terrific dialogue. The writers have avoided bonding Vinnie with the villain, as was famously the case in the Steelgrave arc. Instead, Vinnie forms a troubled working relationship with hitman Roger Lococco - in reality a CIA agent and "the flip side of the same coin" as undercover cop Vinnie. Mutually suspicious, competitive and undoubtedly attracted to one another, scenes between these two men are often startlingly suggestive. They go at it particularly well in "Smokey Mountain Requiem", "Player to Be Named Now" and "Phantom Pain". Cool killer Lococco (William Russ) is fond of big speeches and sarcasm, and is one of Wiseguy's best mouth pieces. He and his CIA boss Herb Ketcher strike an intriguing master-slave vibe, depending on the turf where they tangle. Back alleys and warehouses are Lococco's territory, where Ketcher always appears a little uneasy. In Herb's office domain, Lococco is the obedient underling to Ketcher's superior. Manic-depressive billionaire Mel Profitt is no Sonny Steelgrave - but only because he is a difficult character to like. Screaming one minute, heckling the next, he begins his last dark descent when he realizes his beloved sister has eyes for Vinnie. Mel is played by Kevin Spacey, and if you already know and enjoy his work, then he alone is worth the price of this box set. He is spectacular. Finally, one of the best features of the Profitt arc is that Vinnie and his boss Frank McPike finally bond, thanks to dialogue that requires more from them than the macho posturing of the Steelgrave arc. The episodes "Squeeze" and "The Merchant of Death" are watersheds for the Vinnie-Frank bond. Jonathan Banks as Frank is excellent, having embellished his character with anguish, guilt and genuine affection and empathy for Vinnie. This is the way both characters will be with one another for the rest of the series. I envy you seeing it for the first time.
Rating:
Summary: Finally!
Review: I have been waiting for this for years! I was worried that it was purely nostalgia, and that I would be disappointed. Such was not the case. I think that the writing is generally great, and that attention was paid to the micro and the macro of the tale.
My only beef with the DVDs is that they left in the old 30 second "Tonight on Wiseguy" clips, and did not make them (and the intro credits) a track, which makes us fast forward thru them. But, that has nothing to do with the show.
Rating:
Summary: Must see DVD set
Review: I never saw all the episodes when they first appeared as I wa smore interested in going out as I was just 21 then. The ones I did see where great. I enjoyed both this set and the Steelgrave arc. This is a must see DVD set. Now is there any word on Season 2 DVD sets yet? ;)
Rating:
Summary: Must see DVD set
Review: I never saw all the episodes when they first appeared as I wa smore interested in going out as I was just 21 then. The ones I did see where great. I enjoyed both this set and the Steelgrave arc. This is a must see DVD set. Now is there any word on Season 2 DVD sets yet? ;)
Rating:
Summary: Why was it edited?
Review: I was thrilled when this set was released. True, it's way overpriced for one half of a season (the ALIAS box sets, for example, offer much more for the money)! But the video and audio are adequately restored and Kevin Spacey, in particular, and most everyone else makes it highly entertaining stuff. However, with this being the ONLY DVD I own that has neither closed captioning or subtitles, I find it to be a CHEAP release.
Rating: 
Summary: A Glaring Oversight!
Review: I was thrilled when this set was released. True, it's way overpriced for one half of a season (the ALIAS box sets, for example, offer much more for the money)! But the video and audio are adequately restored and Kevin Spacey, in particular, and most everyone else makes it highly entertaining stuff. However, with this being the ONLY DVD I own that has neither closed captioning or subtitles, I find it to be a CHEAP release.
Rating:
Summary: Why was it edited?
Review: In the first television showing Kevin Spacey had a wonderful diatribe about how people will eventually rip open the bellies of others for the food inside. In the re-runs a couple of minutes were cut from each episode to make more room for more commercials. For some reason the DVD uses the "edited for more commercials" versions, so this wonderful scence is missing. You can hear a brief audio segment of the diatribe during the episode where Roger Lococco plays a tape of Mel Proffit in order to drive Susan insane.
Rating:
Summary: Never...
Review: Never in your life will you ever see acting like this in a television series! Kevin Spacey, Joan Severance, William Russ, Jonathan Banks and Elsa Raven and others shine like newly minted dimes in this incredible show. Elsa Raven, a likeable, grandmotherly actress, seems to be every casting director's idea for a chubby, middle-aged mama, except for her turn as Gertrude Stein in "The Moderns". I caught about three or four episodes of the "Sonny Steelgrave" arc of this show just channel surfing and noticed how intense and gritty the acting was. I watched for about four episodes. THEN the Mel Profitt arc started, and it was a roller coaster ride from then on! Spacey chews the scenery like a piranha as the paranoid, charismatic and reputedly brilliant Mel Profitt, an enfant terrible of organized crime who runs his empire of weapons-trading and illegal drugs with the help of his sister, Susan, played by the gorgeous and talented Joan Severance. Stephen J. Cannell must have been on one of those legendary rolls that writers, specifically TV, movie and sci-fi writers, get on sometime, becaue he has everything covered here....humor, pathos, psychoses, sociopathology, charisma, situations, and a VERY good sense of governmental corruption. Sadly, he never equalled his work on "Wiseguy" again, and never got the same quality of cast for any of his other projects on TV. "Wiseguy" was one of a kind. Kevin Spacey's take on Profitt is unlike any protrayal of a crime boss you've ever seen...he parlayed him as self-educated, witty, playful, unpredictable and moody, and it was done perfectly! As the unassuming Vinnie Terranova, Ken Wahl is very unsuspicious in his role as an FBI mole, in this case, perhaps developing too much of an affection for his targets, Mel and Susan, (a major fault of his in the other arcs as well). He is especially enarmored of Susan, who is truly good-looking, as in supermodel, and much saner than her squirrelly brother. She also seems to be attracted to _him_. As a mole for the OCB faction of the FBI, he takes quite a bit of guff from Mel, who scares the bejeebers out of him in one scene early in the arc where he plays Russian roullette with Vinnie over his sister's attraction to him. It is hinted, throughout the arc, that there is an unnaturally close relationship between Mel and his sister. Vinnie and Mel actually become best buds eventually, despite this, believe it or not. The odd thing about this whole arc is that Vinnie was actually supposed to investigate another major player in the piece, a Roger Lococo, played by William Russ, who eventually led him TO Mel and Susan. Severance handles herself beautifully throughout, but really shines when Mel finally dies "A Viking's Death" near the end of the arc, and she is left alone to run his vast organization. Susan mentally collapses when Russ' character, the scheming Roger Lococo, another government mole (CIA) sucked in too deep, leads her to believe that Mel might still be alive. She deludes herself into thinking that she and Vinnie are going to have a baby, complicating Terranova's mission when she can't communicate with FBI officials and has to be committed. Severance, unfortunately, like too many talented ladies in my long list of gems, had a career that went nowhere after "Wiseguy". She essentially became window dressing for a few totally mediocre films and was cast as social director in a lame revival of "The Love Boat". In the "easter egg" interview on the 4th disc of the DVD set, she also, apparently, has bleached her hair blond recently. CHEZ INFAMIE!! She looks like one of Charlie's Angels with that towheaded mess! Please, Joan, go back to brunette!! Roger Lococo, I might add, worships the ground Mel walked on, a very bad thing when you're supposed to be investigating somebody for the government. If there is any character anywhere near as unpredictable or dangerous as Spacey's Mel Profitt in this arc, it's definitely Russ' Roger Lococo. William Russ, oddly enough, ended up playing a sitcom dad for six years on a show called "Boy Meets World" after his run on "Wiseguy", but here, he gives Spacey his only real acting competition, though everybody's good. Jonathan Banks plays Vinny's ascerbic immediate boss, Frank McPike. Jim Byrnes, a man who has a knack for being in interesting TV shows, (he was also in the "Highlander" series later on,) plays Vinnie's mole's mole, "Uncle Mike". People like Clyde Kusatsu and Franklyn Seales are also in this arc, to good effect. Kusatsu plays one of Vinnie and Frank's colleagues and Seales is very good as a hot-tempered associate of Mel's who turns on him. Through it all, the acting, music, writing and production values are pure top notch CBS....cinematography is typically good CBS dramatic, with saturated colors and excellent scene composition. An urban sophistication no other network has been able to duplicate is apparent as well, and NO OTHER NETWORK had anything during this period in the eighties to equal it: not "L.A. Law", not "Twin Peaks", NOTHING was ever like the Mel Profitt arc of "Wiseguy"! I became a fan of this show from the moment I saw the first Profitt episode to the last series episode with Wahl in it. Unfortunately, they tried to foist another actor on us in place of Ken Wahl in the last two or three episodes of the fourth season, and it just didn't work, and "Wiseguy" was history. Damned shame, too. The same thing happened to "Moonlighting" and "The Equalizer", the only shows even close to being in its class. After the Mel Profitt arc, there were arcs starring Jerry Lewis as a 7th Ave. garment manufacturer. Ron Silver played his hotheaded son. Paul Winfield, Patti D'Urbanville and Tim Curry were feuding record producers and Robert Davi was a REAL "wiseguy". None of these arcs were as gripping and entertaining as the Mel Profitt arc of this show. I might go so far as to say that even the revered Sonny Steelgrave arc wasn't as good! Honest! If you appreciate good television crime drama and terrific acting, you could do MUCH worse than buy this entertaining arc of one of the best crime shows ever on television... "Only the toes knows..."
Rating:
Summary: Never...
Review: Never in your life will you ever see acting like this in a television series! Kevin Spacey, Joan Severance, William Russ, Jonathan Banks and Elsa Raven and others shine like newly minted dimes in this incredible show. Elsa Raven, a likeable, grandmotherly actress, seems to be every casting director's idea for a chubby, middle-aged mama, except for her turn as Gertrude Stein in "The Moderns". She also bears an uncanny resemblance to Golda Meir. I caught about three or four episodes of the "Sonny Steelgrave" arc of this show just channel surfing and noticed how intense and gritty the acting was. I watched for about four episodes. THEN the Mel Profitt arc started, and it was a roller coaster ride from then on! Spacey chews the scenery like a piranha as the paranoid, charismatic and reputedly brilliant Mel Profitt, an enfant terrible of organized crime who runs his empire of weapons-trading and illegal drugs with the help of his sister, Susan, played by the gorgeous and talented Joan Severance. Stephen J. Cannell must have been on one of those legendary rolls that writers, specifically TV, movie and sci-fi writers, get on sometime, becaue he has everything covered here....humor, pathos, psychoses, sociopathology, charisma, situations, and a VERY good sense of governmental corruption. Sadly, he never equalled his work on "Wiseguy" again, and never got the same quality of cast for any of his other projects on TV. "Wiseguy" was one of a kind. Kevin Spacey's take on Profitt is unlike any protrayal of a crime boss you've ever seen...he parlayed him as self-educated, witty, playful, unpredictable and moody, and it was done perfectly! As the unassuming Vinnie Terranova, Ken Wahl is very unsuspicious in his role as an FBI mole, in this case, perhaps developing too much of an affection for his targets, Mel and Susan, (a major fault of his in the other arcs as well). He is especially enarmored of Susan, who is truly good-looking, as in supermodel, and much saner than her squirrelly brother. She also seems to be attracted to _him_. As a mole for the OCB faction of the FBI, he takes quite a bit of guff from Mel, who scares the bejeebers out of him in one scene early in the arc where he plays Russian roullette with Vinnie over his sister's attraction to him. It is hinted, throughout the arc, that there is an unnaturally close relationship between Mel and his sister. Vinnie and Mel actually become best buds eventually, despite this, believe it or not. The odd thing about this whole arc is that Vinnie was actually supposed to investigate another major player in the piece, a Roger Lococo, played by William Russ, who eventually led him TO Mel and Susan. Severance handles herself beautifully throughout, but really shines when Mel finally dies "A Viking's Death" near the end of the arc, and she is left alone to run his vast organization. Susan mentally collapses when Russ' character, the scheming Roger Lococo, another government mole (CIA) sucked in too deep, leads her to believe that Mel might still be alive. She deludes herself into thinking that she and Vinnie are going to have a baby, complicating Terranova's mission when she can't communicate with FBI officials and has to be committed. Severance, unfortunately, like too many talented ladies in my long list of gems, had a career that went nowhere after "Wiseguy". She essentially became window dressing for a few totally mediocre films and was cast as social director in a lame revival of "The Love Boat". In the "easter egg" interview on the 4th disc of the DVD set, she also, apparently, has bleached her hair blond recently. CHEZ INFAMIE!! She looks like one of Charlie's Angels with that towheaded mess! Please, Joan, go back to brunette!! Roger Lococo, I might add, worships the ground Mel walked on, a very bad thing when you're supposed to be investigating somebody for the government. If there is any character anywhere near as unpredictable or dangerous as Spacey's Mel Profitt in this arc, it's definitely Russ' Roger Lococo. William Russ, oddly enough, ended up playing a sitcom dad for six years on a show called "Boy Meets World" after his run on "Wiseguy", but here, he gives Spacey his only real acting competition, though everybody's good. Jonathan Banks plays Vinny's ascerbic immediate boss, Frank McPike. Jim Byrnes, a man who has a knack for being in interesting TV shows, (he was also in the "Highlander" series later on,) plays Vinnie's mole's mole, "Uncle Mike". People like Clyde Kusatsu and Franklyn Seales are also in this arc, to good effect. Kusatsu plays one of Vinnie and Frank's colleagues and Seales is very good as a hot-tempered associate of Mel's who turns on him. Through it all, the acting, music, writing and production values are pure top notch CBS....cinematography is typically good CBS dramatic, with saturated colors and excellent scene composition. An urban sophistication no other network has been able to duplicate is apparent as well, and NO OTHER NETWORK had anything during this period in the eighties to equal it: not "L.A. Law", not "Twin Peaks", NOTHING was ever like the Mel Profitt arc of "Wiseguy"! I became a fan of this show from the moment I saw the first Profitt episode to the last series episode with Wahl in it. Unfortunately, they tried to foist another actor on us in place of Ken Wahl in the last two or three episodes of the fourth season, and it just didn't work, and "Wiseguy" was history. Damned shame, too. The same thing happened to "Moonlighting" and "The Equalizer", the only shows even close to being in its class. After the Mel Profitt arc, there were arcs starring Jerry Lewis as a 7th Ave. garment manufacturer. Ron Silver played his hotheaded son. Paul Winfield, Patti D'Urbanville and Tim Curry were feuding record producers and Robert Davi was a REAL "wiseguy". None of these arcs were as gripping and entertaining as the Mel Profitt arc of this show. I might go so far as to say that even the revered Sonny Steelgrave arc wasn't as good! Honest! If you appreciate good television crime drama and terrific acting, you could do MUCH worse than buy this entertaining arc of one of the best crime shows ever on television... "Only the toes knows..."
Rating:
Summary: only the toes knows.....
Review: OCB boss assigns his top agent Vinnie Terranova (Ken Wahl) to investigate Roger Lacocco (the always brilliant William Russ), they have no idea where the thread will lead them. In quick time, Vinnie learns Roger is the strong arm for the Profitts - Mel and Susan (Kevin Spacey in a tour d force performance and Joan Severance). They are a brother and sister (a little too close perhaps to Vinnie's eyes), but they are big business of the shady kind. Vinnie works his way into Mel's confidence and into Susan's desires, causing Vinnie to have to tip toe around both profits very carefully. Vinnie, for a hardened OCB agent, never can see to keep his distance from the people he is sent in to bring down and ends up emotionally involved. As the drugged out insanity of Mel seems to grown more paranoid, Vinnie finds it harder to keep that emotional balance - AND HIS LIFE - as Mel does not like his sister getting too close to any man. Somewhere along the way, only Roger seems to be quite sane and able to distance himself, but even that will be tested as his past going all the way to Vietnam is dragged into a military plot to throw over the leadership of a small island. It keeps you guessing, the acting and writing is Telly at it's best. With super performances by all, along with the droll Jonathan Banks as Vinnie's immediate boss, this is one that bears repeat viewing. But then so do all the WiseGuy arcs...cannot wait for the Winston Newquay Arc with the magnificent Tim Curry!! Bring them on already!!!
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