The Avengers - The Complete Emma Peel Megaset

Rating:
Summary: A rigg-lover's dream come true
Review: <The Avengers> The immensely popular ABC series called "The Avengers" has long since achieved legendary status since it appeared back in January 1961. Since then there have been 161 episodes, which break into four major sections. We have the early episodes (1-26) with Patrick Macnee as John Steed and Ian Hendry as Dr. Keel. Then the "Cathy Gail" series (27-78) with Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale, the man-tossing, leather-covered intellectual who broke new ground for female characters on television. Even more popular was the black and white series (79-104) with Diana Rigg and Emma Peel (read "M[en] appeal "), which led not unexpectedly to the color series with Rigg (105-129). Then the final section with Linda Thorson as Tara King (129-- in which she co-starred with Rigg-161).
As of this writing, the early episodes in the Gale series and all of the King series are not yet available. However, A&E has just released all of the Rigg entries, both the black and whites and the color, in a wonderful boxed set called "The Avengers: the Complete Emma Peel Mega-Set." And Mega, I suppose, is as good as any adjective to describe the enjoyment value of the contents therein. We have here all the Rigg episodes, including the transition entry in which Tara takes over for Emma, on 16 DVDs, each holding 3 episodes with an occasional 4th as a "bonus."
Those who have never seen them before will want, of course, to watch them in order. Others will want to jump to their favorite episodes, which is pretty easy on DVD. You will notice that the black and whites were less studio-bound and the sets in general more realistic. With the first color episode, the series took a strong science fiction bent; and the sets, as the producers admitted, were more a view of England as the Americans would like to think it is.
You will also have a lot of fun spotting stars-to-be. There is Donald Sutherland, Brian Blessed and Charlotte Rampling in "The Superlative Seven," Peter Bowles in "Dial a Deadly Number" and "Escape in Time," Geoffrey Palmer in "A Surfeit of H2O," and Christopher Lee in "Never, Never Say Die." It was a policy that no actor could appear more than once a season, so Bowles and Lee, for example, would have to wait for the King series to play other characters. In fact, the only characters as such to reappear in the color Rigg series from the black and whites is the bumbling Brodny (Warren Mitchell) who can be found in "Two's a Crowd" and "The See-Through Man" and the evil assistant (Frederick Jaeger) to the Cybernaut-master.

And for more fun, see how many actors from "Are You Being Served?" you can spot? There are three in all.
The most frequent repeat actor seems to be comedian Roy Kinnear, who also has the honor of being in the very last King episode in the role of Bagpipes Happychap. And then we have rotund Patrick Newell who was murdered in the very first Rigg entry, drugged in a color one, and wound up as Mother in the King series.
But all in all, it is the interplay between Macnee and Rigg that really made this program work. Unlike Cathy Gale, who seemed actively to dislike Steed when she was not merely tolerating him, Mrs. Peel had a genuine fondness for him and was not averse to stirring his tea (anticlockwise, as he preferred it). And as for the question of Peel and Steed being lovers, recall that they are fictional characters and have no life off the screen.
The dialogue was light hearted, and you seldom if ever saw blood after a mere trickle in their third episode. You also never saw a policeman, an element that for some reason the producers thought would be a jarring note. (You figure out why; I cannot.)

The best episodes? There is no question that "The House That Jack Built" leads the pack. This is the one in which Emma finds herself in a house designed to drive her mad and Steed appears only at the start and end. The worst? Possibly "Silent Dust." The silliest? That has to be "Epic." The most serious? "Murdersville." So what if the package costs a small fortune? You could purchase them separately, of course; but think of what you would be missing.

Rating:
Summary: A rigg-lover's dream come true
Review: The immensely popular ABC series called "The Avengers" has long since achieved legendary status since it appeared back in January 1961. Since then there have been 161 episodes, which break into four major sections. We have the early episodes (1-26) with Patrick Macnee as John Steed and Ian Hendry as Dr. Keel. Then the "Cathy Gail" series (27-78) with Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale, the man-tossing, leather-covered intellectual who broke new ground for female characters on television. Even more popular was the black and white series (79-104) with Diana Rigg and Emma Peel (read "M[en] appeal "), which led not unexpectedly to the color series with Rigg (105-129). Then the final section with Linda Thorson as Tara King (129-- in which she co-starred with Rigg-161).
As of this writing, the early episodes in the Gale series and all of the King series are not yet available. However, A&E has just released all of the Rigg entries, both the black and whites and the color, in a wonderful boxed set called "The Avengers: the Complete Emma Peel Mega-Set." And Mega, I suppose, is as good as any adjective to describe the enjoyment value of the contents therein. We have here all the Rigg episodes, including the transition entry in which Tara takes over for Emma, on 16 DVDs, each holding 3 episodes with an occasional 4th as a "bonus."
Those who have never seen them before will want, of course, to watch them in order. Others will want to jump to their favorite episodes, which is pretty easy on DVD. You will notice that the black and whites were less studio-bound and the sets in general more realistic. With the first color episode, the series took a strong science fiction bent; and the sets, as the producers admitted, were more a view of England as the Americans would like to think it is.
You will also have a lot of fun spotting stars-to-be. There is Donald Sutherland, Brian Blessed and Charlotte Rampling in "The Superlative Seven," Peter Bowles in "Dial a Deadly Number" and "Escape in Time," Geoffrey Palmer in "A Surfeit of H2O," and Christopher Lee in "Never, Never Say Die." It was a policy that no actor could appear more than once a season, so Bowles and Lee, for example, would have to wait for the King series to play other characters. In fact, the only characters as such to reappear in the color Rigg series from the black and whites is the bumbling Brodny (Warren Mitchell) who can be found in "Two's a Crowd" and "The See-Through Man" and the evil assistant (Frederick Jaeger) to the Cybernaut-master.

And for more fun, see how many actors from "Are You Being Served?" you can spot? There are three in all.
The most frequent repeat actor seems to be comedian Roy Kinnear, who also has the honor of being in the very last King episode in the role of Bagpipes Happychap. And then we have rotund Patrick Newell who was murdered in the very first Rigg entry, drugged in a color one, and wound up as Mother in the King series.
But all in all, it is the interplay between Macnee and Rigg that really made this program work. Unlike Cathy Gale, who seemed actively to dislike Steed when she was not merely tolerating him, Mrs. Peel had a genuine fondness for him and was not averse to stirring his tea (anticlockwise, as he preferred it). And as for the question of Peel and Steed being lovers, recall that they are fictional characters and have no life off the screen.
The dialogue was light hearted, and you seldom if ever saw blood after a mere trickle in their third episode. You also never saw a policeman, an element that for some reason the producers thought would be a jarring note. (You figure out why; I cannot.)

The best episodes? There is no question that "The House That Jack Built" leads the pack. This is the one in which Emma finds herself in a house designed to drive her mad and Steed appears only at the start and end. The worst? Possibly "Silent Dust." The silliest? That has to be "Epic." The most serious? "Murdersville." So what if the package costs a small fortune? You could purchase them separately, of course; but think of what you would be missing.

Rating:
Summary: Steed goes to the chiropractor, Emma slips a disc :-)
Review: A Digital Video Disc that is. Or should I say 16 of them. I had the intention of buying these discs as they came out originally, but am glad I waited for this box set. This is all 51 episodes of The Avengers that Americans were introduced to. Of course the Cathy Gale ones (what few times that they have aired in America) are good too but everyone will agree the chemistry between Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg is worth it's weight in Platinum. Now we can watch the real Steed and Mrs. Peel adventures all we want at the pace we want. Definitely a must buy. By the way, you'd think "Dame Diana" could put a good word with the empire and get Patrick knighted by now :-).

Rating:
Summary: Yes but there is more.
Review: And what about the episodes with Joanna Lumley? They' re not mentionned anywhere. Has anybody even ever heard of them? Where can I find them on DVD or VHS?

Rating:
Summary: The original kicka** action heroine in a DVD set to impress
Review: Are there any words that can adequately express just how downright quirkily good the original Avengers show is? For someone who grew up watching a couple of episodes of the Joanna Lumley NEW AVENGERS and whose most recent brush with the series was the truly terrible 1998 movie, the COMPLETE EMMA PEEL MEGASET is a revelation.
Yes, I had never seen these episodes and (driven by an adoration of Diana Rigg) I went straight for the Megaset, it could have been a disaster but thankfully it wasn't and now holds an honored spot in my DVD collection.
One of my passions is the James Bond movie series as many people here on Amazon know. Of all the leading ladies in the series Diana Rigg is one of the best, and surely the only actress whose beauty and charm could have melted 007's heart enough for the superspy to propose marriage.
However five years before she made her mark on one superspy series as Tracy, Diana Rigg was making her mark on another superspy franchise on the small screen as the daring, intelligent first true kicka** action chick- Mrs. Emma Peel.
I think it's telling that Emma Peel/Diana Rigg is the only AVENGERS character/star to yet get her own Megaset. At a recent poll held on commanderbond.net she was a runaway landslide winner and it's not hard to see why.
From the opening minutes of the first episode when a man walks out of the sea in a giant ziplock bag you know you are in for a treat.
It is a show that is miles ahead of its time and this is no more apparent than in the initial appearance of the cybernauts (who would return in later episodes (including in THE NEW AVENGERS). Here we have a mad wheelchair bound eccentric scientist who uses robots to eliminate competitors seeking to woo a Japanese tech company. Some of the gadgets and gizmo's demonstrated by the scientist were obviously in the realm of science fiction in 1964, but today they are science fact.
The thing I love most about these shows (apart from Ms. Rigg) is their quirky offbeat plots. Stretching the envelope in a way that no show before (or since) the AVENGERS feature some really unique and original storylines that leave the viewer guessing.
Take the episode THE HOUR THAT NEVER WAS for example. Steed and Emma Peel are on their way to a party to mark the closing of Steed's old World War II airbase. Attempting to avoid hitting a dog Steed swerves and crashes into a tree at 11 a.m. Walking the half mile further to the base they find the place deserted and every clock at 11 a.m. What could have caused this? Where is everyone and just what is happening? The viewer is left to wonder until the closing minutes. Add to that, the mystery only deepens when Steed is regains consciousness later on in his car, once again at 11 a.m. to find the military place teaming with service people, but no sign of Emma Peel. Classic Avengers and great entertainment.
Digitally remastered and showing it I was hard pressed to spot any signs of aging, even on the black and white episodes that were so clean and crisp that they could have been shot yesterday rather than 40 years ago.
Audio is also first rate, there is a slight imbalance in the opening seconds that may have you reaching for the remote to up the sound a little, but then this is often the case for movies made in 2004. The dialogue is clear and the music as fresh and appealing as it no doubt appeared to audiences tuning in back in 1964.
Only around half of the episodes in this set are in black and white, with the rest in color and I Iove both equally. One previous reviewer complained about some cheap production values on the show, but I noticed only a couple of instances where this was apparent (and they did nothing to diminish my enjoyment of the show). In fact I read that review here on Amazon wondering if we were talking about the same DVD set, his views and observations were so far from my own.
There are over 50 episodes spread over 16 discs with the only special feature to speak of being stills galleries for each episode. I also enjoyed some of the trivia that appeared on the keepcase packaging such as the fact that the first episode of the Peel era had to be totally reshot when the producers realized the first actress - Elizabeth Shepherd - was not right for the part. How lucky for us fans of Diana Rigg that they realized their mistake!
Compulsive viewing - I pretty watched AVENGERS nonstop upon receiving the set - this show is everything and more than I expected. The plots, storyline and acting is all first rate. I am sure I will pick up DVDs from the other eras but for now I am in awe of the worlds first action chick, over a decade before Wonder Woman and almost 40 years before ALIAS' Sydney Bristow - Emma Peel.

Rating:
Summary: Emma Peel All of the Time
Review: BBC America is running the Avengers on Friday nights -- and so far they've been showing Emma only (although they did show the one introducing Tara King), which is why I snapped up the Megaset as soon as I saw it. Frankly, I can't abide Tara King -- she couldn't drive Emma's car. What really makes this series so great is Diana Rigg, who must have decided to do this series as a lark, and for the paycheck, since she was and is a serious actress, Royal Shakespeare Company, no less. When I watched this series as a teenager, I (and many of my friends) all wanted to be Emma Peel. One of my friends took up fencing, and wore catsuits, and wore her hair in a perfect Emma Peel flip (I couldn't get mine to do that....) Anyway, the plots are often silly, but the dialogue is always fun, tongue in cheek, and very adult (in an era when comedy was Petticoat Junction, and drama was Peyton Place). After the Avengers came Wild Wild West, Man from UNCLE and other shows that tried to combine drama, intrigue and witty dialogue, but this is the original and best.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Set
Review: Even if you factor in the 5% surcharge for non-members, it's a lot cheaper at Costco.

Rating:
Summary: All the Peels in one Box
Review: Here in the UK, it has taken me close to eight years to collect all the Emma Peels episodes on video, due to two aborted runs. This boxsed set - DVD! - does the job in one mighty swoop. The quality is good, though not as high as I expected. Several episodes are jerky motion wise, something not experienced with the video versions, which can be offputting at first, but the viewer actually gets used to it quite quickly and the stagger is no longer that noticeable. I'm a black and white man myself; the monochrome section ranks as my all-time favourite Avengers stories, especially the more gothic dramas 'A Touch of Brimstone' (the Hellfire Club), 'Castle De'Ath' (supernatural shenanigans) and 'Too Many Christmas Trees' (Dickensian nightmares). Fantastic! Witty, entertaining, exciting, inventive and original... the Avengers is a classic without peer to this day.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: I am a HUGE fan of this series, specifically the Emma Peel years, I find all of the Avengers good but when Diana Rigg did the show it became a classic. In this set is the complete set. Worth EVERY penny and any Avengers fan shouldnt live without this amazing set. The picture quality is simply stunning the dvds themselves are packed quite nicely also. I won't try to be all witty like some cheesballs do.....but simply, Buy this it is WELL worth it!

Rating:
Summary: Late Bloomer to the Show - Wasn't Born Yet
Review: I am to young to fully understand this importance of this show compared to other people, yet this is an amazing box set. The transfer to DVD is great. And the story lines are to me cool. It is easy to see that if you like this show you will have a grasp of England in the 1960's in terms of fashion, style and ect. Also Diana Rigg is not only great for the part but she is beautyfull. She really brings life into some shows and John Steed adds just the right spark to the show to give it that classic quality that a lot of TV shows now a days just does not have. for anyone young or old this is a set to check out. At a ripe 24 i wish i could be a little older to really get the full impact of what the show was about. But for the money it was very much well spent, if you ask me.

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