Rating: 
Summary: weirdness
Review: I can still recall the first time I saw Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel. This was a breath of fresh air for female stars of this period. Honor Blackman's Kathy Gale had opened by eyes, a woman dressed in leather and pants(!) and could hold her own, was intelligent, and did not always need the male to ride to her rescue, WOW! This was totally missing from the women role models on telly in that era. Diana Rigg took that foundation and really made it her own, so everyone quickly forgot about the woman who came before Mrs. Peel. Young girls of today cannot begin to understand what reinforcing role model this was to the "new image" of women. They have no idea how it was frowned upon for women to wear pants. I recall being in the US at a restaurant in the late 60s and it has a sign up behind the register "women in pants will not be served"! Hard to believe, but yes that was the attitude for women's dress of that day. So Emma was the new wave for the independent woman. And what a role model! She was charming, beautiful, but depended upon her mind more than her body. She dressed in Carnaby street stylish jumpsuits, boots, drove like a demon and fought like a man. The whole time with a twinkle in the eye! She was gorgeous, but in a very real way, and wow, did I want to be Emma Peel when I grew up!
I have many of these episodes on tape, but to have them in pristine condition on DVD, it's just a thrill. She and Patrick Macnee, created sparks, though they romance was kept at a distance, and more importantly, they respected each other. So this was a series that was ahead of it's time and with two classy actors, that took the world - and my heart and imagination - by storm.
I still wanna be Emma Peel!!
Rating: 
Summary: Time for middle-aged women to chime in...
Review: I first watched the Avengers when I was in grade school in the mid-sixties, and I fell in love with both the show and Steed and Mrs. Peel. I felt compelled to respond to the Viewer from Ohio, and anyone uninitiated into the Avengers Fan Club. First, the Avengers never proclaimed to be "realistic." Its tongue-in-cheek send-up of the burgeoning secret agent genre made it far more enjoyable than any of the other offerings of the time. What makes these episodes (and I admit to being partial only to the Mrs. Peel years) is the marvelous, seductive yet unstated sexual energy and outstanding chemistry between Steed/Macnee and Rigg/Peel. Their double-entendre delivery is worth the price of this spectacular set. The character of Mrs. Peel offered the young American girl the first real feminist hero on television---smart, strong, brave, yet with no doubt about her femininity and sexual identity. As for Patrick Macnee: I'm sorry, Viewer from Ohio: he presented a charming and very attractive character, and the relationship between the 2 leads fueled the fantasies of many peri-pubescent girls (I'll let the boys speak for themselves). And, I've met Mr. Macnee: he's a very nice man indeed.
For fans of the series, this set is a must. For newcomers, I still believe it is the most enjoyable series I've ever seen and I recommend it to everyone, but know what the show is about before spending a couple of bills on 16 DVDs! But if you DO know, then this is a set worth owning. I'd rather watch this (and do!) than almost anything on TV in THIS century!
Rating:
Summary: The best show I have ever seen next to Dark Shadows
Review: I have always enjoyed the avengers, I am only 22, I first saw The Avengers, when they came on A&E, and now the Mystery Channel, plays them in order, and I do not care for the very fist ones, and I forget to go back, and when I do it is usually too late, anyway lately I have been watching the ones with Tara King, and I am enjoying them, I hope they become aviable on DVD soon. I am Kay's daughter Sara.
Rating:
Summary: I am in love all over again
Review: I have been in love with Mrs. Peel since I was 12.
This set brought it all back and then some.
Rating:
Summary: Nobody Dares to "mess" with Mrs. Peel!
Review: I remember begging to stay up past my bed-time to see a (then) new episode of "The Avengers". John Steed and Emma Peel were my idols! With Karate chops and swift kicks, along with countless "gadgets" to out-wit the bad guys, this dynamic duo definitely delivered 1960s "sci-fi" Drama. My favorite episode is the one where Emma Peel has to rescue John Steed, who had fallen victim to an excentric millionaire, who enjoys playing "games". Poor Mr. Steed eventually is stuck in an hour-glass with sand threatening to "run out" and sufficating the captive. -- Another favorite of mine has a unique "pen", to which a hypnotized assassin is magnetically drawn, programmed to kill whoever possesses the object. -- Still other episodes have many funny moments. When John & Emma ride a miniature train (for a considerable stretch!), it does make you smile! Working with a tiny budget (compared to Hollywood), the creators of this modern marvel (one of BBC's most successful "exports" ever!) have accomplished more than any million-dollar James Bond film. Emma Peel has an assured place in television history, as the first lady of fictional crime-stoppers! This box set is the ultimate gift for the Avengers fan with a parciality to Mrs. Emma Peel. Of all the "side-kicks" who worked with John Steed, Diana Rigg is certainly the best remembered and most popular. Somewhat pricy, this complete set of "John & Emma" episodes is worth every quid of it!***
Rating:
Summary: A few points to add
Review: I'd like to add a few points to those already made in praise of this set. The transfer quality is very good. No blemishes, no compression artifacts- even when viewed on 6 foot wide screen. There are some really excellent episodes, and some that are a bit silly. I like them all, but if you are not ready to buy all at once, there are several good avengers web sites- at least one of which has full scripts, stills and reviews. Find them with Yahoo or any other search engine. Note you may come across other european DVDs some of which I have read were transferred poorly. The mega set I purchaced here at Amazon had no such problems. The whole set is way way cool, and you'll flip over some of Emma's 60s Mod outfits.
Rating: 
Summary: Fans of realism should stay far away from this...
Review: I'd never seen The Avengers before buying this set. But being a fan of Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner" and "Secret Agent" series, and knowing of the awesome reputation of The Avengers, I gave it a try. I decided to go for the whole Emma Peel set at once instead of trying the individual volumes first. I regret it now. I watched several episodes, and while they were mildly entertaining, they lack realism, to say the least. This is one of those fake shows where you can obviously spot the stand-in who comes in every few minutes to double for the actors anytime they're required to fall down or get in a fight. They give a top hat and umbrella to a stuntman who looks nothing like Patrick MacNee, film him from behind and we're supposed to be fooled into thinking it's him, I guess. This happened so much that I wondered why the wimpish MacNee even bothered to show up for filming. Also, the painted backdrops used as scenery are so cartoonishly fake that they're laughable. Any time you see an open door or window, you'll see the badly-painted 'outdoor scenery', wobbling on the soundstage as if it's about to fall down. I understand that they probably had a fairly low budget, but most of it is just unexcusably bad. The Prisoner and Secret Agent never looked this phony, probably because McGoohan cared more about realism than cuteness. Another major problem I had was with MacNee. His bland, unoriginal acting style is mediocre at best, and he gives the impression, to me at least, that he would probably have been an unpleasant person in real life. Wrong guy for the part; it is totally unbelievable to me that a beauty like Emma Peel would be interested in an ugly, creepy fop like Steed. How MacNee got the part, I'll never know. I found myself watching the show just to see Diana Rigg, a charming actress who did the best she could with the often poor scripts. There is a subtle charm to some of the episodes, the ones that were well-written like Cybernauts, but too many of them are ludicrously plotted and laughably acted. The shows are all riddled with hero/villain guy clichés: bad guys kick, punch, and shoot at at the heroes, but can do no damage, while the heroes can easily knock a guy out cold with only a fake karate chop to the neck, and they have perfect aim every time when shoooting a gun. I was expecting the Vulcan nerve pinch at any moment. It's *really* phony stuff, unwatchable to me. I could only make it through about 10 of these DVDs, trying to give the show a fair chance, but soon I knew I was done with The Avengers for good. I've sold my set, I gave up on them and won't miss them. I can see why so many people like the show, they like the style it had, the actors, and the occasionally well-written storyline, but those of us who need an acceptable amount of realism in shows we watch should stay away, unless you want to weed through dozens of boring, ridiculous episodes to get to the few classics. I don't demand complete realism at all times, or expensive production values, but Steed being a stud, and fake painted blue skies with fake painted clouds as backdrops...come on. I guess if you accept the pair as infallible superheroes, and the show as nothing but a live-action cartoon, and that's *all* you expect, you might like this show. But personally, I found the tremendous reputation of The Avengers to be unfounded. It's not garbage by any means, but it is mindless fantasy fluff - not usually the material legends are made of.
Rating:
Summary: The Joanna Lumley Years
Review: In response to "A Viewer from San Fransisco" (March 7, 2003), Joanna Lumley appeared in the series "The New Avengers" from 1976-77, not in the "original" series in '60s.
Rating: 
Summary: Steed and Peel -- you either get it or you just don't
Review: Like a lot of classic TV, this show's appeal (ahem) is hard to explain to the uninitiated. To call the plots outlandish would be gratuitous understatement; they border on cartoonish. Yet, somehow "The Avengers" never cease to be contagiously watchable. There's some sophisticated interplay bubbling just beneath the silly surface between Macnee and Rigg, which one may choose to ignore. Or one can overthink the whole exercise (fear of new technology is a recurring theme), and still extract a lot of enjoyment. Watch a few episodes on the Starz Mystery channel; if you decide you in fact "get it," then get this DVD set.
Rating:
Summary: A vote for the canook
Review: Mrs. Peel was OK, but how about Linda Thorson (Tara King)? She was Canadian and she had TWO X chromosomes.
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