The Equalizer: The Complete Collection

Great buy
This was one of my favorite programs and two bid it ended so soon. I know that you will enjoy it too. This is the original equalizer and it is the best equalizer.

The equalizer series
I remembered this show came in new condition good price and fast shipping

A Dark Love Letter To New York
I bought the entire series of THE EQUALIZER on a nostalgic whim. I hadn’t seen an episode since the early-mid 90s and had quite forgotten whether the show was actually good or whether I was simply remembering it that way. And indeed, my initial feeling after watching a few episodes was regret. Viewing THE EQUALIZER is rather like putting an ice cube in your mouth. The initial reaction is discomfort, and a realization that no, you can’t eat these things like candy. You have to spend time letting them warm up before you can enjoy the experience. And just as you wouldn’t eat a tray of ice cubes, you probably won’t binge-watch this show. To that extent it’s like THE X-FILES: meant to be consumed slowly and thoroughly over a long period of time.The conceit of THE EQUALIZER is this. Robert McCall (the majestic Edward Woodward) spent decades in the spy game before retiring to New York City. Although considered a legend in the business – his former boss calls him “the most dangerous man I have ever met” – the dapper, cultured McCall has little to show for his life’s work. He’s bitterly divorced, semi-estranged from his son Scott (William Zabka), and troubled by the terrible moral compromises he’s had to make. To wash this foul taste from the palate of his conscience, McCall decides he is going to work pro bono as a kind of high-end vigilante. Advertising in the paper as a man who can help the helpless and fight for the little guy, he meets a variety of people in desperate need and uses all of his skills to see that justice is done on their behalf. But what differentiates THE EQUALIZER from what you’d assume would be its premise is that McCall is not a violent man by nature. He can use a gun, and does whenever necessary, but his general approach is psychological. The ordinary episode goes like this:A person is being stalked, terrorized, extorted, threatened, etc. by a much more powerful and dangerous person or group.They go to the cops, who either can’t or won’t help. Enter the Equalizer.McCall circles his opponent for a while, then confronts him and demands he/she/they back off.Instead, they only up their harassment and menacing of the victim.While forming his plan, McCall usually notices problems within the victim’s own personal relationships, family, etc. and tries to fix them, often using “tough love” arguments. In doing this he often examples his own failed marriage and fatherhood, or the guilt he feels over his time with The Company.Using his contacts from The Company, most notably the dead-eyed and dangerous ex-Navy SEAL Mickey Kostmeyer (Keith Szarabajka), McCall develops a case history and psychological profile of his enemy, and uses it to wage psy-war ops on the poor shmoe until they crack.Obviously not all the shows followed this formula. A number are dedicated to McCall’s troubled relationship with his former employers, most notably his boss, best friend, and occasional nemesis Control (Robert Lansing). Control is an excellent character, charming and brilliant, yet morally ambiguous and fork-tongued, and whenever he shows up, you know there are international intrigues afoot that will drag Robert back into the spy-world. Other episodes feature McCall’s generally disastrous personal life, or the appearance of some wanted (or unwanted) person from his own dark past.THE EQUALIZER is an unusual show in more ways than its choice of lead actor (a pudgy, gray-haired, dapper Englishman rather than a young, rip-muscled American stud), or the fact that his methods are more cerebral than violent in nature. It is an intelligent, thoughtful, oddly civilized series that explores the nature of evil from the viewpoint man who is not evil, but understands evil uncomfortably well, because of all the damage he has done, and thirsts for a redemption which may not be possible…because, after all, to fight evil, McCall must frequently blackmail, extort, terrorize and even sometimes kill his opponents. The notorious episode “Nightscape” (Season 2) pits McCall against a trio of vicious rapists who prowl the subways. The episode is handled from the angle of the damage that rape does to the victims and their loved ones, but also in the sense that McCall is trying to prevent the husband from becoming a vigilante. This creates a tension in the episode which resolves in an act of brutal, cold-blooded, but thoroughly satisfying multiple murder, and sets THE EQUALIZER apart from almost any other show on television during its era. While not an action show pe se, when it did depict violence, it was often brutally done. “China Rain” (Season 1) or “Prisoners of Conscience” (Season 4) shocked me as a kid (as did “Nightscape”) because this was no A-TEAM fairy tale where bullets don’t kill anyone, a beating is shrugged off in the next scene, and even torture leaves no more consequence to the victim than a barked shin. No, sir. The people who die on THIS show stay dead, and the people who live are sometimes scarred for life or visibly haunted. It’s pretty dark at times, but in that sense hardly unrealistic.Aside from this, and the iconic score by Stewart Copeland of The Police, there are three factors which make THE EQUALIZER really stand out. One is the show’s relationship to New York City during the 80s. Beautifully shot, the cinematography depicts both the beauty and the decay of the Big Apple, shying away from neither. Virtually the whole of T.E. was filmed on location, almost nothing in the studio. It gives us a picture of mid-80s NYC which is impossible to find anywhere else, a sort of time-capsule from my own boyhood. The other is the absolutely staggering number of up-and-coming actors who appeared as guest stars or recurring roles who later became famous actors in their own right. A very short random sampling would include Michael Wincott, Laura San Giacomo, Alberta Watson, John Goodman, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Spacey, Lawrence Fishburne, James Remar, Michael Rooker, Richard Jordan, Saul Rubinek, William Atherton, Vincent D’Nofrio, J.T. Walsh, Tony Shaloub, Michael Moriarty, Ving Rhames, Vitamin C, Patricia Richardson, Steve Buscemi, Jennifer Gray, Dan Hedaya, Jenny Agutter, Christian Slater, Will Patton, Keith David, Brad Dourif and John Heard. You will also recognize all of McCall’s ably-played company sidekicks.The last factor? Cinematography and lighting. The star of THE EQUALIZER is Woodward, but his co-star is New York Cit itself. The word “lush” can be used to describe the visual painting that is a lot of the camera work: especial use is made of both light and (not surprisingly) shadow. As I said before, there’s no attempt to glamorize the wormy Big Apple, but the camera shows us both worms and fruit in a way that’s easy to admire and impossible to forget.THE EQUALIZER is not perfect television. It can be horribly sappy and cheesy (“Reign of Terror” from Season 1, for example) and at other times overly stylized or just plain preposterous. The methods McCall uses to psychologically destroy or just exact tricked confessions out of criminals are sometimes so involved as to defy belief, and there are other episodes where one just wonders why the crooks don’t go after McCall more aggressively since he rather than their victims are the source of their real problems. In the 87 – 88 season, Woodward’s heart attack limited his role on the show for a time, and the producers tapped Robert Mitchum to sub for him for a few episodes: this was a good decision, but instead of using Szarabajka as his side-kick, they brought in Richard Jordan to play Harley Gage for ten episodes. Jordan is a fine actor but was miscast as a tough guy, and seemed to know it, and to resent it: these episodes don’t work all that well, and when Jordan disappears without explanation, my sense as a viewer was, “WTF was that?”All in all, however, THE EQUALIZER is a damn good show. Maybe a bit too rigidly formulaic to be truly great, but enormously enjoyable both as a dark lover letter to New York and as a celebration of what a great actor – Edward Woodward – could do with a thoughtful, well-written part that was willing to take risks both with its storylines and its characters. Like NYC itself, it’s both ugly and beautiful, tough and curiously sincere. So, if you’ve got a probem..if the odds are against you…give the gentleman a call. Because hell, if all men were created equal, we wouldn’t need The Equalizer.

SUPERIOR SHOW!
This is the ORIGINAL Equalizer, done around 1985.It is still relevant today, and only dated by some of the technology of the time.It is MUCH better than the Equalizer movies, and is definitely superior to the TV show done later with a female Equalizer. [nothing about sexism, just the newer “revised” show just doesn’t cut it.]I highly recommend it.

Best thing Edward Woodward did after starring in Callan.

Artículo indispensable de colección..un clásico.