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The Movie: Before "Moonlighting" and Pierce Brosnan's efforts as James Bond (I still think it was a huge mistake to let go of Brosnan as Bond), there was "Remington Steele", a mystery/comedy that focused on Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist), a female private eye who did all the research and apprenticed her way into excellence in her field. However, no one seems to want to involve themselves with a female detective. So, in order to get business going, she creates a fictional boss named "Remington Steele", and suddenly, the clients start coming through the door. Yet, Holt manages to keep the secret going and do the work herself, while Steele "advises". Suddenly, a man comes into Laura's life (Pierce Brosnan), taking on the role of Steele when he answers a phone call in order to escape from potential danger. While Steele remains the face of the business, Holt gets to keep on doing her work and getting more clients. Despite being over twenty-years-old "Remington Steele" still holds up pretty darn well, as the writing is clever, the plots are inspired and Brosnan and Zimbalist make for a terrific team. Doris Roberts ("Everybody Loves Raymond") also offers a very entertaining supporting effort as fellow agency worker/secretary Mildred Krebs. The fourth (and brief fifth) seasons of the series doesn't do much to change the formula, but the writing still has snap, the two leads still fit comfortably in their roles, and the series coasts fairly nicely on the chemistry between Zimbalist and Brosnan. The series opens with Steele heading off to England to search for his true identity, only to end up a prime suspect in a case and hunted by Scotland Yard. Other highlights on these two seasons include: "Forged Steele" (Remington can't remember what happened on a night out with a beautiful client but what is apparent is that he may have lost the agency in a poker game), "Premium Steele" (A client of the agency has been declared dead and wants to know why), "Steele, Inc." (The murder of a Steele impersonator takes Laura and Remington to San Diego, where they're shocked to discover a duplicate of the Steele offices in LA), "Steele in the Spotlight" (A TV magazine show hires Laura and Remington to crack a case), "Steele At Your Service" (Steele goes undercover as a butler), "Beg, Borrow or Steele" (Laura and Remington are shocked to find that they're reported dead) and "Steele That Wouldn't Die", where Laura and Remington honeymoon in Mexico to convince US Immigration officials that they are married so he won't get reported, but he ends up implicated in a murder case.) Season 4 67. 4- 1 25 Sep 85 Steele Searching (1) 68. 4- 2 1 Oct 85 Steele Searching (2) 69. 4- 3 22 Oct 85 Steele Blushing 70. 4- 4 29 Oct 85 Grappling Steele 71. 4- 5 12 Nov 85 Forged Steele 72. 4- 6 19 Nov 85 Corn Fed Steele 73. 4- 7 3 Dec 85 Premium Steele 74. 4- 8 10 Dec 85 Coffee, Tea, or Steele 75. 4- 9 17 Dec 85 Dancer, Prancer, Donner and Steele 76. 4-10 7 Jan 86 Steele on the Air 77. 4-11 14 Jan 86 Steele, Inc. 78. 4-12 28 Jan 86 Steele Spawning 79. 4-13 11 Feb 86 Suburban Steele 80. 4-14 18 Feb 86 Santa Claus is Coming to Steele 81. 4-15 22 Feb 86 Steele Blue Yonder 82. 4-16 1 Mar 86 Sensitive Steele 83. 4-17 8 Mar 86 Steele in the Spotlight 84. 4-18 15 Mar 86 Steele at Your Service 85. 4-19 22 Mar 86 Steele in the Running 86. 4-20 29 Mar 86 Beg, Borrow, or Steele 87. 4-21 3 May 86 Steele Alive and Kicking 88. 4-22 10 May 86 Bonds of Steele Season 5 89. 5- 1 5 Jan 87 The Steele That Wouldn't Die (1) 90. 5- 2 5 Jan 87 The Steele That Wouldn't Die (2) 91. 5- 3 3 Apr 87 Steele Hanging in There (1) 92. 5- 4 10 Apr 87 Steele Hanging in There (2) 93. 5- 5 17 Apr 87 Steeled With a Kiss (1) 94. 5- 6 17 Apr 87 Steeled With a Kiss (2) The DVD VIDEO: "Remington Steele" is presented by Fox in 1.33:1 full-frame. Although there are some issues present, the picture quality was mostly very good, considering the age. Sharpness and detail were satisfactory, and the picture remained almost consistently crisp and well-defined, with only a couple of minor touches of softness on rare occasions. No edge enhancement or pixelation showed up, but there were some minor instances of wear on the elements used, such as some very light dirt and a couple of specks/marks. Colors seemed a tad subdued, but still pleasing and without any smearing or other faults. SOUND: The mono audio track seemed to be in perfectly fine shape, with clear dialogue and score. EXTRAS: Co-Creator Michael Gleason and writers John Sakmar, Kerry Lenhart, John Wirth, Brad Kern and Jeff Melvoin offer commentary for "Bonds of Steele", "Beg, Borrow or Steele" & "Steele on the Air". Sakmar and Lenhart offer their thoughts on "Air", while the others chat about the other two episodes. As with the commentaries on the previous sets, while there are some moments of silence throughout the track, the particpants spend most of the time chatting about their fond memories of working on the series and offer some good tidbits. Additionally, a series of featurettes are also found here: "Steele Fanatics" (fans of the show), "Steele Stars", "Steele on the Road" and "Steele Farewell". The featurettes are fairly brief, but they do offer some good insights on the production and fun memories. Final Thoughts: "Remington Steele" remains great fun - it's an energetic, brisk and involving series that offers great performances from the two leads. The fourth and fifth seasons really don't change the formula much, but they're still fun for fans. Fox's DVD edition provides very good audio/video quality, along with a nice helping of supplemental features. Recommended. |