As Patrick MacNee tells it in his book, Diana Rigg said if he had been stronger with her about returning after her contract ran out, she might have done another two years of "The Avengers." That's a devastating story for Mrs. Peel fans, as Diana Rigg was simply wonderful; Rigg and MacNee had a lovely on-camera rapport. On the short list to replace Rigg were talents like Jane Merrow, Tracy Reed and Mary Peach, yet the producers latched upon Linda Thorson. Go figure.
On the other hand, Rigg's continuing as Mrs. Peel might have resulted in more episodes like "Epic."
The worst thing about "Epic" is its lack of Steed and Peel. The episode's focus is a crazy old-time movie director in the Erich von Stroheim mode, though looking more like Otto Preminger. He wants to make a "snuff film" (though it's not called that) about the death of Mrs. Peel. His companions in crime are two old actors still under contract to him. They lure Mrs. Peel to the director's own studio under false pretenses and there they try like crazy (the only word) to discombobulate her before killing her.
While amusing in its own way, the episode makes little sense. Diana Rigg gets plenty of screen time but her expressions deadpan even for her, even when she realizes the gun she has for protection shoots blanks.
One of the great things about the Mrs. Peel "Avengers" is how well Steed and Peel take things in their stride, cracking little jokes over dead bodies and rarely losing their aplomb (apart from rare excursions like "The Joker" or "Murdersville"). But Mrs. Peel is so emotionless and reactionary, for all practical purposes she's hardly there. And where is Steed?
The episode is also disorienting for the viewer (which is usually a good thing). It's supremely lacking in logic (which is also often a good thing). It's can be very funny (which we love about "The Avengers"). But the villains dominate too much, and their wacky attempts at bewildering Mrs. Peel are play as ridiculous. And why doesn't the clever widow Peel, who knows so much and keeps her calm so well under the direst threats, notice she's on movie sets? They hardly ever have ceilings.
With an intermittent Steed and a zombie Mrs. Peel, the saving grace of "Epic" (as pointed out by other reviewers) is Peter Wyngarde, seen previously as the delightful motivator in "A Touch of Brimstone." Wyngarde was a fine actor who looks silly in retrospect because of his full adoption of 1970s gear as "Jason King."
It all comes right in the end as Steed finds a way into the Studio that Mrs. Peel was too much of a dumb cluck to ferret out. Frankly, it's always good for a story to threaten the hero. The greater the threat the better the hero looks. And Mrs. Peel is totally in the power of these nutso movie makers. Fine, as much as we hate to see Mrs. Peel at anyone's mercy. She usually looks like she's formulating a plan. She's altogether too smart and capable to be at the mercy of a bunch of superannuated Hollywood types (okay, it's in England, but all the movie references are American, especially the silly moment when Mrs. Peel imitates the MGM lion--a moment when Mrs. Peel looked like she was jumping the shark, except that some of her best episodes followed).
I don't mind silly. I don't even mind ridiculous (one of my favorite episodes is "Who's Who???", possibly because Freddie Jones is one of my favorite actors). But I do mind when two elderly, long-out-of-work actors and a deranged director (is there any other kind) hijack the show and make it their own. Wyngarde is great but it's not "The Peter Wyngarde Show."
I won't give away the ending nor the especially beautiful tag, which keeps the episode from imploding near the end. But it feels to me like a long time before the tag comes.
The best "Avengers" episodes (IMHO) are baffling to Steed and Peel as well as the audience, until a turning point clarifies everything. They should be amusing though they might take a nasty turn, like "You Have Just Been Murdered" (another of my favorites). But the best thing about the middle-period "Avengers" is the rapport of the two protagonists. Even when they're apart, we know they're working together to make the world safe from lunatics. And both Patrick MacNee and Diana Rigg are good enough actors to walk the tightrope between fun and cheesy. But even when "The Avengers" tip their hands early and give us the villains right from the start, instead of keeping us guessing, the power of their personalities manage to keep the villain(s) from hogging the show.
If they want to make the villains deranged show-business people, fine. If they want to put Peel in dire straights, fine--suspense is what all good stories are about. In literature suspense compels our reading for days. Ditto television, where everything gets wrapped up in fifty minutes. And the great thing about "The Avengers" is the way it keeps its villains, for the most part, apolitical. They're simply nuts.
But Steed, while behaving as normal, is not enough in evidence; and Diana Rigg might as well have phoned her performance in. They called Buster Keaton "The Great Stoneface."
On the whole, one of the weaker middle-era "Avengers" episodes, though naturally a must-see for diehard fans. And lingering Peter Wyngarde fans, if any.
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