PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

79108 Stagecoach Escape

It almost looks like they're moving doesn't it. That's the new Lone Ranger Stagecoach Escape. It's a $30 set with 279 pieces which includes the 5 minifigs and 3 horses. At 10.75 cents a part that isn't too bad, not great but not awful either. Some of the parts are ones that might come in handy for other uses. The red, reddish-brown, both blays and black parts make up the bulk of the colors. Most of those are good useable parts even if they lack excitement. There's a bit of dark green to make that safe, 2 pair of small red doors and some nice dark tan wheels.

 

I actually built the set and liked the way the stagecoach went together. There's a more comprehensive look at the construction of the set at Eurobricks. The review also talks about the unusually large size of the stagecoach. The bottom of the door is well over the head of the minifigs. The bottom of the step is abovet waist high. The body of the coach has 2 large curved pieces and they sit on a nice enough looking suspension but that makes the coach really tall and long. Yet, only 2 folks can sit inside. Some builders could use that as a stepping stone to make a better model. And it does look good as a model, if you leave the figures out. Here's the description from over at Brickset.

Make a famous Lone Ranger Stagecoach Escape!

Look out for the bandits going after Red Harrington’s valuable silver locked in the vault in the Stagecoach Escape! Launch the baggage off the back to slow the bad guys down! Then jump down onto the galloping horses, detach them from the wagon and help the Lone Ranger and Tonto to chase the outlaws off before they steal the stash! Includes 5 minifigures with weapons and accessories: the Lone Ranger, Tonto, Red Harrington and 2 bandits, Jesus and Barret.

• Includes 5 minifigures with weapons and accessories: the Lone Ranger, Tonto, Red Harrington and the 2 bandits, Jesus and Barret
• Features opening doors and roof, baggage launch function, opening vault with silver bar, mailbag with letter and 2 detachable horses
• Also includes bandit’s horse
• Weapons include 3 revolvers, rifle and 2 knives
• Accessories include a pocket watch decorated element and dynamite
• Detach the horses and chase the bandits away!
• Launch the baggage and send the villains tumbling!
• Battle to protect the silver
• Open the stagecoach roof and doors to play inside
• Stagecoach measures over 5" (13cm) high, 5" (14cm) long and 2" (7cm) wide.

There's often trouble on the stagecoach when there's moola involved. I've seen so many westerns that used that for a plot element. Sadly for the crooks this stage is filled with good guys. Looks like it's robberisinteruptis, huh. That silver isn't too bad but  there's only the one. I think it's odd that they put a huge safe on top of the stagecoach. It's not what you'd usually see there, Especially since it must weight a lot. How did they get that up there? Usually you see a strong box or some such. Something about the size of the normal LEGO trunk. Something you can throw down to the robbers, you know, or get shot. I have a feeling that the guys who designed this set aren't that familiar with the western story. Mind you I am thinking the movie will turn out to be the Pirates Of The Carribean of the western genre. The little action feature that launches the luggage at the badguys is pretty lame. There's only one suitcase in there and you can hardly get it go anywhere near the robbers. There are a nice lot of accessories, including 5 pistols and a rifle, a good chance to start building an armoury for future use or adding to your already existing one. Once I have enough weapons I'm taking over the living room with my LEGO army. Good thing I don't know how to build a LEGO nuke or the kitchen would fall too.

  
Another Loney leads the pack of minifgs. Still likin' that white hat but since each set has a Lone Ranger in it I now have 4 of them and that's more than I probably need. Same thing goes for Tonto but I can forgive that because of the crow. Red Harrington is the most interesting figure in the set. She's got great hair, a removable hat and nicely printed uppper torso. Not sure I care that much for lower half. It sort of captures the look that Helena Bonham Carter used in the movie but I'd rather see the skirt continue around to the front. I can easily replace the bottom half with a slope to make a dress. Barret and Jesus are the two robbers. I do like the guys costumes but how do they get to the stage with only one horse between them? So many questions, so few answers. All in all a nice set. Not seeing a need to pick up more than the one.

Ain't Misbehavin'

    

I found the dvd for this British 3 episode TV miniseries at the library. They aired July 28 to August 11 1997 and the series starred Jerome Flynn and Robson Green. I wasn't familiar with their names and didn't recognize either of their faces but it turns out that I had seen them both in more recent tv shows. Flynn played Bronn in The Game Of Thrones and Green was in the Brititsh Being Human. The two of them were in Soldier Soldier together and they had some hit songs too. They sing in this series. The story is set during WW2 and it's about an RAF pilot, Flynn, who was hurt in action. He has black outs and goes all stiff. He comes home and gets involved with a low level hustler Private Eye, Green, who has also plays abd sings in a big band. The pilot joins the band for some income. They fight to sing in the band and they both have something for the same woman. The guys wind up in the middle of a dust up with the police and some gangsters. The thing moves pretty slow and the story doesn't ever get too exciting. It's filmed in some nice places, there's a bit of humor and I liked some of the characters. It was ok but not something that I would probably need to watch again.

New Tricks Series 2

 

The 2nd series of New Tricks had 8 episodes and they aired May 9 to June 27 2005. I got the 3 disc set from the library. They have the first 8 series in their catalog and I have the remaining ones in my queue. It's a British crime show about a squad of retired detectives that work cold cases. I enjoyed the shows in this series as much as I enjoyed the first series. It's kind of a cozy series, if you know what that means, they don't get too gorey or violent for the most part and there's a nice level of humor. The most of the tension is genereated from the characters private lives. Amanda Redman is Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, Alun Armstrong is Brian Lane, James Bolam is Jack Halford, Dennis Waterman is Gerry Standing and Susan Jameson plays Brian's wife Esther. In real life she is married to James Bolam.

The gang works on cold cases that come to them via various routes. In one show Gerry looses 10,000 British Pounds gambling. The guy Gerry owes offers to wipe out the debt if Gerry will help him. His dad was killed and the case never solved. Gerry helps and gets yelled at for not going by the book. The guys are always skating over the line when it comes to crime solving. Pullman tends to look the other way when they get good results. In another case the dna test of a young woman's remains turn out not to be the woman they thought they there. It exposes a horrible family's secrets. Honor Blackman guest stars as a tv cooking star who is suspected of killing her husband. In another show the gang is asked to figure out who a £15,ooo,ooo red diamond belongs to. Most of the plots are interesting enough but I'm more interested in the characters and how they go about their business. Like them I like it when they catch "the baddies."  

Science Fiction Sunday 230

 

Doctor Who And The Silurians is the 52nd serial and the 7 parter is the 2nd story of the 7th season. It ran from January 31 to March 14 1970. The serial returns to the studio but this time it's the bigger BBC studio with nice color cameras. There's still plenty of outside location shooting that was shot on film. The jump to color and the better production values made the show look a lot more interesting. Jon Pertwee is the 3rd Doctor and he's stuck on Earth in England in 1970. He's working for UNIT with Liz Shaw and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. The Brig is played by Nicholas Courtney and Liz is played by Caroline John. The Brigadier is the man in charge of UNIT and he doesn't always see eye to eye with the Doctor. He does get the Doctor a nice new yellow car. That's it above. The Doctor tools around England with that car, just lookin' cool. The plot is less cool, it's another invasion story and it's written by Malcolm Hulke. Terrance Dicks, the script editor, said in one of the featurettes that they thought they had two choices for plots with the Doctor stuck on earth; alien invasion or mad scientist. Faced with that he had the invaders, the Silurians, originate from the deep inside the earth. The ancient reptile humanoids had been scared by the moon 2oo million years ago and gone into hibernation. Quite the nap, eh!

 

The Doctor, Liz and the Brig all meet up at a research center that's been having some issues with power being drained from it's nuclear reactor. Some of the workers have been having mental breakdowns. The man in charge is one of those uptight guys who doesn't listen to anyone. His attitude kills him. The main scientist is played by Fulton MacKay and while he's not quite totally mad the man is caught up in his own scheme to get knowledge and fame from the Silurians. That kills him. Some random guys get killed too as the Brig clashes with the Silurians. The invaders release a virus that kills a bunch of people and the Doctor and Liz have to make an antidote before the world dies. Wow, huh. At the end of the serial the Brig blows up the caves that lead to the Silurians underground base and that makes the Doc mad. Don't worry, it looks like the Silurians return in future serials. It's a pretty good story that might have been improved by a little editing. Even Terrance Dicks talked about the difficulty of the longer serials. He'd been more happy making 4 parters. Me too. I find that really tightens up the story. Still, mostly a pretty good story with a Doctor that I quite enjoy.

   

I enjoyed the pet dinosaur that the Silurians had to guard their caves but for a totally different reason. He's pretty goofy looking. The dino only appears briefly in the show. The suit was pretty heavy and the man inside could barely move around. Those pics are from the photo gallery on the second dvd of the 2 disc set. They had some nice behind the scenes pictures. The episodes have the usual commentaries and there are several featurettes with lots of interviews. One of them has now and then shots of the outdoor locations, one talks about the music, one details the color restoration and another looks at the effect used to show the POV of the Silurians. 

Friday Night Movies 422

 

CZ12 or Chinese Zodiac is a 2012 Jackie Chan film. He co-produced, wrote and directed the movie. He got two Guinness World Records for it: Most Stunts Performed by a Living Actor and Most Credits in One Movie. The movie hasn't been officially released in the US yet. Joe bought the BluRay from somewhere in Asia. Jackie returns for a third time as Asian Hawk, a character that appeared in Armour Of God and Operation Condor. He's a thief who finds ancient relics and sells them for cash. There used to be twelve bronze animal heads in the Old Summer Palace. They were looted in the Second Opium War by some British and the French twats in retaliation for the murder of their envoys by some Chinese dicks. Fighting, stealing and killing, a time honored human tradition. About a 150 years later some of the bronzes are turning up at auctions and selling for millions of pounds. That part of the movie is based on real events but then it goes off into Jackie's fantasy world. A crooked guy hires Asian Hawk and company to go look for the rest of the Zodiac heads. Jackie finds a couple in a rich man's house and helps himself to some other nice rare things. Then they chase around to various nice places around the world and there's some fighting and stunts. Some are good and some are less interesting. Jackie has slowed down and he announced about this time that he was going to cut down on the stunts and try to live longer. Eventually the two hours are nearly over and Jackie jumps into a volcano to save the last bronze zodiac head from destruction. Don't worry, he missed the flaming bits and rolled down the side of the mountain in his inflatable suit. The movie is 120 minutes and seems a bit draggy. Jackie's not the greatest film writer, some of his jokes are pretty silly and some of the story points are the same. Some of the scenes and action pieces are similar to things he's done in his other movies. I could see why the movie was not well recieved by the critcs but could understand why it was popular with the Chinese population. The movie cost $26 million and grossed $138 million in the Asian market because it's noisey and fun. Plus the Chinese don't seem to care if all the plots points don't connect. Not my favorite of his movies but still one I'll probably add to my Jackie shelf.

 I wouldn't add Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever to my movie shelf. It's got some high school students who get infected by a flesh eating virus and die. For 86 minutes that seems longer. The script is about average and the direction is fair. Ti West, the director, disowned the film because the company fiddled with it but I think it wouldn't be much better if we were seeing the director's cut. Some of the actors aren't very good so with little direction they don't do very well. Some of the characters are pretty annoying and it reminds me how stupid we were in high school. I'd give it a miss and watch some a better horror movie. See, I'm doin' you a favor. The first Cabin Fever was somewhat better though it's not something I need to see again. I've never became an Eli Roth fan and i won't even see some of his movies. I sure wouldn't want to spend anytime in front of the two Hostel movies he did. See, that's me doin' myself a favor with a reminder not to watch that crap.

79107 Comanche Camp

Here's another of The Lone Ranger sets. It's got 161 parts for 20 bucks which makes each part worth 12.4 cents each. Not great but not awful, at least for a licenced set. That's would be a good price per piece in a Star Wars set. You do get a nice canoe and that not so nice tepee. It looks kind of nice but it's plastic. It's too shiny for deer hide. I actually bought two of these sets, mostly for the figures, partly for the two canoes and partly for the two tents. Do you know that old joke? I just heard it on a tv show recently. The tents come in two parts and they are identical. The door flap is a die cut in the plastic and isn't quite broken through. A simple push with your finger and it's a doorway. Of the four pieces in the two sets only 1 of them was flat and unwrinkled. Not a good average, huh, even though it is only based on two samples. I was going to copy the design onto some parchment type paper and see if that might make a nice substitute. One that wasn't so shiny, or creased. 

Here's the description of the set from the LEGO sales page. I'm not sure where that statue is from but it's nice.

Visit the Comanche Camp with the Lone Ranger and Tonto!

Journey to the Comanche Camp with the Lone Ranger and Tonto! Visit Red Knee in the teepee with removable canopy and campfire. Check out the weapon rack then jump in the canoe and go fishing. Watch out for the scorpions as they launch a surprise attack from the rocky outcrop with the attack function! Includes 3 minifigures with weapons: the Lone Ranger, Tonto and Red Knee.

• Includes 3 minifigures with weapons: the Lone Ranger, Tonto and Red Knee
• Features teepee, weapon rack, canoe with oar, and rocky outcrop with scorpion attack function
• Teepee features small campfire, entrance flap and removable canopy
• Weapons include 2 revolvers, tomahawk, spear and a bow with quiver
• Also includes a fish, 3 scorpions and 3 bones
• Survive the scorpion attack!
• Go fishing in the canoe!
• Remove the teepee canopy and play inside!
• Teepee measures over 6" (16cm) high, 3" (10cm) wide and 4" (12cm) deep
• Canoe measures over 4" (12cm) long and less than 1" (2cm) high and wide
• Weapon rack measures over 1" (3cm) high, and less than 1" (2cm) wide and 1" (1cm) deep
• Rocky outcrop measures over 2" (7cm) high, 3" (10cm) wide and 2" (7cm) deep

That's a part of the set that is described as the scorpion attack. It really sucks. The basic design is a lever with a larger bit inside the hollow rectangle of bricks that forms a small rock formation. There's a part of the lever that sticks out the back of it which you push that down to launch the 3 scorpions. Problem is they stuck those 3x3 tan plates with the corners cut off on various corners and they stop the scorpions from launching. Mostly they bounce off the tan plates and stay in the hollow space. Where's the danger in that? The scorpions are nice but I have enough already. The bricks are tans and some blays.

   

That Loney, Tonto and Red Knee. A nice bunch of minifigs. I'm slowly getting a nice bunch of Indian costumes and eventually I'll have enough to make a nice diorama. The crow was popular with some at the TwinLUG meeting. It comes off. It's has a tiny stem to stick into the hairpiece so it has a limited number of connection points. Makes you think, huh. Not too bad a set but now that I have a couple I won't need anymore.

Robin Hood

I watched the first disc of the 1st series of the 2006 BBC production when I got home. It was ok but I didn't care for it that much. The disc has the first three episodes of the series on it and in the 1st show Robin has returned to his family home only to find some dicks running the show. He gets in trouble with the Sheriff for standing up to him. In Sherwood Forest with his ex-servant and a couple of pals, they meet some outlaws hiding in woods and they tie each other up a bit. Then Robin talks the group into working together to bother the Sheriff and Sir Guy. Most of it is familiar but this series gives the old legend some new story and plot elements. There is a heavy middle eastern influence that isn't in most of your other Robin Hood adaptations. Robin has a scimitar and a curved bow from the Middle East. Unfortunately the bow was designed by the Hunnites in another century. Saracens of several kinds come to Sherwood Forest and Nottingham. A Saracen woman, dressed like a man, is rescued from a slave trader and she joins Robin and his Merry Men. They aren't that merry, they bicker a lot. The Sheriff is a total creep and his main henchman, Sir Guy Of Grisborne, is a simpering psycho with a moody attitude and a penchant for stabbing people. They are both heartless scum who tax the people endlessly and then torture and maim them for pretty much any trivial infringement. Robin and his men run about trying to help the locals. The actors playing the characters did a good job in a show that reminded me of Hercules and Xena in format and look. Talk talk, fight fight, repeat. Less humor than those shows and no character as cool as Iolaus.

After the three shows were done I felt I wasn't digging them a whole lot. I was reading on the Wikipedia about the next episodes, you know, to find some clues to help me decide to continue. Or not. It wasn't good, what I was reading, turns out in the end of the second season they kill Marion off. Wow, that's a deal breaker right there and I certainly had second thoughts about going on. Then I read that at the end of the third season they kill Robin off. What... That's some stupid shit. Oh, and pretty much everyone else dies when they blow up Nottingham Castle. Somehow I had wondered into a weird ass alternate universe version of Robin Hood with all sorts of lame personal drama mixed in with fighting injustice in tights in the woods. I don't care for shows that kill off their main characters much at all. Not something to make me want to see them again and that sure puts me out of the dvd buying class too. I did see that the ratings really plummeted the 3rd series and I'm not surprised. If I was going to watch some Robin Hood I would rather watch the 1955 B&W British tv show with Richard Green instead of this nicely produced program. I decided to scan through some of the other episodes in the 1st season. I watched bits and pieces and put them away after a while. Others might like it more than me. I know the IMDb score is 7.1 and it's a well prodiced show that has a bleek side that I just don't find fits the Robin Hood I wanted to see. Plus there's the whole killing off the two main characters. Now I don't have to bother with asking the library to send the other two series sets around for me. Saves me some time to waste on somehting else. 

The Man From UNCLE Season 4

I shotgunned the 4th season of The Man From UNCLE in one long gulp. The came from NetFlix so it was more a series of glugs. I figured it might not be so good so I might as well get the whole series done and move on. It turned out to be better than I expected. The season debuted September 11 1967 and the 16 episodes run through January 15 of the following year. The ratings had slipped in season 3 and the producers were trying to capture some of the audience back by making the program more serious. It didn't help and the show got the axe before the season was finished. There certainly was less comedy this season and I felt it was more like the early 2nd season. The stories are a bit repetitive but they had done 89 of them already. The spy game is usually the same thing in a new location so you can't expect much plot variance.

Robert Vaughn plays Napoleon Solo, David McCallum plays Illya Kuryakin and Leo G Carroll plays Mr Waverly. The guys travel the world fighting evil that comes mostly from Thrush, a secret evil organization run by some evil dicks. They shot the show on the MGM lot and that had a lot of fun places to shoot. The producers were always looking for sets from other MGM productions to redress for TMFU. Saved a lot of money.  Occasionally the show would travel into the desert to blow stuff up. If you travelled less than 45 miles from the studio it was cheaper than if you went more then 45 miles. In one episode they used the Theme Building at the LA Airport for a secret Thrush installation. The show still is attracting a nice bunch of guest stars. Among them are Broderick Crawford, Chad Everett, Bradfrod Dillman, Jack Lord, Micheal Rennie, David McGavin, William Marschall and Leslie Nielsen. Many of them were the Thrust villain of the week. Actors always talk about how much fun it is to play the villain and from what people say in the bonus material it was just plain fun to work on the show too. George Lehr said it was the most fun in his career. He also said the guest stars got $3000 for doing an episode. I wonder if that's typical for a guest spot at the time. That would have been about a years salary for my mother. She was a cashier in a grocery store at that time. I know I worked in a furniture factory for a summer job the year after the show ended and I think I was making about $1.25 an hour. That would be about $2500 a year.

The stories are typical spy stuff. There's a visit to a spy school with a Thrush double agent. There are several stories with dangerous new inventions like a death dealing prism ray, a mind control ray, a laser like weapon that's also a secret bomb. There's a plot for world domination with a mind controlling gas. Luckily for us the UNCLE guys save the day and our asses. I'm grateful, I mean, what would I sit on?

 

I know I had some UNCLE comics when I was a kid. I don't have any now but I read some online 3 or 4 years back. They weren't anything I thought I needed to recollect. I feel the same way about the toys and such. Nice to see them in pictures but not needed in my house. Virtual is good.

The Bonus Features are plentiful. No commentaries but plenty of interviews with cast and crew. David McCallum, Robert Vaugh, writer Dean Hargrove, director Richard Donner, associate producer George Lehr and director Joseph Sargent each get 25-28 minutes to talk about their experiences. I found them interesting enough. I like those kind of interviews where people talk about the shows they worked on. I often find I appreciate a show more when people tell me the stories behind it. There was a nice piece on the MGM backlot where they shot a lot of the show. There's a piece on the guest stars and a better one on UNCLE and the Cold War. There's a featurette on the Guns and Gadgets of the series and another on the modified Pirahna car they use occasionally. The music and the girls of the show get their own short segments. Promos, trailers, tv appearances and spots all get some bit of the bytes on the discs. There's segement on the fans of the show with mention of their websites. These dvds are from 2008 and the websites ares still there but there isn't much new content. Add some photos and you can eat up a couple of evenings of your life. I watched them at 1.5 speed and that saved me some time.

Now that I'm done with the series I still think the season to watch is the first. I'm still not that keen on buying them but glad to have seen them. If I want to see them again I bet I'll be able to stream them from a service in the future. Comcast has recently added a new section to there On Demand service. I haven't paid the extra 5 bucks a month to unlock it. It's mostly just past seasons of shows that I have on dvd or have seen and don't want to watch again.

79106 Cavalry Builder Set

That's the new battle pack from The Lone Ranger theme. I've been waiting for them to come in and they did last week. I bought the three smaller sets and probably won't bother with the rest. Mostly I wanted a Tonto or two. It's a $12.99 set with 62 parts. With tax that's over 19 cents a part. Kind of steep but I bought one anyway. I even put it together to take to the TwinLUG meeting. There are 4 nice minifigs in there and a horse so that does help soften the blow. The minifig torsos are all printed on both sides and the dark blue of the soldier's uniforms is very nice. The bricks build a small barrier and a wheeled canon. It would have been better to have a 4th soldier instead of another Loney or 5 soldiers and no LR and Silver. I suppose they figure more people will buy the set if whoever that masked man is were included. Myself, I could leave him out.

 

Usually I just copy the set's description from Brickset but they don't have it up yet. I went to look and see if the LEGO site had it and they did. It's below. As I write this the LEGO site has a page to buy the sets in the Products section of the site but they don't have a link on the theme page for TLR. I did find a page promoting the theme on the internet while looking for illustrations but it seems incomplete. Usually there are little animations or character bios or games or things to look at or download. I usually look at the things once, save the few nice illos I find and move on. I usually suck at the games or they suck. They are rarely worth bothering with. I'll be checking back later to see if it did get added to the theme home page.

Defeat the cavalry soldiers with the Lone Ranger!

Say, “Hi-Yo, Silver!” as you blaze into battle with the Cavalry Builder Set! Guide the Lone Ranger and his trusty steed Silver into battle! Sneak past the defense wall and surprise the cavalry soldiers while they cook dinner at the campfire. Disarm all 3 before they load the cannon and take aim! Then ride off into the sunset for another Lone Ranger adventure! Collect 3 more soldiers and build up your cavalry for all of your Lone Ranger battles! Includes 4 minifigures with weapons and accessories: the Lone Ranger and 3 cavalry soldiers.

• Includes 4 minifigures with weapons and accessories: the Lone Ranger and 3 cavalry soldiers
• Features defense wall, campfire with flames, a cannon with wheels and the Lone Ranger’s horse, Silver, with poseable legs and head
• Weapons include 3 revolvers and 2 rifles
• Accessories include a duffel bag, 2 backpacks, telescope, frying pan, turkey leg, flag, flames, ammunition and a rammer
• Sneak around the defenses and defeat the cavalry!
• Load the cannon and take aim!
• Silver stands over 3" (8cm) tall
• Cannon (without rammer) measures over 1" (4cm) high, 3" (8cm) long and 1" (4cm) wide
• Defenses measure over 1" (3cm) high, 4" (12cm) wide and less than 1" (2cm) deep
• Campfire measures over 1" (3cm) wide and less than 1" (2cm) high and deep

        

It sure sounds like The Lone Ranger is against the cavalry. Are they bad soldiers acting on their own or are they pawns in a dirty goverment scheme? They have kind of smirky faces that I wouldn't trust but I think I'll have to wait to see the movie to find out. It's going to be a long while before the dvd comes out and I see it. You get a nice bunch of accessories in the set. Backpacks, rifles, some new pistols, hats, telescope, flames, frying pan and a drumstick. I usually feel you can't have enough minifig accessories. The canon does fire and the flag is printed on both sides. Not a bad set for a battle pack. The only problem is if you buy several to build your army you wind up with way too many Lone Rangers. Mind you those white hats are great. I'll probably stick to one copy of the set.

New Tricks Pilot & Series 1

New Tricks is another British series that I found at the library. It's 90 minute pilot aired March 27 2003 and did well enough that it got picked up for a series of 6 in 2004. That series ran April 1 to May 6 and the program continues today. I hadn't heard of it before but I liked the premise of the show so I thought I would take a chance. It's another police cold case show but this time with old geezers doing the work. Amanda Redman plays Detective Inspector Sandra Pullman. She shoots a dog on a high profile kidnapping case. Caniniside puts her in the dog house and she gets re-assigned to be in charge of the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad or UCOS. She hires 3 retired detectives who all got their start in the 1970's. Alun Armstrong plays Brian Lane, James Bolam plays Jack Halford and Dennis Waterman plays Gerry Standing. Waterman used to star on an actual 1970's police show, The Sweeney, which I hope to see sometime soon. Waterman also sings the New Tricks theme song. He's done it on three of the shows he's been in. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Donald Bevan, played by Nicholas Day, is their boss and not all of them have a good history with him, Gerry especially. PC Izzy Clark, played by Chiké Okonkwo, is the squads techie guy. He's young and black and smart and he soon shows the older guys that he has a value. I really liked him, too bad he's only in the first 2 series. The characters all have their issues and there's a fair bit of humor going on. The cases are interesting and the stories well written.

In the pilot the first cold case is about a murdered nightclub hostess. Her murderer gets out of prison on appeal. He'd always claimed he didn't kill the woman and it turns out he was right. He did kill another man and it was his wife that killed the hostess. I laughed pretty hard when they arrested the couple at a nice dinner party. A lot of people got punched in that one. There isn't usually much action in any of hte episodes. Occasionally a fight breaks out but mostly the criminals fold up and come quietly.

In the first episode the group investigate the murder of a young police woman and that leads to uncovering some other crimes. Anthony Head guest stars as a curator of the Queen's art collection in the second episode. Some forgeries are discovered and some arrests are made. A 1984 murder at a nuclear base puts the team up against the Special Branch in episode 3. You know what dicks the guys at SB are, especially when you uncover a mole in their group. In episode 4 they prove to a dying man that his son didn't kill the little boy he was accused of killing. Sadly the scared 17 year old son killed himself while he was being held in jail. In the 5th episode Brian opens up one of his old cases and he has some mental problems. He needs to keep taking his medication and he'll be all right. Sometimes the guys act on impulse and get their asses in trouble. They screw up a case with a medium and he gets to walk free.

I liked the characters, the stories, the humor and the locations. What could be better than that? I'm putting the rest of the series on my library queue. You can see the first series on YouTube if you want.