...That is, when I saw these in syndication on KDOC and PAX TV in the 90's, I would have definitely given the show a 10 or an 11. Re-watching the show at age 30, the flaws are apparent. Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan are one of the most gorgeous TV couples of all time, but it doesn't make up for the relative fluff of most of the show's mysteries past the first and second season. Frankly the show was more mentally bracing at the start, and just a tad more realistic (someone with no investigative training is naturally going to fumble some cases, like Steele did in the maiden season). Season 3-4 mysteries are low budget spy capers and Bond thrillers (I really suspect as early as 1984 word that Roger Moore was on the outs had reached Pierce's ears) and every case can be solved by a film only Steele has seen, or by an international jewel only he can pilfer. After awhile I frankly got sick of watching Brosnan strut and solve essentially action hero situations. In one episode, he literally rides in at nightfall on a white horse. Zimbalist's Laura Holt is dumbed down to accommodate the change, just as her friends and allies Bernice and Murphy from Season One are dumped to bring in Steele worshiping secretary Mildred Krebs. Laura Holt becomes an unlucky in love prude who takes an hour to solve clues that in Season 1 she would have solved in five minutes. This concludes with the sad S4 Laura hating marriage episode in which Steele sits in an immaculate tuxedo watching his bride-to-be Laura getting drowned in a pile of mud by a rather large man, grinning ear to ear. Funny and romantic? I find it richly ironic that a show that was supposed to be sympathetic to a woman not getting her due ended up mirroring the predicament in real life. But let me shut up and say what I'm supposed to: long live James Bond.
Review of Remington Steele
