This episode about a TV superhero (modeled after the old George Reeves TV series and featuring music lifted from John Williams' memorable theme for the Chris Reeve movie version) is an enjoyable, lightweight episode, filled with movie/TV references.
It is interesting because it reveals something I had long wondered about, certainly dating back to when I avidly watched weekly that British import "The Avengers". Mrs. Peel's rubber costuming was sexy but at the time I didn't realize it was aimed at British fetishists, just as Honor Blackman before her (I didn't see her at the time, only later, as her work wasn't exported) appealed to Brit males hung up on dominating females. So this innocent seeming show is really a paean to dressing up in cosplay fashion, no longer a fetish decades later when superhero and comic book adaptations have taken over the movie and to a lesser extent the TV industries.
Early on there is a minor scene between Laura and Remington in which he catches her watching an old episode of "Atomic Man" on tiny hand-held device that resembles a kaleidoscope -forerunner of portable DVD players and more recently any old smart phone or tablet for streaming. The novelty of this device merely underscores the folly of including "up to date" technology in a movie (or in this case TV show) as it will be dated almost immediately, whereas older films especially period pieces (costume dramas or adventures) do not date because so easily because they are purposely set in the past and not trying to be "hip". The cell phone alone (endlessly featured on screen or even a plot crutch as in the "24" series) dooms the majority of contemporary filmed entertainment to such a fate.
It is interesting because it reveals something I had long wondered about, certainly dating back to when I avidly watched weekly that British import "The Avengers". Mrs. Peel's rubber costuming was sexy but at the time I didn't realize it was aimed at British fetishists, just as Honor Blackman before her (I didn't see her at the time, only later, as her work wasn't exported) appealed to Brit males hung up on dominating females. So this innocent seeming show is really a paean to dressing up in cosplay fashion, no longer a fetish decades later when superhero and comic book adaptations have taken over the movie and to a lesser extent the TV industries.
Early on there is a minor scene between Laura and Remington in which he catches her watching an old episode of "Atomic Man" on tiny hand-held device that resembles a kaleidoscope -forerunner of portable DVD players and more recently any old smart phone or tablet for streaming. The novelty of this device merely underscores the folly of including "up to date" technology in a movie (or in this case TV show) as it will be dated almost immediately, whereas older films especially period pieces (costume dramas or adventures) do not date because so easily because they are purposely set in the past and not trying to be "hip". The cell phone alone (endlessly featured on screen or even a plot crutch as in the "24" series) dooms the majority of contemporary filmed entertainment to such a fate.