The A-Team (TV Series) Children of Jamestown (1983) User Reviews

Children of Jamestown

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 10 November 2017]

This is a crazy fun episode. John Saxon plays a religious head of a cult and he certainly is having fun playing a mad loon, his violent religious cult is holding young people captive.

The A Team goes to rescue a vulnerable young girl but get captured once they have set her free and need to escape. Worse the cult has upset Hannibal by stealing his boots.

Dirk Benedict takes over as Face and I never realised how well he acted the part, it was easy charm but it takes skill. It also contrasts with Mr T who really came across as a poor actor compared with the rest. Then again he only needed to look threatening and be involved in fight scenes.

Despite the subject matter of the deranged cult, it is also a little silly but we know have the trademark explosions, turning all sorts of equipment into weapons. You have Murdoch dropping bombs but who was flying the chopper?

Popcorn and Soda Pop

[sambase-38773 · 7/10 · 6 July 2023]

The A-Team is popcorn and soda pop TV and it makes no apologies for being that. This episode was written by the series creator Stephen J. Cannell (Frank Lupo was co-creator). And he clearly understands what he wants. Brashness, badness, and balderdash.

So we have a wacko preacher brainwashing people. He wears sunglasses all the time and talks in riddles. The A-Team gets captured by them. Oops. Now they try to escape. Yay!

Lots of action, lots of punchy lines, etc. Vehicles racing around, helicopters racing around. Guns shooting and shooting. Your basic fun action type of entertainment. Popcorn and soda pop without the toothache.

Good episode

[coltras35 · 7/10 · 22 November 2021]

John Saxon does well as the cult leader, though he can be a bit hammy at times, but with a character he's playing it's hard not to. Overall, this is a good episode, there's some humour but it's minimal due to the subject matter, and there's a sense of menace and fear. Good episode. At least Hannibal got his boots back!!

A strong second

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 2 August 2017]

THE CHILDREN OF JAMESTOWN is a strong second episode for THE A-TEAM. It really does feel like it's all 'coming together' at this point, with less exposition and more action in terms of storyline, as our team tackle a crazy religious cult presided over by guest star John Saxon (always a welcome presence on my screen). Saxon's character is heavily indebted to the real-life Guyana tragedy presided over by the crazed Jim Jones, a recent memory when this episode was made. Cult actor Gerrit Graham also has a small role as a monk. The episode is full of the imaginative weaponry, stunts, one-liners, and the great action the series is known for.

The Children of Jamestown

[The_Light_Triton · 9/10 · 15 February 2015]

The second A-team episode, right after the pilot, this one gives us a look into the A-team rescuing a young woman from a religious cult, headed by a man claiming to be the incarnation of god, leading his followers into a new age.

This is one of my two personal favorite episodes of the series (The other being Beast from the Belly of a Boeing) because it's the A-team running over a religious cult, and having fun doing it. The writers probably were thinking about the Jonestown incident (Which had occurred just over 3 years previous to the episode's initial airing) in which a man named Jim Jones manipulated and terrorized several young followers into suicide.

Personally, I hate religious cults (Probably because all of them are about ruining people's lives) because they ruin people's lives and corrupt Christianity.

Besides, This cult stole Hannibal's boots. No one steals his boots.

A-Team shines

[70s_Connoisseur · 9/10 · 6 July 2023]

A wealthy businessman hires the team to rescue his daughter from a religious cult based on the real life Jim Jones. This episode highlights exactly what the A-Team can do. Everyone has a chance shine. Dirk Benedict transitions smoothly as the new Faceman. The team seems very balanced, everyone has their place. Amy tags along because she wants in on the excitement (the Jazz). She quickly sees its not all fun and games. The team is capture and told to prepare for death. BA sees Amy is scared and losing it. The team holds hands and does a ceremony to calm her. The ceremony feels a little out of place. It seems like there was more to it and possibly cut due to time constraints. The A-Team performs their classic routine of converting machinery to weapons to defeat the enemy. Great story, perfect fit for the A-Team.

The A-Team bonds and faces death

[safenoe · 10/10 · 30 October 2016]

Children of Jamestown really had the A-Team in great peril, facing execution from a cult, and you could feel Amy's anguish and terror that she could be really facing death. Thankfully Mr T reassures Amy, and that no harm will come to her. You see the bravery of the A-Team, facing death, and no way out.

My favorite seasons of The A-Team were the first three. After that I lost interest sadly, as The A-Team was a fantastic action series from the 80s that embodied the Reagan era. We moved on from the Carter- era Soap, to The A-Team which embodied the might of the USA against whatever communist/criminals got in their way.

I wonder what would have happened if Carter won re-election in 1980. My guess is The A-Team would have been confined to the bottom shelf of a scriptwriter I'm afraid, and we'd instead get talky dramas about the right of Americans to burn the flag, whilst pondering the fate of the US hostages in Iran.

What a waste of John Saxon!

[imdb-25288 · 4/10 · 25 September 2022]

I'm really torn about this episode. It's not at all what I expected. Usually you see Saxon's name in a 70s/80s TV show and you know it's gonna fun. He delivers. However, this script was crap! There is absolutely nothing of substance here, nothing at all entertaining except a bunch of car chases, jeeps passing over the camera, back & forth, and helicopter views.

Literally, John Saxon doesn't remove his glasses till ONE MINUTE FROM THE END! WTF?? His eyes are everything, they convey his moods. He doesn't appear until a dozen mins in. And all the stupid writing has him do is spew bad poetry and fake scriptures. WTF?? So here is an evil guy (which John played to perfection) believing his own tripe? It is established he's doing this for the money, and yet he's alone and spewing his scriptures when no one is around to hear him go unhinged?

So what are we to believe? That his character was brainwashed into believing his lies? I can understand why Saxon would want his face not seen and play him under sunglasses: he's 1 dimensional, a cookie-cutter bad guy that makes no sense!

To make matters worse, the "Children of" aren't brainwashed at all. They're all happy to be released. In a sect, this wouldn't be the case. So there's 0 character development, heck ZERO cohesion between these characters and what real life cult leaders are cult victims are. I expected a lot more: I expected bad guy Saxon to have scenes showing how he's exploiting the kids for money and how he doesn't buy what he makes them believe. And I expected brainwashed "children".

Also, the daugther is rescued within the first scene/first attempt at rescue. BORING! The rest is just, again, fast paced chases. I'll give the show this: the episode was over in like 3-5 min and yet I watched the whole 45 some minutes. Saxon, again, didn't remove his sunglasses until minute 43 point something (3? 5?) and he has one line, and that's it! A huge waste. It's like he didn't understand what his character was supposed to be, beyond a bad guy. Not his fault: I guess they didn't have the sharpest script writers here.

Is it entertaining? Mildly so. Fast paced? Hell, yeah! So it's not a complete waste of time but at the end, I feel cheated of what it was supposed to be. Too many people, nothing much to do for any one, the star of the show was pretty much the jeeps, the explosions and the chopper. Not my kind of show. 4/10 for what it didn't deliver but there's a lot worse tripe out there. I don't think this is a show I'll care to watch much. The time was wasted with too many camera angles for all those damned jeeps running around across my screen, nearly nonstop.