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A TV show, like any serial creative work, is going to evolve as time goes on. Some take a year to find their best working rhythms, learning from their mistakes and producing sophomore seasons that define what made the idea worth pursuing in the first place. Some learn the wrong lessons and begin to drift away from what worked rather than refine it. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’s second season falls into the latter category, as a new look and a turn toward the tongue-in-cheek mars an otherwise solid spy drama.
It’s not that it’s a bad show. The best components still perform admirably. Robert Vaughn charms as slick American agent Napoleon Solo while David McCallum smolders as his Russian partner, Illya Kuryakin. The two of them have the rhythm down pat, and along with Leo G. Carroll as the director of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (you knew U.N.C.L.E. stood for something, right?), they form the core of an efficient and enjoyable spy drama, just as they did in season one. So why does this season seem like a step in the wrong direction?
Strangely, the move from black and white to color does them no favors from the outset. The series had never operated on an extravagant budget, but full color only serves to highlight the sparseness and cheapness of sets and props. Simple touches like the triangular badges that the agents wear around headquarters turn out to be garish yellow accents that seem more suited to a morning kindergarten than an international espionage agency. As with any major shift in technology, it takes time to learn what works best.
Perhaps to compensate for this less forgiving style of broadcasting, the writers—under a new showrunner—begin throwing Solo and Kuryakin into more and more grandiose and outlandish plots as they work to outwit the nefarious schemes of T.H.R.U.S.H. (and no, they never do actually tell you what that one stands for). The season’s opening two-parter has them facing a megalomaniac who not only challenges Solo to a giant game of human chess, but he also traps the pair of agents in scenarios straight out of Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum.
And yet there are a number bright spots, anchored by the ever-reliable Vaughn and McCallum and aided by some well-used guest stars. Vincent Price appears in a nifty early episode that reinforces how elaborate sci-fi elements can play well with spy drama, but those well-balanced efforts come fewer and farther between as the season continues. Sadly, it all culminates in the season’s final episode and creative nadir, a failed Western spoof loaded with lazy stereotypes and terrible dialogue.
Even as the show trends downwards, there’s enough in season two of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to recommend it for fans of the genre. It’s easy enough to overlook some shoddy sets or far-fetched plotting in favor of two of the deadliest and most dashing spies to shoot their way across the living room screen—at least for now.
DVD Review:
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Complete Season 2 contains all 30 episodes of the second season, including several two-parters that were released as theatrical films in the international market. Hopefully that’s an interesting tidbit for you, since this bare-bones set doesn’t include anything beyond the episodes themselves.
