Wow, wow, wow. That was one stylish and elegant episode of spy capers, right up until we hit the cryogenically preserved Fuhrer. That's my third cryogenic Hitler this week. It must be catching. The stamps, and the wonderful banter between Robert Vaughn and Janine Gray more than make up for it, though. Janine Gray was very lovely indeed as the extremely devious Angelique, agent of the thoroughly evil organisation we know as THRUSH.
The notion of Napoleon being deliciously involved with an equally suave female THRUSH operative is almost irresistible. They bounce off each other so brilliantly, that you wish it could be done again and again, but it was a one-off occurrence. Oh, Angelique, you are so wonderful, but so devilishly dangerous. So dangerous... And armed with poison spiders?
The other reason why this hour is great is that it all begins with stamps. Yes, a grand mystery that ends in stamps, runs through the story of two university students, some messing around between Napoleon and Angelique, and then culminates in an extended sequence of the obligatory mad scientist trying to revive Hitler at the expense of Solo's life, before tagging out with a lovely tease between the star-crossed Napoleon and Angelique again. It started so promisingly, too. What a mess! However, at least the German dictator went in a suitably very trivial manner.
Despite the mild derailment of the cryogenics sequence, this is an admirable episode, which really tunes in to both the strengths of Napoleon as a lead character and Ilya's pointed remarks and assistance, as well as the style which permeates through the best episodes of UNCLE. The willingness of the show to go literally anywhere in the stories it contains is amazing. They show no restraint, while remaining true to their core bible, and that's something that always draws me into a show. Just go crazy, writers. Why not?
O.
Side note: By not talking about the Nazis and Hitler factually, and suppressing people who try, we are actually deifying and elevating those awful people and their actions. They deserve to be treated and condemned as real people, not mystified by non-discussion. Those were horrible real times, not sequences of mythical events.
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