If you needed help in 1980s New York there was only one person you could turn to....Robert McCall, The Equalizer, ex-Intelligence agent, now turned private detective-cum-trouble shooter with a remarkable network of associates and contacts. Perhaps the signature role in the remarkable career of the outstanding Edward Woodward.
Yet McCall was more than the average rogue cop with a heart, or hard boiled gumshoe who found his conscience. Nor was he in the revenge business. Here was a man seeking atonement for the sins of his past life...a past life that had left its scars and had not necessarily finished with him....or vice versa.
Unlike a lot of 1980s action dramas - The A Team or Miami Vice for example - most thoughtfully written episodes saw McCall hired by anyone from the ordinary person out of their depth to some fairly jaded individuals; the assignments were complex, ambiguous and dangerous; McCall's targets risked considerable loss; and very often fists or guns were ineffective or even counter productive requiring more subtly (not that series - or McCall - lacked when needed!).
In short accept no imitations when those odds were stacked against you!
Yet McCall was more than the average rogue cop with a heart, or hard boiled gumshoe who found his conscience. Nor was he in the revenge business. Here was a man seeking atonement for the sins of his past life...a past life that had left its scars and had not necessarily finished with him....or vice versa.
Unlike a lot of 1980s action dramas - The A Team or Miami Vice for example - most thoughtfully written episodes saw McCall hired by anyone from the ordinary person out of their depth to some fairly jaded individuals; the assignments were complex, ambiguous and dangerous; McCall's targets risked considerable loss; and very often fists or guns were ineffective or even counter productive requiring more subtly (not that series - or McCall - lacked when needed!).
In short accept no imitations when those odds were stacked against you!