ashmored Review of The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966–1967)

Good fun and worth a second season

[7/10 · 14 April 2020]

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E is not the strongest spin-off ever and it suffers from some poor writing choices. For one, rather than make April Dancer competent and deadly as she should be, being UNCLE's first female enforcement agent, they made her mainly a damsel in distress with extra spy gadgets. April's partner Mark Slate spends more time rescuing her than being her than anything else. She does occasionally knocks a villain out using one of her gadgets but April Dancer gets knocked unconscious by T.H.R.U.S.H agents on a regular basis or kidnapped and left in some perilous position, such as hanging over a pool of piranhas in the Dog gone affair. Stefanie Powers dancing skills are put to good effect in The Mata Hari Affair and The Drublegratz Affair, the latter of which April is undercover as a go-go dancer and gets to wear a mini-skirt. There were some interesting guest stars too, including Boris Karloff in drag in the Mother Muffin affair. Overall, I think The Girl from Uncle is fun if you don't take it too seriously and I think it would have been worthy of a second season, with April being given more of a fighting role rather than leave it to the man. Whatever else, April Dancer made an enchanting secret agent.