You guys!

[hanuueshe]

I just watched the Concrete Overcoat Affair. Someone who knows Man from U.N.C.L.E. please pop out of the woodwork and join me in my squeeing. Or, you know, if you don't mind me explaining all the ways that was full of unmitigated win, ask me about what I squeeing about.

Would it help if I'm sort of privately calling the show "Men in BONDAGE"?

Comments

[hanuueshe]

Well, it's an old show that originally aired during the sixties; the basic premise is that there's this international spy organization called U.N.C.L.E which goes about enforcing the law around the world and preventing international incidents and the like. The two main characters are Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, an American and a Russian, respectively. They have this really, really fabulously slashy relationship where they go on vacation together and disobey their boss to risk their lives (and sometimes the mission) for each other and invade each other's personal space.

Solo is the brunet who flirts with you shamelessly. Kuryakin is the blond who pointedly breaks up your flirting. Their boss is a tough old British gentlemen by the name of Alexander Waverly: he likes to amuse himself by making jokes about how expendable they are, and normally is shown back at headquarters telling Solo and Kuryakin to get things done quicker and on the budget, because inevitably Solo will have ruined one of his expensive suits and be charging it to his expense account.

That's pretty much the core cast of the show. Every episode features at least one "Innocent" civilian who gets caught up in the plot (normally some young woman ranging from bimbo to capable) and villains, who are trying to wake up Hitler from suspended animation/ make Greenland into a tropical paradise/ take over a Third World country/ something to do with dancing gorillas. They normally have captured one or both of them by Act III in anything ranging from elaborate full body bondage gear to simple ropes. In this last episode I saw there was a very nicely done cut where the villainess told Kuryakin the she was going to love him to death, then the next time we saw him he was hanging from a forklift in an artistically torn shirt as she stuck him with an electric cattle prod. Then, the next time we saw him, his hands were cuffed behind his back and she was leading him around on a leash and collar improvised from a belt.

Yep. It's a sixties show.

Of course, that means that in addition to some truly annoying young women "Innocents", you take a risk with just the way the general background characters are portrayed whenever you find an episode that takes place outside the Western World. But, for the most part, the plots good, the dialog is snappy, and Napoleon/Illya is often more text than subtext.