About this blog

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire ... The A-Team.

This was the introduction to one of the great TV series of the eighties. The purpose of this blog is to build up the definitive episode guide to the show across its five seasons which ran from 1983 to 1987. So this isn't too much of a burden, I'm intending to watch a couple of episodes a week and given that there were around 100 episodes made during its run, this will turn into a year-long project!


Saturday 9 April 2011

Beneath the Surface s4ep19



Co-starring: Paxton Whitehead as Morgan, Tom Villard as Barry Green, Kim Ulrich as Elaine, Nancy Everhard as Rebecca Piper, Jack Ging as General Fulbright
Written by Danny Lee Cole
Directed by Michael O’Herlihy

At his high school reunion, a woman asks Face to track down her missing brother.

While not quite as polished an episode as ‘Duke’, this is still a solid entry in the fourth season. Matters get off to an excellent start as Face attends his orphanage reunion, intending to hook-up with a would-be old flame. Murdock is driving him, acting as chauffeur having “borrowed” his doctor’s limo. General Fulbright has laid a trap of course, so the team have to come to Face’s rescue. They do so to the accompaniment of the Animals’ classic sixties hit ‘We gotta get out of this place’ (with Hannibal disguised as a nun).

The rest of the episode never quite lives up to this start but it remains a good watch. What at first seems to be a missing person story soon turns into a treasure hunt, certainly something different for an A-Team episode. Many sea-faring staples are thrown in along the way, right down to the smart parrot and threat from sharks.

There’s a good running gag about Face thinking he had conned his old friend numerous times in the past but the friend actually came out better. The episode mostly takes place outdoors (which is certainly an asset) but some loose scripting means there seems to be a lot of milling around until the team set out to find the treasure.

The well-shot underwater scenes are certainly something different (accompanied by a suitably mysterious music score) and there’s a great moment when Murdock emerges from the water, relic in hand. The return of Fulbright adds to the action towards the end, though the final battle itself is one of the briefest in any episode.

Overall, it is very much a fun episode that remains light and enjoyable without getting as silly as some episodes did this season. And is it me or is the final scene a bit risqué by A-Team standards? 8/10

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