Watching a Pros ep - Wild Justice
Saturday, 18 July 2015 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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msmoat's post about Pros the other day (it's been nice to catch up on some of the interesting questions being posted about our lads recently - more of those, please! *g*) She asked What is your favorite Pros episode that other people don't like?, and although I find it very hard to answer favourite ep questions usually (many! for many different reasons!), I had an answer for this one, because I remember being so surprised to realise that other people didn't like this ep. As I said to her, I'm not sure whether people did once like it, but people nowadays don't, or whether they never did like it much and I just assumed they did because it's one of my favourites. And I thought about why I like it, for MsMoat's post, and then I thought about how I should perhaps watch it tonight - and maybe post some pics, cos it's been aaaaages since I did that... *g* So - here's some things I like about Wild Justice. *g*
1. The bit on the roof where Doyle slaps Bodie's leg as they set off across the roof! *g*
They're touching from the off - can't be bad. *g*
2. The lads training. We know they can't have exciting ops every day, and that they must train, but we don't really see that (Mixed Doubles was for a specific op). Lads off the streets! Lads in a new context!
And they're looking at each other. And smiling. *g*
3. The lads all in black... *g*
4. A more recent happiness -Michael Shipman from Gavin and Stacey Jack Crane. (Larry Lamb).
Mick was our Jack Crane!
5. Doyle in a tux - and that he borrowed it from Bodie. Doyle borrows Bodie's clothes! And the fab bowtie sequence with Cowley. Cowley getting impatient and all personal and tying Doyle's bow tie for him - at least if Doyle hadn't taken Cowley's hands away and... there's just something here, isn't there, in the way Cowley takes over and Doyle lets him. Not slashy, but... Doyle is Cowley's man, not just to put in danger, body and soul, but to look after as well. *g*
And you can't go wrong with a bit of Doyle leaning. *g*
6. The lads grinning joyfully at each other...
And on the monkey bars, above. *g*
7. Doyle's description of the lady novelist that he and Bodie allegedly work for - - totally a Pros slash fan... *vbg*
SALLY: What sort of works?
DOYLE: Bondage and romance.
SALLY: How old is she?
DOYLE: Eighty-nine. She's the wife of a vicar.
8. The bikes. Okay, this is a bit of... sort of nostalgia. My little brother rode enduros like the one Doyle rode, and I went to watch him a couple of times - I was usually on the Island for the Boxing Day enduro. (He reckons the widowmaker is do-able, btw, but he said the same as Doyle did - have to be careful not to loop the loop!)
How many photos do I have like these two?!
9. Bodie's hands all over Doyle when he wins the race. Well - obviously. *g*
10. Doyle stripping off all those muddy clothes. Well - obviously. *g*
11. Doyle is so angry that Bodie's doing the widowmaker - he's so scared and cross that he can't watch... there's got to be a reason for that, doesn't there... *g*
12. And who is it who ultimately saves the day? A strong, smart woman, not a bloke with a gun.
See? What's not to like? *vbg*
msmoat's post about Pros the other day (it's been nice to catch up on some of the interesting questions being posted about our lads recently - more of those, please! *g*) She asked What is your favorite Pros episode that other people don't like?, and although I find it very hard to answer favourite ep questions usually (many! for many different reasons!), I had an answer for this one, because I remember being so surprised to realise that other people didn't like this ep. As I said to her, I'm not sure whether people did once like it, but people nowadays don't, or whether they never did like it much and I just assumed they did because it's one of my favourites. And I thought about why I like it, for MsMoat's post, and then I thought about how I should perhaps watch it tonight - and maybe post some pics, cos it's been aaaaages since I did that... *g* So - here's some things I like about Wild Justice. *g*1. The bit on the roof where Doyle slaps Bodie's leg as they set off across the roof! *g*
They're touching from the off - can't be bad. *g*
2. The lads training. We know they can't have exciting ops every day, and that they must train, but we don't really see that (Mixed Doubles was for a specific op). Lads off the streets! Lads in a new context!
And they're looking at each other. And smiling. *g*
3. The lads all in black... *g*
4. A more recent happiness -
Mick was our Jack Crane!
5. Doyle in a tux - and that he borrowed it from Bodie. Doyle borrows Bodie's clothes! And the fab bowtie sequence with Cowley. Cowley getting impatient and all personal and tying Doyle's bow tie for him - at least if Doyle hadn't taken Cowley's hands away and... there's just something here, isn't there, in the way Cowley takes over and Doyle lets him. Not slashy, but... Doyle is Cowley's man, not just to put in danger, body and soul, but to look after as well. *g*
And you can't go wrong with a bit of Doyle leaning. *g*
6. The lads grinning joyfully at each other...
And on the monkey bars, above. *g*
7. Doyle's description of the lady novelist that he and Bodie allegedly work for - - totally a Pros slash fan... *vbg*
SALLY: What sort of works?
DOYLE: Bondage and romance.
SALLY: How old is she?
DOYLE: Eighty-nine. She's the wife of a vicar.
8. The bikes. Okay, this is a bit of... sort of nostalgia. My little brother rode enduros like the one Doyle rode, and I went to watch him a couple of times - I was usually on the Island for the Boxing Day enduro. (He reckons the widowmaker is do-able, btw, but he said the same as Doyle did - have to be careful not to loop the loop!)
How many photos do I have like these two?!
9. Bodie's hands all over Doyle when he wins the race. Well - obviously. *g*
10. Doyle stripping off all those muddy clothes. Well - obviously. *g*
11. Doyle is so angry that Bodie's doing the widowmaker - he's so scared and cross that he can't watch... there's got to be a reason for that, doesn't there... *g*
12. And who is it who ultimately saves the day? A strong, smart woman, not a bloke with a gun.
See? What's not to like? *vbg*
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 22 July 2015 12:06 am (UTC)This post (where you also commented) http://the-safehouse.livejournal.com/773094.html was quite adamant about WJ not follow 'canon' characterisation. I don't share all of the poster's views but I agree with some of them. I also agree with the poster's dislike of Operation Susie.
Here:
http://www.mark-1.co.uk/Professionals/d02.htm
The sidenotes say that WJ had originally been "written as a special short story for TV Times magazine in 1978 and never intended as an episode proper. However in March 1980 LWT reversed their (albeit unofficial) decision to axe the series, giving Mark 1 just eight weeks notice in which to get scripts written! As such Ranald Graham did an impressive job adapting the story for television!"
This original story was also published in the book included with the new DVDs (season 2/Mark II), though I left it at my mum's house so don't have it to hand. I remember reading it and thinking it was an interesting story (not particularly well-written, though IMO) but, as I said, if the production company insisted in basing a Pros episode on it they could have done a better job. But it seemed the clock was working against them and this was probably the best they could do.
So no, sorry, it wasn't written for a different TV series, like The Gun, but as a 'special' for the TV Times mag. Anyway, it didn't start as a Pros episode.
PS the Arab girl scene doesn't seem to have any purpose in the context of that episode. I'm not bothered by it, but it just seemed the script editor wasn't doing his job *g*. A fast-paced action series like Pros can't afford to waste film (!) and each scene should have some purpose (big or small), advance the plot, shed light on what's going on, develop characterisation. That short scene seemed to me a leftover loose end which probably had, in an earlier script draft, some meaning which got lost with later rewrites.