Rodney's Reviews
Essay

The Avengers: Mission Improbable

Imagine being asked to offer a succinct description of The Avengers (in its mid-1960s format) to someone who has never seen a single episode. How can one categorise it; what genre of television drama does it belong to? In view of the show's extraordinary success—exporting to 120 countries, the only British series to be networked in the U.S., a creation of the 1960s which is still fashionable in the 21st century—what is the show's magic formula?

David K. Smith offers us the following definition of the show: 'a stylish blend of espionage, fantasy and quasi-science fiction... witty, sentimental, slightly off-beat'. The use of espionage, fantasy and science fiction in the same sentence highlights an immediate problem. The Avengers evolved into something which defies definition, which undermines any attempt to fit it neatly into a single genre. The storylines often contain elements of science fiction, but The Avengers cannot be simplistically labelled as 'science fiction'; it frequently draws on fantasy elements, yet has a base (however unstable) in the real world; it deals with espionage, but not in a realistic or traditional manner.

Ultimately, as the failure of both The New Avengers and the disastrous Hollywood film were later to demonstrate, The Avengers—which in so many ways seems timeless—belongs to a specific historical period. It is a product of its cultural context: the Cold War, the rise of feminism, technological and scientific 'progress' (a loaded word if ever there was one), mind-enhancing drugs, sexual liberation, and the rise in popularity of television itself. All of these key elements of 1960s Western culture are reflected and explored in the series. Yet, at the same time, the programme makes no serious attempt to mirror social reality and cultural change. It is, deliberately, both apolitical and socially exclusive; a world in which ordinary people and mundane events simply do not exist.

The Avengers resists labelling, which is part of its charm and key to its success. However, as Smith points out—referring to the monochrome Steed/Peel series—while it defies genre, it does have a specific formula (in terms of structure): 'curious events take place (usually involving murder), Steed and Emma investigate, there is a big fight, and at the end our heroes ride off into the sunset'. This formula provides us (as regular viewers) with what might be called reader comfort: we know what is coming, even though we are aware that virtually anything might happen. The structure is 'familiar', yet, paradoxically, the surreal events de-familiarise us: robot killers, man-eating plants, time travel, time standing still, comic book assassins, invisible men, machines which shrink people. We are invited to experience a deconstructed world in which deadly masterminds murder with style, in which fighting becomes an art form, where death can arrive in the disguise of a pager, a domestic cat, a rain cloud, Santa Claus or a game of golf. It represents a tongue-in-cheek depiction of a disturbing world, one in which the borders between dream/fantasy and reality are blurred.

Never before had murder, blackmail, espionage and terrorism been depicted using such an innovative range of ingredients. The end product is not always successful, as these ingredients are inconsistently mixed. Some perfectly competent episodes are stylish but 'frothy', offering us fantasy, eccentricity and humour, but devoid of any real dramatic tension: examples of these are "The Girl from Auntie", "Quick-Quick Slow Death" and "The Winged Avenger." Others provide the darker elements but are arguably too dry and sober, lacking the quirkiness which is a hallmark of the series: "Silent Dust" and "The Living Dead" among others. Getting the balance right was always a challenge, a 'mission highly improbable'.

However, this mission could be accomplished. At its best—in effective episodes such as "The Murder Market," "Dial a Deadly Number," "Too Many Christmas Trees," "The Hour That Never Was," "The Town of No Return," "A Touch of Brimstone," "The Joker," "Death's Door," "You Have Just Been Murdered" and "Murdersville"—we experience what Smith describes as 'an interesting dichotomy': 'lightweight fantasy with comic overtones' colliding with 'undercurrents of serious dramatic tension'. These episodes offer us what might be described as 'subversive interplay'. Forty years on, The Avengers remains unique. The scriptwriters, directors and actors working on it were capable of producing television drama which was truly EPIC: Entertaining, Popular, Innovative and Challenging.

Dr. Rodney Marshall
Ruffec, France
November 2007
 

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