Question: I must admit, I am a huge fan of sudsy spy serials. I really enjoy Burn Notice on USA. I think it is fun and light, as summer TV should be. One thing is driving me crazy, though. Wasn't there a show in the '80s called The Equalizer that was almost the exact same premise? I was very young when Equalizer was on, so I can't remember clearly, but I thought it was about a spy who got shut out for some reason and started helping civilians. Am I crazy? Is Burn Notice an updated Equalizer?
Answer: It's more like Burn Notice is an ironic Equalizer. If memory serves — the show ran for four seasons from 1985 to 1989 — Robert McCall (memorably, moodily played by Edward Woodward) voluntarily retired from his secret-agent job and put himself on the market as a one-man justice league. He wasn't fired. Tonally, the shows couldn't be more different. The Equalizer strikes me as having been dead serious (although not without wit in its characterizations), whereas Burn Notice is more of a snark ...
read more
Well, this film seems to be coming together quickly and promisingly. The big-screen take on Broadway's Mamma Mia! that I told you about just yesterday? Variety reports that Meryl Streep is already set to star as the mother of an altar-bound young girl determined to meet her biological dad. Yes, Streep sings, though Mamma Mia! will be her first full-blown musical.... Acclaimed crime novelist Michael Connelly (Love. Him.) and his longtime collaborator Terrill Lee Lankford (I'm sure he's nice, too) are penning the screenplay for a feature remake of the '80s series The Equalizer.... Per the Hollywood Reporter, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener and Michelle Williams are in talks to star in Synecdoche, New York, the directing debut of Oscar-winning scribe Charlie Kaufman. Hoffman will play a theater director, and Keener and Williams his first and second wives.
read more
