“That’s what I love about you, Laura. You keep narrowing this case down to include everyone.” – Pierce Brosnan as Remington Steele

Remington Steele: Season Three DVD Review

By Jonathan Boudreaux

The first season of Remington Steele introduced us to Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist), a private detective who became successful only after creating an imaginary male boss – Remington Steele – to “run” her struggling company. Much to her surprise, a mysterious conman (Pierce Brosnan) stepped in and assumed the place of her fictitious boss, often helping to solve cases by recounting old movies he’d once seen. Laura wasn’t sure she could trust him, but the presence of a flesh-and-blood Mr. Steele did bring in more business to the agency. That first season was funny and charming, but the series stumbled in season two. Aside from the introduction of Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond) as Remington Steele Investigations’ secretary and resident computer whiz Mildred Krebs, the second season often felt like a fuzzy Xerox copy of the first. Happily, Remington Steele rebounds in its third season with a string of fun, exciting, and engaging episodes.

Steele and Laura become true globetrotters in season three, with episodes set in a wide variety of exotic locales, including Cannes (“Steele At It”), Malta (“Maltese Steele,” “Puzzled Steele”), England (“Blue Blooded Steele”), Ireland (“Steele Your Heart Away”), Las Vegas (“Diced Steele”), San Francisco (“Steele Trying”), and Mexico (“Steele of Approval”). Some of these are simply faked in and around L.A., but many of the episodes were shot on location, giving the season a vivid authenticity.

Not all of the episodes find the duo straying so far from home. Steele tries to help a streetwise teenage pickpocket in whom he sees more than a little of himself (“A Pocketful of Steele”). Laura tries to prove that the actor who played her childhood hero, Atomic Man, is not a killer (“Stronger Than Steele”).

The series’ obsession with Hollywood and old films is used to great advantage in “Cast in Steele,” a mystery involving three members of Tinseltown royalty – guest stars Virginia Mayo, Lloyd Nolan, and Dorothy Lamour. Watching Steele unsuccessfully interact with his idols leads to quite a few laughs. In “Steele Your Heart Away,” Steele wakes up at a murder scene in Ireland and realizes that he has amnesia. It’s up to Laura to figure out why he was there in the first place. This episode cleverly uses Steele’s love for old films to carry the plot forward. What little he can remember seems to come from movies, but these remembrances turn out to be actual clues.

In season three, the characters grow in sometimes subtle ways. Mildred is not quite as naïve as she previously was. Instead, she is given more responsibility, becoming just as much of a junior agent as a secretary. The will-they-or-won’t-they romance between Steele and Laura isn’t quite as heavy-handed as it was in the previous two seasons. We now know the characters well enough that we don’t have to be reminded of the possibility of romance every few minutes – it’s obvious that they care for each other strongly even if they aren’t quite ready to act on their feelings. This builds up to an emotional cliffhanger at the end of the season (“Steele of Approval”).

Zimbalist is given ample opportunity to show off her physical comedy skills in several season three episodes. When Laura needs to create a distraction so that Steele can escape from the cabin of a luxury yacht, she allows herself to be ravaged by the yacht’s owner. Her full body spasms as she contorts herself to give Steele the all-clear is guffaw-inducing (“Steele At It”). Her vain attempt to prove that she has been mistakenly institutionalized is also hysterical (“Lofty Steele”). We also learn that Laura is a member of the Stanford University Alumni Glee Club, a wonderfully daffy idea.

Each episode in Remington Steele’s third season begins with the season’s new title sequence, the series’ third in as many years. This opening features a new arrangement of the series’ Henry Mancini-penned theme song and a fingerprint that morphs into Stephanie Zimbalist.

[Source: tvdvdreview.com]

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