Review of Mission: Impossible

I know Mission Impossible is one of the best loved adventure series of all time, so I'm sure not giving this show a perfect 10 will turn many off. I would always find it on in my house weekly as I was growing up. Who could forget as a young kid that slow burn fuse introduction? I don't actually remember any one episode from my childhood days (unlike many other shows like Star Trek and Get Smart where I do remember from watching when they originally aired), maybe it was shown at a later time when I was going into semi-sleepy time land, I remember only that they would use cool gadgets and do the ultimate double cross in the end, ......and no IM team members would die. The show as forward looking as it was, was dated by the constraints of 1960's TV styles, in that none of the primary actors were ever killed. That along with the many seasons it lasted produced many episodes doing the same thing, or worse yet, the IM team would be chasing after "bad-guys" that did not rise to the IM team's urgency level. I got a set of all the episodes and have randomly been re-watching them (I of course also watched the series in reruns over the decades because I am a fan). You can randomly watch the series since there is no continuum character development from show to show, another drawback. The biggest thing that struck me after recently watching three episodes is this: The best episodes are when they are against the Red's, or a rogue nuclear dictatorship, thats really where this kind of team's creation is based upon. The worst episodes are when they are going after drug dealers or embezzlers or the mafia. Although they are entertaining, you may ask yourself (and it took me 30 years to get to this stage so you may not ask yourself), why couldn't they have just called the police? Still a great show, if you get the DVD's it's best to look at the story lines and start off with the international black ops episodes and hold off on the domestic mob/drug dealer/charity embezzler/tax cheat/etc etc ones. Mission Impossible had a formula so that if you are in the mood for good guy USA wins every time with no good guys killed ever, you can't go wrong thats what you'll get. 7 of 10. Another series you may want to try thats played more so with comedy but still has some dramatic tension is It Takes A Thief, not saying that it comes close to Mission Impossible but it's rarely shown and may actually be fresher to watch then this series which has been played out since it first ran 40 years ago. Also, Danger Man (AKA Secret Agent) the British 1960's spy show had some seriously good episodes with a lot of realistic dramatic tension and highly recommended when your looking for a similar Mission Impossible fix.