I've recently been enjoying tis mystery series on DVD. I never really watched it when A&E ran it but like many shows these days they can get a second life on DVD. It is a very stylized 50's detective show. I really like the characters and the fast pace of the show. It is not so much about the mysteries but about the process they go through. The Noir like main character voice overs are a great touch. Anyone else enjoy the show? It is a bit different then the usual shows talked about here.
Great ensemble work. Kari Matchett is a particular treat. Have you seen Death of a Doxy (Part 1 & 2) yet? She plays two roles and rocks them both. Chaykin (incredibly versatile character actor) cracks me up as Wolfe everytime I see an episode and, of course, it's all anchored by Timothy Hutton who not only acts as Archer Goodwin but is a driving force behind the series as a producer as well as directing a number of episodes. Top notch all around and highly recommended.
You may want to hold off and watch them in order, or as much as can be done. The quality gets better (smoother) as the production company finds their footing and there's some enjoyment to be had seeing them develop, too. Watching them out of order, or even jumping around from episode to episode, really won't ruin any overarching plotlines, of course, but there are some subtleties, inside jokes, and other benefits to watching them in proper sequence.
For instance, the playful banter between Wolfe and Fritz grows and gets more ludicrous over time. Also, the primary relationship between Archie and Wolfe gets stronger and there's a foundation for it. Both of them, together and individually, evolve with Inspector Cramer over the episodes, too. There are even some references to earlier cases which could be lost on the casual viewer.
I think it goes back to Rex Stout's original stories and his stretching his own characters as he wrote more of his little tales. If I recall correctly (it's been sometime since viewing this series and longer since reading the original texts), this production company takes the canon of the stories fairly seriously and takes some pride in that fact. (As an aside, though, some of the earliest Wolfe stories are from the 1930's.) Stout really was the heir apparent to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's formula and, like Doyle, Stout is not above using the gravitas of the legend he creates within the world between the pages as part of the stories themselves. Like Holmes before him, Wolfe first come to our attention while viewed as a meddler in official police business, eventually gains a begruding respect from the local authorities, and finally becomes a internationally-reknown solver of criminal mysteries who is occasionally consulted and employed by heads of state. Watching that growth is one of the charms of the series, I believe.
One of the greatest TV shows ever (the pilot, The Doorbell Rang, is probably my favorite movie of all time). The funny thing is that the series wasn't cancelled due to low ratings, but because A&E wanted a "change in direction" with the network. If you recall, this was around the time they starting airing shows like The View.
I remember there was some talk years ago that they might bring it back as a series of TV movies, but that obviously never happened.
If anyone out there hasn't read the books, I heartily recommend them.
I agree that it was a good show that was cancelled long before its time, the cast was superb, the stories were very interesting, and it was one of the few shows that i actually got off of the computer to watch.
Funny that you should mention that because I'm in the middle of reading Before Midnight by Rex Stout. This makes my fifth Nero Wolfe mystery that I picked up a local thrift store through the years. I read them and then give them to my uncle, who reads them and adds them to his book collection.
I have seen a few episodes of the A&E series and I enjoyed them. I also recommend listening to the old time radio episodes.
While I was doing a little mundane work that didn't require my brain, today, I popped in A Right to Die by Rex Stout. This thread got me in the mood for a mystery so I swung by the library on my walk earlier and grabbed the only Nero Wolfe available from the audio book section.
Oh, I forgot to add that you should stick to the Rex Stout books and skip the all the Robert Goldsborough ones except the first, Murder In E Minor.
Goldsborough continued the series about 10 years after Stout's last novel. The first one is pretty good, with only a few bits of uncharacteristic moments. For example, Inspector Cramer continually calls Goodwin "Archie", and, at another point, Goodwin sits at Wolfe's desk (in a Stout story, Wolfe had gone missing and Archie still wouldn't sit at his desk).
The 2nd book isn't terrible, but isn't nearly as good as the first. Wolfe takes a job pro bono to help save Lon Cohen's newspaper, The Gazette, from a takeover. Wolfe also meets the manufacturer of his favorite beer. It reads too much like fanfiction.
The rest of the series is downhill from there (I've read the first 5 of his 7 novels). As the series progresses, Goldsborough stops aping Stout's style. Since Goodwin narrates the stories, it effectively changes his "voice".
Another problem is his black & white characterizations. Unlikeable people are evil and the seemingly good actually are good. This really hurts in the case of mysteries. To give you an example, The Bloodied Ivy deals with a murdered conservative college professor. All the conservatives in the book are evil, the liberals good. Want to take a guess who the murderer will be?
Oh, and Wolfe leaves his house and visits the college during the investigation. That's not Nero Wolfe!
The worst book (so far) is The Last Coincidence. It's the first time I've ever read a book and felt angry. It was so horrible. I'd swear that he took another book and just changed the names to fit the series. The characters are all old (Archie is late middle age and it mentions that Purley Stebbins was a detective when LaGuardia was mayor...that would be sometime between 1934 to 1945! Keep in mind that this book was written in '89, meaning Stebbins would have to be in his 70s at least). And, for some bizarre reason, Goodwin calls Saul Panzer, a fellow P.I., for info on a local, minor celebrity rather than Lon Cohen. :\
What's even worse is how Wolfe discovers the identity of the killer. It's so ridiculous, I couldn't believe it. Don't read the following spoilers if you plan on reading the book (which you shouldn't anyway ), but
the story concerns Lily Rowan's niece being date raped. The rapist, a millionaire playboy, is found murdered. Wolfe determines that the victim's obnoxious, loudmouthed and totally unlikeable friend (who's barely in the book, btw) did it because he was in love with the niece. His reasoning? The niece says that he was always nice to her. That's it! The "reveal" at the end is horrible as Wolfe simply produces a duplicate of the murder weapon, causing the jerk to suddenly blurt out a confession. I don't mean that Wolfe snares him in a clever trap. Nope, it's just "weapon" and "I did it!"
The next book is Fade To Black, which was marginally better. Unfortunately, it still sticks to his black & white characterizations. If you want to figure out who the killer is, just find the most unlikeable person.
Anyway, I'll eventually get to the last 2 books (I have them already...I won the whole lot on eBay), but I don't have any expectations that they'll live up to the quality of the original series (or even Goldsborough's 1st book). Goldsborough is a good example of letting a series die with its creator.
I really should pick up these DVDs since I really enjoyed the series. I've also read all of the Nero Wolfe books by Stout (and some of those by Goldsborough and agree with the negative assessment of the latter).
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