Product: The Sandbaggers Collection Set 1
Rating: 5.0
one of the best TV shows out there
I can't remember who told me that I needed to check this show out, when he found out how much I loved Eric Ambler books and the early seasons of "Homicide: Life on the Streets." I delayed because the DVD set seemed a little pricey but finally took the plunge. And boy, am I glad I did, because this show is so good it hurts. Complex and intelligent, with some of the most realistic characters I've ever seen on screen. Yes, they are spies, but they're human first: they get so scared they puke and make mistakes and have tons of paperwork to fill out when they crash a car.The most compelling character in the show is the head of the special section called the Sandbaggers, Neil Burnside. He comes off as utterly ruthless and arrogant one minute, while the next minute vulnerable and charming. His shades of gray get very black, and he does things that are appalling, but I couldn't help liking him.Conversations about the endless turf war with MI5, and jockeying for power, and trading favors for favors take up far more of the show than action sequences, but it all feels almost painfully real (at least for the period it's set in).Most TV shows are very predictable, but this one kept surprising me. The lead agent's ambivalent reaction to violence, how very scary and dark Burnside comes off at times, and how the show handles the section's first female agent were all elements that did not take obvious paths.The DVDs themselves are pretty bare bones, and the image quality is what one might expect from a 70s TV show, fairly poor. The audio on one of the episodes seemed bad to point I had to keep rewinding the scenes to catch what was said. But in the end, the show was so good, I didn't mind any of that.