 However, in his evaluation of The Secret Service as a whole, La Rivière argues that the premise of a secret agent masquerading as a priest while driving an antiquated car could not have appealed much to children, and that older viewers would have been disappointed with the series'unoriginal "traditional espionage format". Ian Fryer concurs, writing in FAB magazine that "very little about The Secret Service has obvious appeal to the traditionally young Supermarionation audience." Discussing the opening theme music, he remarks that "the younger me would have run a mile from any series which sounded like that." He also notes that the opening credits "broke with the tradition of having a thrilling or suspenseful promise of what was to come, and made the series look suspiciously like it might be about the life and work of an elderly vicar." For La Rivière, the blending of puppetry and live action "simply doesn't work. It requires more than the audience can give in terms of acceptance." In the case of "More Haste Less Speed", he points out that the character of Lady Hazlewell is portrayed in live-action distance shots by a stunt actor dressed in drag – an "unintentionally hilarious moment that illustrates beautifully why the live-action inserts didn 't work." He further argues that the contrasting light levels of shots that alternate between one format and the other shatter the illusion of "artificiality" that previous series had been able to sustain in the absence of live action.
