A&E's Nero Wolfe

[Temis the Vorta]

Not exactly news, but I've discovered Nero Wolfe with Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton. Anyone else see this all-too-brief series? I love the clipped, zingy dialogue and Chaykin and Hutton are absolutely terrific.

I admit, it kinda threw me when I realized the first season was in the 50s (late 50s?) since the atmosphere is so noir-ish and seems to belong at least ten years earlier. I'm into the second season and all the women are dressed like it's Mad Men! (Except a lot hipper.) Are they in the early 60s already? I just can't reconcile Noir and Pop in my poor brain. It's like Indiana Jones and The Nuclear Age...

 

[Holdfast]

Great series (I love the costuming). The timeline is wonky because the books they're based on is equally wonky, being written across several decades starting in the 30s. The characters never age, but the time they live in changes across the books. Kind of a fun concept, when you think about it.

 

[Australis]

I quite liked this series was well, thought it tremendous fun. My only nitpick is they had the same guest actress in several roles, and while she was good, she wasn't that good.

 

[stj]

This was apparently Timothy Hutton's baby. He cleverly realized that the narrator was the essential part of the Wolfe books, much like Watson is key to the Sherlock Holmes. (Yes, he was, that's why very good puzzles like the Thinking Machine stories or Philo Vance are not widely remembered.) This is the best Wolfe adapatation because Hutton was the best Archie.

Hutton put together a series of TV movies for A&E, and as explained above the settings from the book changed, while the characters didn't. What wasn't mentioned is that Hutton used the same players for different roles in each movie, I think through all of them. (I had a terrible time knowing when they were broadcast.) It was done as a sort of television repertory theater.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I've seen it once or twice. Timothy Hutton pretty much sold it for me. He was a great Archie Goodwin.