Review of Jason King: Episodes 1 to 2

Introduction

Peter Wyngarde stars as Jason King; the flamboyant playboy investigator and author of a series of novels featuring a character called ‘Mark Caine’. After leaving Department S, Jason King roams the earth in search of material and inspiration for his novels which often leads him into mystery and espionage for the British government.
His inquiring mind often gets him into trouble but he’s never far away from the extravagant playboy lifestyle of fast girls, fast cars, and the odd bevvy.


Episode1
Wanna buy a television series?
Jason King pitches his series of ’Mark Caine’ novels to a TV station. He tells the story of a girl who undergoes plastic surgery to resemble the beautiful victim of a mysterious fire to gain their interest in buying his script.

Episode 2
A page before dying
The British Secret service are interested in Jason King’s espionage thriller about a man smuggled into East Berlin by unconventional means.


This is the first time that I have seen Jason King so I am sure a lot of you out there will be more familiar with the series than I am. The series (well 2 episodes that i`ve seen) continue the same old formula of a suave and sophisticated central character who by some means ends up investigating some sort of murder or other such case and comes out unscathed beyond all odds. It’s the same old pish we’ve all seen a million times before and to be honest its probably been better executed elsewhere. Was this new and exciting at the time of its original release? I don’t know but watching it today it certainly wasn’t.

There are some good points. Peter Wyngarde sure has some camped up moments and there is the odd quip that is fairly amusing. Summing this series up on just the two episodes I have seen is a bit unfair, and you never know the series could have got better as it went along but overall it just didn’t work for me.

If your into this kind of cheese factor 10 then I’m sure you will enjoy it, but essentially a DVD only for fans.

Video

The first thing that strikes you on this DVD is the video quality and although it does get a little better as the program progresses there still is an excessive amount of grain. The picture remains soft throughout and detail level is fairly low which is a shame. I expect that this is mainly due to the source material and the way it was shot, after all it is Tv material and not a multi-million dollar production that we’re all used too. Colours are fairly muted with no bleed apparent and there were no compression artefacts that I could see. There was a little dust here and there but considering its age not too bad.

Audio

Sound wise we have a Plain mono track which is what you would expect. It’s fairly clean with no pops or crackles and although a bit compressed does an adequate job. Dialogue and music are clear although it is lacking in lower bass range. Functional rather than anything exciting.

Features

Extras here are a little weak but then again this is a budget disc.
Carlton has given us an animated menu together with theme music which fits in fine with the content.
You get an ITC trailer, the original artwork (only one page), character biographies/facts and of course English subtitles. Scene access (animated) contains 8 chapters per episode which can be chosen from the menu.

Conclusion

Well the audio/video quality together with the uninspiring content certainly make an average disc which if it wasn’t for the 70’s ‘cool factor’ would be given to my dog to chew on. Well if I had a dog, that is.

Overall a piece of 70’s hokum which will either have you screaming from your house in a fit of 70’s denial or a grand trip back to the good old days where cravats were king, handle bar moustaches were worn by men not called Bubba, and you could make women swoon with a decent brown trouser.


Fantastic piece of 70’s nostalgia or crappy, by the numbers detective series which fails to impress even the most hardened Cheese ball fanatic.

You decide.