Epic

A crazed film director kidnaps Mrs Peel, his desire, to make the perfect movie.

I get why this one's somewhat divisive, I can see why it divides fans, like I did, you may need a second viewing to digest and understand.

I'll be honest, I watched this one twice, just to fully absorb it, and try to understand it, the first-time round, I was intrigued and curious, the second time round I was thrilled and absorbed.

This show was always so hard ahead of the game, and indeed its time, it seems as though they created a taboo film genre several years early. At times it feels like I'm watching a Batman episode.

The characters are all grotesques, bud the acting, so good, so in keeping, I get the impression that they all had some fun making this, I loved the previous episode that Wyngarde appeared in, I loved this one also.

The trio of villains are all great, wonderfully eccentric, Von Schnerk is as crazed and outlandish as they come. There's a real streak of humour running throughout, you'll chuckle several times.

It's a great episode for Rigg fans, as she's the primary character, fair to say it's light on Stead.

I really enjoyed it, glorious, 9/10.

A former film director fallen into oblivion gets together with two veteran actors and kidnaps Emma Peel to shoot with her a film of crude realism that will end with her real death, so they suppose they will overcome their flagging careers and return to the stardom they once knew. To have. This claustrophobic episode must have been highly original in the 60s, then other series and movies did similar things, but in those years it must have been one of the first. The story is full of action and suspense, as well as surreal images like the brilliantly shot graveyard scene. We can live the confusion of Emma trying to get out of all the bizarre situations that are presented to her. The cast is outstanding. One of the classic episodes of the series.

This Avengers episode aired in April 1967. Here is a Batman episode that sounds similar from April 1966

Death in Slow Motion

Charlie Chaplin and the Keystone Kops raid the till at the newly opened Gotham movie theater. The culprits turn out to be 'The Riddler' and his gang in disguise. They lead the Dynamic Duo on a crime spree chase from Mother Gatham's Bakery, past the Gotham Library, and into a Temperance Party. At each of these events, the villains are accompanied by German film maker Van Bloheim who captures everything on celluloid.

"Epic" is the most polarizing of all "Avengers" episodes, with people either loving it or loathing it. When I first saw it as a kid, I loved the mystery and bizarre imagery, of which there is plenty. As an adult, however, while the bizarre imagery remains (if a little less convincingly), the realization that a mystery without a solution is a failed mystery kicks in. Put simply, this episode makes no sense on any level. Mrs. Peel is kidnapped by a crazed movie producer/director straight from the silent era, and two washed up actors, who are forced to keep working with him because of the fine print in their contracts (a funny enough gag...but also one of the most realistic elements in the show!). They set about to kill Emma on film through any number of unrelated scenes. The unanswered question, however, is WHY? It is never explained, outside of the fact that they're crazy. It is also contradictory in that at times it's clear the loony director set out to kill Mrs. Peel from the onset, while at others she has to be "auditioned" for the role, implying that all he wants to do is kill SOMEBODY. It makes no sense. Nor does the fact that Emma, trapped inside a movie studio, can't see what the audience clearly sees, that she's on set with missing walls and lights overhead. Rigg responds throughout with an eye-rolling attitude that tells us not to take any of this seriously, kind of like a guest star in a skit on a comedy/variety show. It's that very rare episode in which both Steed and Peel seem to realize they are characters in a television program instead of real people. So, is there ANY reason to watch it? Yes: Peter Wyngarde's delicious, hilarious performance as sodden, hammy actor Stewart Kirby. He single-handedly saves the show, and is even allowed to do a lick of genuinely fine Shakespeare. Also, for fans of "The Avengers," it offers something of a backstage tour of ABC Studios in Elstree, England, where the series was filmed.

"Epic" is a rare solo adventure for Mrs. Peel, who is captured by a crazed movie director and a pair of washed up actors making an impossible comeback by documenting her demise. Kenneth J. Warren plays the dictatorial Von Stroheim type filmmaker Z. Z. von Schnerk, in the last of his four appearances, after "Girl on the Trapeze," "Intercrime," and "The Little Wonders." As former matinée idol Stewart Kirby, Peter Wyngarde, so memorable in "A Touch of Brimstone," really gets to chew the scenery in nearly a dozen disguises, and who woulda thought a British actor could make a convincing Civil War rebel? David Lodge ("Fog") cameos as a bit actor who picks the wrong day to reminisce about the glory days, and Anthony Dawes ("The Outside-In-Man") pops in to provide the corpse of John Steed, while the real Steed figures out where to find his missing partner by identifying the voice of Emma's mysterious caller. Emma's apartment is seen twice, the second time as an identical film set, and the best moment comes when she provides her version of the MGM lion's growl.