This is a series where you have to be there in the beginning to hear the mission, or you will have no idea what is going on. Jim and his team have to rescue a revolutionary leader, Constantine (Ernesto Macias listed as Eric Mason) and end a corrupt regime headed by General Kozani (Carl Betz) and Colonel Strabo (Felice Orlandi). The rescue happens first, and they hide Constantine in a crane's work bucket suspended in midair above the bad guys. The team then gets the general to believe the colonel has joined Constantine and will overthrow him. Eventually, the general is going to meet Constantine and promise him that he will remove Col Strabo. Unfortunately, this Constantine is actually Strabo in disguise, and he ends up with a conveniently provided pistol and shoots Gen Kozani. That is the short version as the plot is more involved than that.
As always, the plan depended on the bad guys doing exactly what the IM team needs them to do to make everything work. This is very evident when Jim plays a revolutionary who is captured, and he plants the idea that Constantine and Col Strabo are in business together with the General. The logical thing to do would be to shoot Jim but they don't. In the end, the General follows Jim's instructions and it does not end well for him. Why did they need Vic Perrin to provide voiceover for the Constantine character?
The cast is fine. Carl Betz, forever Donna Reed's husband, make a passible bad guy. Macias/Mason as Constantine actually doesn't have that much to do. Orlandi is almost always a bad guy.
Overall, the story is not bad but lacks a certain energy. There is a routineness about it that keeps it from being a better episode. It is outings like this that make me miss Landau and Bain.
As always, the plan depended on the bad guys doing exactly what the IM team needs them to do to make everything work. This is very evident when Jim plays a revolutionary who is captured, and he plants the idea that Constantine and Col Strabo are in business together with the General. The logical thing to do would be to shoot Jim but they don't. In the end, the General follows Jim's instructions and it does not end well for him. Why did they need Vic Perrin to provide voiceover for the Constantine character?
The cast is fine. Carl Betz, forever Donna Reed's husband, make a passible bad guy. Macias/Mason as Constantine actually doesn't have that much to do. Orlandi is almost always a bad guy.
Overall, the story is not bad but lacks a certain energy. There is a routineness about it that keeps it from being a better episode. It is outings like this that make me miss Landau and Bain.
