Partly

Ah, 80's television -- when main characters still smoked, no one wore seat belts and you could walk through airport security with a gun in your pocket. There's no such thing as airbags and the big bad guys are Soviet Agents. Back when armed raids on suspected criminal hideouts were done in street clothes and without tactical support. When high tech meant DOS 3.1, and information was displayed on a flickering green screen.

Despite all that, Stingray is an 80s show that actually holds up well. I wrote abut the show before, three years ago when I got bootleg copies of the show -- before it was released to DVD. Everything I said then still stands now. It even looks better now that I got the official, pretty version of the show.

Stingray is one of those shows that makes me wax philosophical. It makes me want to analyze the characters, expound on the themes it touches and explore the subtle nuances of character interaction and introspection. A lot of shows make me occasionally want to delve into show-based discussions, but every episode of Stingray provides numerous opportunities to discuss themes or characters or physiological truisms. In current television, only Burn Notice has the same effect on me.

I'm not sure if Myria likes the show. She doesn't dislike it, but the comments she keeps coming back to are that "It's a very quiet show" and "It's rather dark". They are both very accurate comments.

It is a very quiet show. Until she mentioned it, I never really gave it much thought, but the show really doesn't have a sound track. They do have music that plays over some scenes, especially over action sequences and they often use music that is present in the scene (ie from a jukebox). But for the majority of the show, when there is dialogue or even silent character interaction, it is often done without anything other than ambient sound. Interestingly enough, when they do have a montage of action with a musical overture, the music used is specially written for the scene. When there is a soundtrack it is very minimal. Ever since she mentioned it, it's so very obvious. It is very quiet.

It is also rather dark. It's hard to explain -- its not like 24 or other anti-hero shows. But the good guys don't always survive and winning doesn't guarantee that the winner gets what they wanted. Ray loses a good quarter of his clients. The situations he is put into are often dangerous and morally ambigious. Add to that the basic "Fugitive" drawback -- the hero always has to leave those he befriended -- and you get a show that is dark in tone. It's a tone that I really like -- I like the adult tone, where "necessary" and "right" aren't always the same and where doing everything right doesn't guarantee a "good" ending. Myr isn't so fond of it, but I like that she can recognize it.

I belong to a Stingray group on Yahoo and we are talking about one episode (or so) a week. Because I know have the eps on tape and because it's something I've always wanted to do (Yes, I am that weird), I'm doing recaps/summaries/reviews of the episodes.

I'm posting them here because I can. I will cut them because they are very long and, you know, obsessive in a way most of my flist is not. But if you want to know about the show, read away. Otherwise, go ahead and ignore me. I expect to do an episode a week if I'm lucky, every other if I'm not.

I'm picking up near the end, episode 21 to be exact.

The quick summary of the show:

Stingray revolves around a mysterious man known only as Ray, who travels the land in a black '65 Stingray Corvette. His background is unknown. However, someone can contact him by answering a newspaper or computer ad to barter for a Stingray Corvette. He typically helps those who can't help themselves, but always asks a price: he requires that they help him out one time, sometime in the future, no questions asked. A favor for a favor. He is truly a man of mystery: no one ever knows his real name.

Pity me if you must, feed my obsesion if you can. *grin*