Who payed the critics

Waste of time

Too many fans seem to be blown away

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

The DVD for the Spenser series is now available. The version I bought for $99.95 US contained 67 episodes on 17 discs. There were no "extras" such as: menus or scene selection. The episode guide promised in the add was not included When I enquired, I was told it was available on the internet! Anyway, the color is OK, the sound is a bit wonky. The screen is the standard screen. No subtitles. Looks like it was taped off the air and downloaded on DVD. Some bits of the original commercials pop up. Otherwise, enjoyable. Urich and Brooks are excellent in their roles. However, the Spenser character seems to kill a lot of people every week.

I never liked VEGA$ very much, never read any of Parker's books, had never heard of Parker before, and found myself watching almost every episode of SPENSER only because TV GUIDE described it as a conventional cop show. (Not that VEGA$ was unconventional, but SPENSER was the first such show I ever watched without considerable parental guidance.) What I didn't expect were Spenser's delightful literary meditations. They (along with the beauty of Barbara Stock) made this show not just a rite of passage (for me) but one of my all-time favorites.However, there was one Shakespearean passage I waited to hear and never did. Given Spenser's apparent compassion for all those involved in his cases, when he had to kill someone or witness a scene of massive killing I kept waiting for him to quote Fortinbras' lament for both the innocent and the guilty dead at the end of HAMLET:"Take up the bodies. Such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss."

I don't remember too much about this as a child, only that I used to like it, then I watched it on one of the many re-runs and it really is special. I always found Robert Ulrich to be a high quality actor. I'd see him in stuff on TV and refer to him as Spenser and my friends would say "who?". The series was very well acted and was different to the usual American cops show we were used to in the 80's. Spenser was a man of great integrity and Hawk his side kick was a man who might not agree with Spenser but would do everything in his power to support his friend. Just a very clever programme.I'm sure it won't be long before we see repeats of the show on one of the sky channels, It will be worth buying Sky+ for. I won't miss an episode this time around and nor should anyone else.

Great, really great - in my opinion one of the best Crime-TV-Series ever made. Robert Urich plays - again - a private investigator who solves his cases with help of his friend "Hawk" (Avery Brooks, "Ben Sisko" from "Deep Space Nine"). I have not seen one episode of this TV-Series which was boring. Great stories, quite enough action, social aspects - and of course two really superb playing actors (Robert Urich, Avery Brooks). That's what makes this TV-Series from the 80's a classic one.