Wiseguy - Mel Profitt Arc (Season 1 Part 2)

Never in your life will you ever see acting like this in a television series! Kevin Spacey, Joan Severance, William Russ, Jonathan Banks and Elsa Raven and others shine like newly minted dimes in this incredible show. Elsa Raven, a likeable, grandmotherly actress, seems to be every casting director's idea for a chubby, middle-aged mama, except for her turn as Gertrude Stein in "The Moderns".I caught about three or four episodes of the "Sonny Steelgrave" arc of this show just channel surfing and noticed how intense and gritty the acting was. I watched for about four episodes. THEN the Mel Profitt arc started, and it was a roller coaster ride from then on! Spacey chews the scenery like a piranha as the paranoid, charismatic and reputedly brilliant Mel Profitt, an enfant terrible of organized crime who runs his empire of weapons-trading and illegal drugs with the help of his sister, Susan, played by the gorgeous and talented Joan Severance.Stephen J. Cannell must have been on one of those legendary rolls that writers, specifically TV, movie and sci-fi writers, get on sometime, becaue he has everything covered here....humor, pathos, psychoses, sociopathology, charisma, situations, and a VERY good sense of governmental corruption. Sadly, he never equalled his work on "Wiseguy" again, and never got the same quality of cast for any of his other projects on TV. "Wiseguy" was one of a kind.Kevin Spacey's take on Profitt is unlike any protrayal of a crime boss you've ever seen...he parlayed him as self-educated, witty, playful, unpredictable and moody, and it was done perfectly! As the unassuming Vinnie Terranova, Ken Wahl is very unsuspicious in his role as an FBI mole, in this case, perhaps developing too much of an affection for his targets, Mel and Susan, (a major fault of his in the other arcs as well). He is especially enarmored of Susan, who is truly good-looking, as in supermodel, and much saner than her squirrelly brother. She also seems to be attracted to _him_. As a mole for the OCB faction of the FBI, he takes quite a bit of guff from Mel, who scares the bejeebers out of him in one scene early in the arc where he plays Russian roullette with Vinnie over his sister's attraction to him. It is hinted, throughout the arc, that there is an unnaturally close relationship between Mel and his sister.Vinnie and Mel actually become best buds eventually, despite this, believe it or not.The odd thing about this whole arc is that Vinnie was actually supposed to investigate another major player in the piece, a Roger Lococo, played by William Russ, who eventually led him TO Mel and Susan. Severance handles herself beautifully throughout, but really shines when Mel finally dies "A Viking's Death" near the end of the arc, and she is left alone to run his vast organization. Susan mentally collapses when Russ' character, the scheming Roger Lococo, another government mole (CIA) sucked in too deep, leads her to believe that Mel might still be alive. She deludes herself into thinking that she and Vinnie are going to have a baby, complicating Terranova's mission when she can't communicate with FBI officials and has to be committed. Severance, unfortunately, like too many talented ladies in my long list of gems, had a career that went nowhere after "Wiseguy". She essentially became window dressing for a few totally mediocre films and was cast as social director in a lame revival of "The Love Boat". In the "easter egg" interview on the 4th disc of the DVD set, she also, apparently, has bleached her hair blond recently. CHEZ INFAMIE!! She looks like one of Charlie's Angels with that towheaded mess! Please, Joan, go back to brunette!!Roger Lococo, I might add, worships the ground Mel walked on, a very bad thing when you're supposed to be investigating somebody for the government. If there is any character anywhere near as unpredictable or dangerous as Spacey's Mel Profitt in this arc, it's definitely Russ' Roger Lococo. William Russ, oddly enough, ended up playing a sitcom dad for six years on a show called "Boy Meets World" after his run on "Wiseguy", but here, he gives Spacey his only real acting competition, though everybody's good.Jonathan Banks plays Vinny's ascerbic immediate boss, Frank McPike. Jim Byrnes, a man who has a knack for being in interesting TV shows, (he was also in the "Highlander" series later on,) plays Vinnie's mole's mole, "Uncle Mike". People like Clyde Kusatsu and Franklyn Seales are also in this arc, to good effect. Kusatsu plays one of Vinnie and Frank's colleagues and Seales is very good as a hot-tempered associate of Mel's who turns on him.Through it all, the acting, music, writing and production values are pure top notch CBS....cinematography is typically good CBS dramatic, with saturated colors and excellent scene composition. An urban sophistication no other network has been able to duplicate is apparent as well, and NO OTHER NETWORK had anything during this period in the eighties to equal it: not "L.A. Law", not "Twin Peaks", NOTHING was ever like the Mel Profitt arc of "Wiseguy"! I became a fan of this show from the moment I saw the first Profitt episode to the last series episode with Wahl in it. Unfortunately, they tried to foist another actor on us in place of Ken Wahl in the last two or three episodes of the fourth season, and it just didn't work, and "Wiseguy" was history. Damned shame, too. The same thing happened to "Moonlighting" and "The Equalizer", the only shows even close to being in its class.After the Mel Profitt arc, there were arcs starring Jerry Lewis as a 7th Ave. garment manufacturer. Ron Silver played his hotheaded son. Paul Winfield, Patti D'Urbanville and Tim Curry were feuding record producers and Robert Davi was a REAL "wiseguy". None of these arcs were as gripping and entertaining as the Mel Profitt arc of this show. I might go so far as to say that even the revered Sonny Steelgrave arc wasn't as good! Honest!If you appreciate good television crime drama and terrific acting, you could do MUCH worse than buy this entertaining arc of one of the best crime shows ever on television..."Only the toes knows..."

The mid 80's saw the renaissance of the TV crime show. NBC started it off with the ground-breaking 'Miami Vice'. This was TV as we never saw it before and would never look back. It was MTV with a plot and it was absolutely addicting !! Then came ABC's wonderful 'Crime Story' with Dennis Farina and Anthony Denison and a terrific ensemble cast. Set in early Las Vegas with the Mafia moving in, the series captured the era at least as good as any Martin Scorcese film, especially with each episode opening with Del Shannon's iconic late 50's hit song 'Runaway'. Both of these series grabbed audiences in their own way. CBC's foray into this genre was 'Wiseguy'. Season 1 with Ray Sharkey as the villain was good. But Season 2 was literally in class by itself. The acclaim it received from reviewers across the country have rarely been equaled in TV history. I hardly know where to begin praising it. I, like all the posts here, were hypnotized when it first aired. The story line runs with the sophistication of a John LeCarre or Robert Ludlum spy novel, with all the deep and intricate plot twists normally reserved for a major motion picture. We are introduced to stunning performances and characters. This series, by his own admission, made the unknown Kevin Spacey into the super-star he is today. From here he went to 'The Usual Suspects' and an Oscar. And in an act of casting brilliance. fashion model Joan Severance, with her jaw dropping beauty, was paired as Spacey's equally insane but brilliant sister/partner in crime. William Russ as the CIA double-agent working with Spacey is outstanding. Ken Wahl plays his role excellently, especially adjusting his pitch perfectly to the maniacal acting excellence of Spacey and Severance.The packaging of the series in this DVD set is very well done with lots of cameo shots of the actors. One flaw; In the opening episode, when originally broadcast on TV, Wahl and Russ are heliocopter'd to Spacey's yacht to the background of a perfectly matched hard-rock song. It fit the scene of decadent 80's style partying perfectly. In this DVD edition however, the music has been replaced by a bland piece of Muskak that cripples the impact of the scene for those of us who remember the original. Why this was done is beyond me. Perfection should not be tampered with. But aside from that, this is a TV tour de force worth 5 Stars easily. Only 'Smiley's People' and 'Riley Ace of Spies' compare to it.

Watch a young Kevin Spacey eat up the screen.

This was an arc of outstanding quality. I find some of the official reviews a bit misleading. While this arc starts about the Profits, the writers were smart enough to realize their strange quality would only last so long. About the middle of the arc the focus starts to shift to Roger. But this focus is so slow and subtle! I can remember as a teen watching each week for Roger and being sure that something was happening with that plot. How wonderful for the audience to be treated to not one, but two complex stories in one arc and not be insulted by a poor transition. There were at least 5 wonderful plots here, two major, three or four minor, but all wonderfully realized. So if a possibly incestuous couple isn't your cup of tea, don't let that stop you from watching this outstanding arc. I also think that people should know that this is not straight crime drama, it is more like the story of Vinny so we follow him along but aren't bored by the more formula parts of the tales of an FBI agent. This show never takes the "law and order" type formula of crime, arrest, trial, jail, and the good guys aren't always good but they aren't bad in the more cliche' ways I have seen in other dramas. Everyone in this show is a human first and agent, crime boss, etc second.

Part two of the first season carries on the excellence of the first part. I felt, along with many others, including viewers, the production team and even the main actors that the Sonny Steelgrave arc should have been extended, and could have been without loss of quality but Stephen Cannell disagreed and his word of course was law, and they went on to the Mel Profitt story. In my opinion this should have been saved for the second season as nothing afterwards reached the heights of season 1. However, this second part with Kevin Spacey as a most memorable villain was nearly as good in its own way. More bonus episodes, commentary from Ken Wahl (which I actually couldn't access) and more interviews are included plus notes from those principally involved. Real class regarding writing , acting and direction as was the first part. I think the only thing lacking compared to part 1 was the sense of day to day danger regarding discovery of Vinnie's real identity. Mel never suspected it and though Roger knew eventually, he was by then on Vinnie;s side. I've rewatched my dvds many times of all of season 1, the latter seasons not so much. A real classic.

The product and the service were great. Can't have S1 pt1 and not have pt2 This DVD brings back memories when there were good writing on tv programs.

Once again, it has been some twenty eight years since i first saw this....... dubbed into French, straight after the TF1 lunchtime news. Seemed like a crazy time to be screening this series, given its dark and sometimes raunchy nature, but that is the liberal French attitude, i guess. This is the second story arc from the first season, with Vinnie Terranova's investigation of assassin Roger Lococo (excellent William Russ) in "Independent Operator" leading into dark, creepy dealings with Mel and Susan Profitt (brilliant Kevin Spacey and gorgeous Joan Severance). Just as with the Sonny Steelgrave storyline in the first half of the season, the storytelling is of a different class.This original Studio Works product is far more attractively packaged than the Mill Creek reissue and a much better purchase, so long as the price is reasonable enough. The compression ratio is lower, with only four episodes per disc, and the box has more of a collector's edition about it. The fourth disc gives us various interviews, as special features, which add a lot of insight.PS. I need to add some comments, as my Mill Creek product review has lumped the Studio Works sets one, three and four in with it. Bear in mind that the region 2 products are hopelessly incomplete and the Studio Works issue features only four of the six sets which WERE intended for release. (See set one's trailer, which gives glimpses of the great, lost Dead Dog Records story arc.) Each, however, is a five star product. Set one is the excellent Sonny Steelgrave arc. Set two the even better, i think, Mel Profitt arc. Set three is the first half of season two, with the White Supremacists and Garment Business arcs. Set four takes up in the aftermath of the Dead Dogs Records case, with the menacing Mafia Wars arc and Counterfeit Yen story. The four sets provide us with nearly fifty of the sixty-six Ken Wahl episodes. One slight negative, in that the linking episodes have been included in an incongruous, haphazard order across the four sets.Whilst i can live without the Steven Bauer episodes, season two's Dead Dog Records and season three's Lynchboro/Seattle arcs are an utterly vital part of Vinnie Terranova's emotional journey. Both are missing from the Studio Works releases. If the Mill Creek Collector's Edition restores the latter, Dead Dog still does not live. (And just check out the price!) What a shame this forgotten, lost series will probably never get a complete release, leaving us with an unsatisfied feeling.

Now watching Box 2 on the new LG multi-region DVD player and very much enjoying Kevin Spacey's terrific performance as a major arms and drugs dealer in psychological melt-down!