hereispierre This was a real classic of its era when fear of Russians etc was part of everyday life. Edward Woodward plays a highly trained but morally right and classy British agent who has no equal. He now uses his unique talents to help people who are oppressed or down on their luck. Great stuff. Also check out "Crazy Like a Fox" if you like this.

jeret50 this show was one of the best cop/revenge series ever.superlative acting/script,i cant say enough about this show. i think it was way underrated.Ed Woodward was also in 1973's"The Wicker man", a truly chilling movie.too bad he died. great actor.i would go out of my way to watch this show.The rest of the cast also brilliant,same for direction, music,just great.have been waiting years for it to come on video.miles ahead of all the garbage on cable now.fortunately its on video now and people will see it in its glory.kinda like The Punisher and James bond rolled into one.Decide for yourself.Hopefully the new movie will do it justice.

Hal Guentert I decided to take another look at the "The Equalizer" on DVD when I couldn't find much on TV. Unfortunately, I have to agree with the other reviewers who consider this series implausible. At best these episodes are fairy tales about a white knight who saves the person in distress. Equalizing things seems like a good idea until you have to consider how difficult that really is to do, and it makes McCall the judge, jury, and executioner just like the British we fought to get independence from. His Jaguar still looks nice, though.I found that I now have problems with the whole premise of "The Equalizer". Who is Robert McCall supposed to be, ex-CIA or ex-MI6, licensed private detective or amateur detective, "Robin Hood" or elitist mercenary? I never saw him identify himself as a licensed private detective as the plot description claims he is, but he gets special treatment from the NYPD. You are lead to believe that he is ex-CIA allowed to operate illegally because he is a well respected retired operator, some type of bullet proof "white knight" above the law of the helpless, hapless common folk. (Most of these folks could have solved their own problems if they were armed to begin with.) The other problem is with his clients. I am not sure if the writers are trying to be politically correct for the times, trying to be provocative, or even have a clear political agenda. I consider myself pretty sympathetic and open minded, but have a hard time developing any sympathy for many of the Equalizer's clients. For example, one women considers cheating on her husband with some guy in a bar, gets an innocent man killed without even warning him, gets her friend who encouraged her to cheat killed, gets a couple of other bystanders killed, almost gets her husband killed, but lives happily ever after to take a vacation with her husband in Nantucket. I hope McCall at least billed her his full rate whatever that is. ("Jim Rockford" was up front $200/day plus expenses.) Some of the other clients just don't want to move, and several people have to die so they can keep their low rent housing like it was the last place on Earth they could live. "Rockford" would have told them to move if they did not own the property, and blown them off as foolish otherwise.I am just left with the feeling that McCall is a good man who wants everyone to call him "Sir" or "your lordship", and he thinks he is the "decider" when it comes to who should live and who should die in NYC. Reminds me too much of Dick Cheney, or Higgins on "Magnum P.I.". All McCall needed to do was shoot someone in the face with a shotgun, then make them apologize to him, join the Council on Foreign Relations, and start lobbying for some bank "bail-outs". "Rockford" just wants to fish, do his job, and stay out of gun fights.I vote for "The Rockford Files" (even "Magnum P.I.") as being much more plausible than "The Equalizer", but if you like fairy tales or just want to see some interesting footage of 1980s NYC, then take a look.

ca-correa3 Edward Woodward did a fantastic job in The Equalizer series back in the mid 80's, I probably watched every one of them, and now, on HBO, the Five Days series also features Mr. Woodward, playing the grand father of the missing lady.I noticed this October 16th 2007.I thought it was interesting, he is one of those actors who has the ability to deliver a performance without showing like an acting job, a true natural. Another great component for The Equalizer's great outcome, in my opinion, was the fact the he delivered justice in a way that unfortunately is not possible in real life, but at the end of each episode you would feel good about it.