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Wednesday 30 May 2012

Charlies Angels - 1.1: "Angel with a Broken Wing" Review


The angels burst onto the screens investigating the murder of one of their own and find themselves with a replacement angel as they bring a child trafficker to justice.

"Once upon a time there were three young girls who got into very big trouble.   First the Park Avenue princess turned thief.   The second was a marine decorated for valour, court martialled  for a deadly mistake and the third was a dedicated police detective turned dirty cop.   They each made mistakes but I gave them a second chance and now they work for me.   My name is Charlie."

A sixteen year old runaway, Sarah is held in a hotel and is being sold by a child sex trafficker known as Pajaro.   Abby (Rachael Taylor) picks a man's pocket after bumping into him.   Gloria (Nadine Velazquez) picks up Fisk at the airport, the traffickers contact.  Abby has to ensure Bosley (Ramon Rodriguez) is in position.   Thus cue an older man we're meant to think is Bosley but he's actually frolicking in the pool.   Pajaro's broker e-mailed him the photo of the girl and Gloria fires shots around him asking what their plan is and where Sarah's being held.  The man calls the hotel to let them know the broker will be late and Bosley retrieves the hotel room number.

Abby scales the building wearing heels, which change into flats when she climbs onto the balcony.   They rescue Sarah with Abby declaring, "We're angels." They don't know Pajaro's ID and no one's probably ever met him.   Abby: "That's ironic coming from Charlie." (Victor Garber)  Abby likes men who are sexy dreamers.   She touches Gloria on her arm so you can see her tattoo.   As they head for drinks, Gloria has other business to attend to and Kate (Annie Ilonzeh) found Abby's father's letters in the bin.   So expect him to turn up soon.

Gloria's car explodes and Kate doesn't seem to be able to shed any tears, so much for them being colleagues and friends, but they were sisters as they say.   Bosley says Charlie is devastated, "losing an angel is his worst nightmare.   Mine too."  Next day at work, Abby turns up in shorts, would've thought the occasion warranted something more sombre.   Charlie calls Gloria's murder personal and reminds them, "You're angels of justice, not angels of vengeance."  Also reminding us they've been in trouble before and shouldn't overstep the mark this time round either.

They notice a woman on a bike was behind Gloria's car on the surveillance footage and Kate spots the same tattoo as Gloria on the back of her neck.   They must have been members of the same car stealing gang.   Kate's ex fiancee was a cop and she uses his badge number to bring up info on the tattoo woman.   Would've thought Bosley would have been able to find info on her seeing as he's adept at hacking.   She is Eve French (Minka Kelly) and lives on  houseboat.   They pack their weapons.  Gloria was a sister to Eve and a helicopter approaches outside and opens fire as they speak.  

They meet her at work.  Gloria wanted to show Eve something about the case she was on.   Abby and her dirty looks towards Eve clearly showing she doesn't like or trusts her.   Kate is more reserved, showing why later the two of them get on better.   Eve and Gloria were both at an orphanage in El Salvador and Eve was upset, Gloria helped her.   Gloria came to her now with something she wanted to tell her.   Abby is hostile again and and a much as Bosley loves a catfight, he has to stop them.   It's left to Eve to think about checking out Gloria's apartment, when they should have done that much sooner.   Abby decides to wear flats now as she scales the pipe to get into her apartment.

The place has already been searched and Abby finds the gator she gave Gloria for Christmas.   Eve knows where she'd hide valuables as they learned that at the orphanage too.   There' a cat litter tray but no cat, Gloria was allergic and beneath it is a trapdoor with a safe. Again it's left to Abby to break into that too, since this episode showcases much of Abby's skills as a thief.  The box belonged to Gloria's mother and she had it with her at the orphanage.   Also found is a DNA analysis report with two samples and a shot glass.   The samples were a match to one person and there's a photo of Nestor Rodrigo.   (Carlos Bernard) Eve says Gloria found Pajaro.

She pulls a gun on them and she's going after him as she made a promise to kill him, Gloria called her cos of him.   Kate says they need to save more girls and have to take him down the right way.  Bosley confirms the prints are a match.   He led a death squad in El Salvador and they saw him there.   They sneaked into the chapel and he came there to steal girls, killing the nuns and boys. "I have an angel to thank for that."  They saw his face when he searched the chapel.   Eve hit him with the angel and ran.  Bosley understands why she wanted to get him so badly, but we haven't had any backstory on him yet, so clearly there's something in his past too.

Abby: "We're angels not saints." Pajaro's foundation builds orphanages.   Nadia Kozlova (Ivana Milicevic) is his right hand woman, and has a photographic memory.   She stole money from the Russian mob.   Charlie wants Eve to help and believes in second chances.   They infiltrate his party as waitresses, dressed as red devils and spray the food with laxative, but Nadia doesn't eat any of it.   Abby manages to exact some revenge on some girls she knew from school.  when they take a photo of her dressed like that for Facebook.   They need to utilize Plan B: Bolsey.   He spouts a list of numbers including guests at the party etc and Nadia pulls a knife on him, but he manages to get her into the truck.   Eve doesn't leave as she sees the angel with the broken wing.   Her ear wig is knocked out.   The others meanwhile, threaten to take Nadia to Russia unless she gives them info on where the girls are being held.   Kate speaks Russian.

At the boatyard they also find Eve being beaten (as in 1.4 Angels In Chains).   Bosley and Kate rescue the girls and Abby rescues Eve who then drives into Pajaro to stop him.   Meant to be demonstrating her driving skills as she's into cars.   Charlie wants to offer Eve a job as an angel.   Bosley tells her about his twenty year sentence for tax fraud which Charlie rescued him from.  He explains the first rule is "zero face time with the boss."   Bosley says they turn up when least expected and "when you need them the most."  Charlie calls them angels but she's no angel.   It is like the second chance Eve gave Gloria and she took the blame for her.  Bosley says they're all family too.  Kate tells her Abby will borrow her clothes, (will they fit her) and Kate is bossy.

1976 Ocean Drive, the address of the agency where the '1976' refers to the year the original Charlie's Angels was aired: 22nd September 1976.   Kate Jackson played Sabrina, one of the original angels and here Kate appears to be named for her.   Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) was an orphan and Jill (Farah Fawcett) was into cars and racing.   Just like Gloria and Eve.

Even before this reboot was touted, there was to be a planned remake of Charlie's Angels and was to be called 'Angels 88'.   This was to have 4 angels instead of 3, all were actresses who were the stars of a fictional detective series whose series gets cancelled and they join forces to become a real life detective agency.  Charlie and Bosley would be absent so as to give these angels more of a liberation.   It was to have starred Tea Leoni, Karen Kopkins.  Sandra Canning and Claire Yarlett.     However this series never sprouted wings and was cancelled even before anything was filmed.

In 1998, Drew Barrymore acquired the rights of the show for her production company, Flower Films.   These angels in the movies were named Dylan (Drew Barrymore) Alex (Lucy Liu) and Natalie (Cameron Diaz).   However as the original TV series, the studio, Sony Pictures didn't want to see this as a women, kick-ass orientated show, but rather wanted more "jiggle" for the male eye.

As with this 2011 series, it was inevitable it would head to cancellation since the stories and plots didn't seem right for the current climate on TV and the cast didn't quite seem to gel.  It appears the shows only saving grace was Bosley, as many have commented.   Perhaps it should have been more fast-paced, less tedious script and not so cliched  for it to have actually gotten somewhere.   I was a fan of the original show but this didn't and couldn't compare to that.   Neither, in my opinion, did the two movies.

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