Saturday, August 25, 2007

TV: John Woo's Once a Thief

  1. Mac: Smart as Einstein, legs to die for…
  2. Victor: …and her own stun grenades.
  3. Mac: The total woman.

Yup, it's been a decade since John Woo's Once a Thief was on the air, but thanks to Showcase Action it lives again. Based on the movie of the same name, it's a likable, campy, funny show that combines noir with martial arts to a Tarantino-esque music soundtrack.

Sandrine Holt and Ivan Sergei play Li Ann and Mac, former thieves/lovers who leave a Chinese "Triad" family known as the Tangs. They're partnered up with disgraced cop—and Li Ann's new fiancé—Victor (Nicholas Lea) to form a team that performs white-hat operations for "The Director" (Jennifer Dale) under the aegis of a mysterious, unnamed government agency. Add in the sadistic senior agent Dobrinsky, spoiled society girl Jackie Janczyk and the decidedly odd assassins/cleaners Murphy and Camier and you've got a stylish action comedy drama that's often just plain weird.

Once a Thief only had a single-season run of 22 episodes, but it's definitely worth checking out. Only the two-part pilot and first episode have aired on Action so far, so it's not too late to get into it. It's shown on a somewhat irregular schedule that I believe is supposed to resemble 7am and 6pm every Saturday and Sunday, but set your PVRs to be sure.

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