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Mission Impossible - The Fifth TV Season | 
 enlarge | Directors: Barry Crane, Leonard Horn, Leslie H. Martinson, Max Hodge, Paul Krasny
Actors: Peter Graves, Barbara Bain, Barbara Anderson
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $33.49
You Save: $16.50 (33%)
New (40) Used (7) Collectible (1) from $27.90
Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 2247
Format: Ac-3, Box Set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 6
Running Time: 60
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.5 x 0.9
MPN: 138974
UPC: 097361389745
EAN: 0097361389745
ASIN: B001BN4WI6
Release Date: October 7, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 10/07/2008 Run time: 1155 minutes Rating: Nr
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 good change of pace November 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
some classic episodes from this season with lesley ann warren and leonard nimoy, a change of pace, well done.
Mixed Bag-Some Very Good, Some Poor November 21, 2008
I will always give a five-star rating to each of the 5 seasons of the original MI series, but, unfortunately, it was in season 5 that the show lost much of the luster it had in its first four seasons. (Please note-even a "poor" MI episode is heads and shoulder above almost everything else on television). Creator Bruce Geller was forced out of having anything to do with making the show, which led to changes the irrevocably changed the nature of the series. One was to make the show more attractive to a younger audience. This involved bringing Leslie Warren in as the regular female member of the team. Most of her performances were lackluster, with one notable exception. In addition, the theme song was made more "modern" and less gripping, in my opinion. Secondly, a number of experiments were made with the basic premise of the show, most of which were not successful. Among them was a scene in the episode "Blast" which is played for pure comedy (a house belonging to a well-to-do couple is taken over by terrorists, including IMF people pretending to go along with them, and the IMF people are forced to promise not to damage the furniture and to take good care of their dog!), another is an especially uninteresting episode where Jim goes back to his home town and gets involved in solving a murder which is a total waste of the IMF's talents and in which Paris quotes the the stupidest line ever from the series: "I dig old home towns!". On the positive side, there is a very good episode ("The Innocent") where Barney is injured and the IMF is forced to bring in a reluctant outsider to help them and in which the morality of what the team does is questioned.
It must be said there are numerous fine episodes that dealt with what were then current events such as nuclear weapons proliferation ("The Field"), apartheid in South Africa ("Kitara"), another episode in which Barney is injured in a white-ruled country in Africa which was a thinly disguised version of Rhodesia, and the famous hotel-switch episode with Robert Conrad ("The Killer").
As I noted above, Leslie Warren was just not the best person to take Barbara Bain's place on the team, being too young and not "serious" enough, however, she did put in a fine performance in "Flight" in which she is captured and at first seems to break down and cry claiming she was a fringe person innocently recruited into an intelligence operation without really knowing what is going on, then, she quickly changes persona, becomes cool as a cucumber and tells her interrogators that yes, she is working for American intelligence. However, this brief moment of glory for her and her character didn't last.
I happen to think Sam Elliott was a fine addition to the series, but I guess they didn't figure there was room for both him and Peter Lupus in the show. His best performance was in "Kitara" where he plays an Afrikaner army officer (he had the accent down pretty well) who is an expert in rooting out blacks pretending to be whites. Again, like Leslie Warren, he wasn't really given any other challenging roles.
This season was Leonard Nimoy's second as Paris, and he was very disappointed in the show and decided to leave it. He was not given that much to do, but he also put in some fine performances (although, on the whole, he is not the actor Martin Landau is), among them, "The Field" where he plays an American traitor who is arrested and accused of murder, which was not part of the original mission.
Finally, it was in this season that the decision was made to de-emphasize the episodes about international intrigue due to the unpopularity of the War in Vietnam, however there are still some good ones, particularly, "The Amateur" with Anthony Zerbe, one of MI best villains. After this season, these type of episodes were completely phased out with the Missions changed to battling organized crime, which quickly lead to the writers running out of ideas.
Having said all this, any fan of series will still enjoy these season 5 episodes.
The last classic year of MI November 19, 2008
Sadly, this review site has become a hang-out for disgruntled "Fugitive" fans with a never-ending grudge against CBS/Paramount. Get a life!
This 5th series of MI is one of my favorites. They finally grow there hair/sideburns a little and start swinging with the '70's! Really strong writing, and a good variation of plots. Too bad Leonard Nimoy wasn't happy with his role, but he is a team-member of equal importance, and really shines in several episodes. Sam Elliott as a doctor is not a good replacement for strongman Willie in 10 episodes, but he is not as bad as I expected, just generally useless. Lesley Anne Warren is very young and new to acting, but she is gorgeous and wears some incredible mini-dresses & mini-skirts (and never wore a bra). Yes, I admit, pure eye candy, but she is effective in the mod episodes where Barbara Bain would have seemed, well, out of place. The next years are good too, but this seems like the last classic team, and the least repetitive with plots. (I mean, how many Eastern European or South American jails do they have to infiltrate, then escape?)
 Disappointing November 17, 2008
For a Mission Impossible fanatic, it's passable, but that's all. I've watched the first four seasons, and they are mostly very, very good. This 5th season is not nearly so. The sets are very artificial-looking. Many of the plots are weak, and the acting thin. Leslie Warren is awful in the beginning but steadily improves as the season progresses. Unclear why Sam Elliot alternates with Peter Lupus, who actually develops a personality after four seasons of blah. I did not like that the introduction of each episode is inconsistent one to the next. Some of the character actors utilized throughout are excellent, such as George Sanders. This is Leonard Nimoy's second season, and he is not as good as in the first, but this may be due to the weak plotlines. Peter Graves and Greg Morris are the stabalizers; very good each time out.
I hope the final two seasons will improve.
Good Stuff November 9, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Mission Impossible is a great series....a little corney, but that's
what it's all about shooting mostly on the backlot. It's great to see
all the actors of the 70s throughout this series.
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