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Rating:
Country: USA
Release Date: February 14, 2006
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
CastMichael T. Weiss
Andrea Parker
Patrick Bauchau
Jon Gries
Related Sites:
IMDb: The Pretender
Grade: A
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There are pretenders among us...
Michael T. Weiss returns to his role as the wandering Jarod for a third season of The Pretender, a combination of The Prisoner and The Fugitive. Jarod is an escapee from the enigmatic Centre, a think-tank that does some pretty unusual thinking. Taken from his parents as a child, Jarod's gifted brain was used to think up scenarios -- ostensibly to design preventative measures against the scenarios. When he became an adult, he escaped from the Centre to begin a hunt for his missing parents. Along the way, he helps the helpless and provides aid to those who have been treated unjustly, almost always with the focus on victims with family.
Consistently on his trail are Sydney (Patrick Bauchau), Miss Parker (Andrea Parker), and Broots (Jon Gries). Technically, it's more Miss Parker than the other two, as Sydney often acts as Jarod's father-figure over the telephone, and Broots is the put-upon technical specialist who's more comfortable behind a keyboard than a pistol.
This third season saw the focus shift from the intial premise, which often saw Jarod learning some new delight missed from his childhood and indulging in it for an entire episode (sometimes even figuring into whatever final solution he was cooking up.) Instead, we see more of the internal workings of The Centre, and of the relationships that exist within it: Broots and his daughter are in danger from a killer who's broken through Broots's computer security to steal scenarios Jarod developed. Sydney also finds himself in the precarious position of needing Jarod's help to save his own son. And Miss Parker... she's really the one with the full plate this season. After finding out her father is marrying the very young Brigitte (who tried to kill him last season, by the way), she actually finds a boyfriend for herself in the real world -- only to have him later killed by the Centre to keep Miss Parker from leaving the Centre.
Welcome to the world of The Centre.
Clockwise from top-left: Broots (Jon Gries),
Sydney (Patrick Bauchau), Mr. Parker
(Harve Presnell), Mr. Lyle (James Denton),
Mr. Raines (Richard Marcus, and
Miss Parker (Andrea Parker).
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There are still the standalone Jarod episodes. After all, the show is named after the man who can be anyone he wants to be. Take the time he found himself in Memphis and had to learn to play pool to hustle a racist killer into a confession. (And speaking of being anyone you want to be, a young Jennifer Garner guests in this episode, no doubt taking notes on how to play her Alias role.) My personal favorite of the season, and perhaps the series, is "Murder 101" which puts Jarod in the role of a college professor up against some genius students who believe they've committed the perfect murder.
If you're keeping a guest-star tally, keep your eyes peeled for a pre-"Phantom Menace" Jake Lloyd, as well as George Lazenby as Jarod's long-lost father in the show's finale. (Knowing that the wolf in one episode was the same one that stalked Kevin Costner in "Dances With Wolves" probably doesn't count, except for the most anal of spotters.)
This season also sees a crossover with Profiler, in an episode that seens Jarod investigating the same crime as Samantha Waters (Ally Walker) -- who ends up looking more into Jarod's person than into that of the killer they're stalking.
This set is packaged on four double-sided discs, two each in a slimline snap-tite case, and presented in anamorphic widescreen with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. There are three featurettes spread across the discs that look into the behind-the-scenes of this particular season, in which Weiss, Parker and the rest of the stars and creative crew talk about their characters and what happened to them this season. Weiss's voice has, impossibly, developed an even deeper growl to it -- must be all those episodes voicing Jason Blood, the demon Etrigan, for the Justice League cartoons. There are also three episodes that contain commentary from series creators Craig Van Sickle and Steven Mitchell. Hey, you didn't think I recognized that wolf on my own, did you? In the commentary, Van Sickle and Mitchell poke fun at their work and at each other, sometimes imitating Bauchau's "Belgiumese" accent, as well as making cracks like, "Hey, that [insert prop here] looks just like the one I saw in your house." It's a lot like watching MST3K, with trivia.
With some truly great episodes and a bang-up cliffhanger finale, you'll find yourself biting your nails from start to finish, and counting the days until the fourth season becomes available, just to see how Jarod gets out of the fix he finds himself in when those last credits roll.
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