Why The Equalizer?

First, why did we make the podcast...

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The original Equalizer series isn't streaming anywhere despite that fact that it's the (loose) basis of a successful Denzel Washington movie trilogy and Queen Latifah reboot series.

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Whereas with other episode recap podcasts, it's fun to watch along or to relive the show after a binge, this podcast is chronicling something that is essentially modern prehistory.

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• Outside current television best practices, but with an occasional guest star turn by a young Christian Slater.

• Making us podcaster essentially... anthropologists? historical sociologists? 

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In other words, in an ideal world we wouldn't need The Equalizers podcast because everyone could stream it and experience it themselves. But because it's nowhere, sorry to say, but the best possible way you can experience the full original Equalizer series is listening about it second-hand from us.​

     Luckily take our jobs as chroniclers very seriously. Or at the very least, we're thorough.​

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Why this show, of all shows?

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Crazy Plots. Plots so crazy you're left wondering "Was there any accountability here? Or a second draft?"

The show is shot in NYC, the gritty 80's version of NYC, but most plots veer far from a plausible reality. Not sci-fi (though there's some of that!), but more like "This episode is set in a world where there's a drug ring employed entirely by ex-jocks. Got that?"

     And there's no continuity between these implausibilities. The viewer has to acclimate themself to each episode's individual implausible universe.

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• Stretch Parallel #1: The Equalizer is like Star Trek, but instead of learning about the rules of each new planet they land on, here we have to believe that there's a band of burglars who target the deaf because they can be as noisy as they want.

• Also, regarding NYC: Any modern viewer will watch this show and think they were shooting this guerilla-style under-the-radar. They just have so much access to the city. It's refreshing somehow.

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To be sure, this show aired just before it was possible for a viewer to watch each episode as many times as possible — before streaming (obvs), before DVR, even before VCRs.​

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• ​VCRs in US households went from 14% to 70% between 1985-1990 #Fact​​​​​

The creators of this show were trying to make the most entertaining 44 minute show the viewer could possibly watch when it aired in the 80s on CBS and, very likely, never again.

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In additional to plausibility, compared to modern shows, the writers and creators didn't seem to care if you thought of them as especially smart or clever. It's just pure entertainment - sometimes dramatic, frequently badass, but never ironic, sarcastic, or winking to the camera.

• Seemingly, sarcasm wasn't invented until some time in the 1990s, excluding when Robert McCall would add an air of pomp by quoting Oscar Wilde.

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One more factor: The Equalizer is pure episodic TV. It's not a modern day procedural where each episode follows a reliable formula. Nor is it Golden Age TV where each episode further builds a universe.

     With each episode of The Equalizer, you have no idea a) what reality we'll be in b) where the plot will go and when. Each episode is its own thing. It's almost like a series of movies. In fact...

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• Stretch Parallel #2: The series of The Equalizer follows more the format of the James Bond than any modern television format — each episode an encapsulated, individual adventure.

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Speaking of James Bond and protagonists who are equal parts proper British gentlemen and total badasses, there's the Equalizer himself, Edward Woodward as Robert McCall. There's more to say about him, but he's awesome.

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• Edward Woodward was nominated for the Best Actor in a Drama series five times for The Equalizer, even though there are only four seasons!

  • The fourth season stretched into the next TV season

  • And yes, this may say more about what was considered dramatic TV acting in the 80s, but he's still the best.​​

• Also he had a heart attack midway through season three, a big piece of Equalizer lore.​

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Finally, the equalizing itself. For a TV series from 35 years ago, across the board Robert McCall the Equalizer comes out on the right side of history. He helps those in need.

     That said, the mentality of the show seems to be that as long as an episode ends on the right note, the rest can be shoot-em-up Equalizer business as usual. Like yes, The Equalizer himself is sympathetic to the kid with AIDS and in the end justice is served, but do we really have to show the town drunks throwing a smoke bomb in the kids bedroom?​