The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Complete Series

Deep within this briefcase-shaped deluxe package is one of the more pleasant relics of ’60s TV: all four seasons of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., a James Bond riff that’s wittier and more tongue-in-cheek than the films that are its admitted model. Though it doesn’t rise to the heights of The Avengers — still the apex of mod TV espionage — it still manages to be big fun without raising too many hackles. Robert Vaughn is perfectly cast as Napoleon Solo, the intrepid agent of United Network Command for Law Enforcement. With his Soviet Man Friday Ilya Kuryakin (a dreamy David McCallum), he deals with an amorphous criminal organization called THRUSH that does camp evil across the globe. Some of the witty banter is a little ridiculous, and not entirely by design, but the pleasingly ludicrous villains — all of whom have a god complex and perhaps a dominatrix assistant — are quite creative. One particularly memorable episode has Solo and Kuryakin dealing with a mind-control experiment at an all-girls school where they are naturally menaced in ways that would raise eyebrows now. Or not — the people behind the scenes mean it all in good fun and wink-nudge at the sexual suggestion rather than the now-I-got-you-babe tone that is usually de rigueur. Goofy-sexy in the best ways, it’s got all of the virtues of the ’60s spy genre without the contempt that could turn them tiresome and ugly. Though the first season is a little stiff (partly for being in black-and-white), the groove gets on pretty fast in season two, and though it starts seeming a little strained by the last go-round, two and three are big fun by anybody’s standards. And, oh, are there extras, a big raft of featurettes all geared towards a fan’s mentality rather than a critical one (though who needs a deep exegesis of this?). There are very, very in-depth interviews with various creative personnel, a TV movie that’s a two-part episode stitched together, McCallum’s home movies of the set and more TV spots, trailers and promotional crap than you can shake a stick at. They’ll probably release the seasons separately soon but if you can’t wait there are worse ways to imperil your rent.