Honey West "The Swingin' Mrs. Jones" #1.1 (1965) (TV)

"We've already done our worst.", 22 January 2010

The Swingin' Mrs. Jones provides a wonderful opening to the Honey West series. Other than Honey's sweet ride, everything else that made the series so watchable and so fun is here. In The Swingin' Mrs. Jones, Honey is hired by a wealthy widow who's being blackmailed over some indiscreet photos taken of her at a vacation resort. This being 1965, it all sounds so innocent – like maybe someone has something as scandalous as photos of the woman holding hands with a gentleman caller. Anyway, Honey goes undercover as a rich woman on the make in order to find the blackmailer. Highlights of this episode include – some pretty cool fight scenes, the old lady disguise, smoke bomb earrings, a microphone hidden in a martini olive (some of the gadgets in Honey West would make even James Bond envious), Sam's ridiculous cover as an obnoxious playboy named Touch, and the recurring theme of Honey getting conked on the head and knocked out. Another big highlight for me in The Swingin' Mrs. Jones is Ray Danton in the supporting cast. The man was as cool as a glass of iced tea in Antarctica. The man had a sense of style and a presence about him that few could match. Finally, while some may complain that Honey West's half-hour format kept things like plot and character development to a minimum, I really like the fast-paced, never-a-dull-moment feel to all of the episodes. It works for me.

8/10