What I know about Charlie's Angels comes from the feature films Charlie's Angels and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu headlining the cast. If you like, you can read a full review to learn more about my opinions of the feature film Charlie's Angels. Despite my experience with the feature films, I have never seen the television series. Besides the general premise, I know nothing about it, including the lead actresses Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, or Cheryl Ladd. I was not around in 70s and never had the opportunity to watch it. Well, after sitting through the entire third season, I have a pretty good handle of the show and I was not impressed. The show is a fluffy action series with light drama and mediocre acting performances.

For those unfamiliar with the series, the show features three former female police officers who were given dull day-to-day jobs because of their gender. However, one Charles Townsend recognized their true potential and recruited them to work for Charles Townsend Private Investigations. The girls are referred to as Charlie's Angels. In this series, the girls join Townsend's right hand man John Bosley (David Boyle) and work various cases that involve corruption, conspiracy, homicide, theft, and other related crimes. All of which, involve some kind of action from gun play to fast cars to gambling to undercover work.

The season begins with the two-part episode "Angels in Vegas", which is a dull and extremely slow-going story. The angels are hired by the owner of Tropicana Hotel and Casino to investigate some suspicious deaths. Two employees have been mysteriously died in automobile accidents and the owner suspects murder. The angels go undercover to catch the killer and unweave a not-so-complex series of murders. In "Angel Come Home", Farrah Fawcett makes one of three appearances for the season. She returns from Europe after receiving a cablegram stating for her to return immediately and finds none of the other angels requested her presence. It turns out someone was using her to fish out her formula one friend Paul Ferrino, who has been working on a revolutionary prototype worth killing for. Or so it would seem...

In "Angels Ahoy", a woman is murdered when she recognizes an escaped convict aboard a cruise ship. After her death, the angels are sent in to find the killer. While on the ship, they undercover a dubious plot to help convicted criminals in fleeing the country. "Mother Angel" features another guest appearance from Farrah Fawcett. In this episode, Fawcett joins her fellow angels in looking for a killer. An eleven year old girl and the niece of one of Charlie's client witnesses her neighbor murder a man. The angels are reluctant to believe the young girl, because of who the accused killer is.

"Angel on my Mind" is a change of pace for the angels. While Bosley and the angels are sharing a meal, Kris excuses herself and sees someone murder the owner. The killer sees her and chases after her. He manages to hit her with the car, but he does not kill her. Instead, Kris is left without memory and the angels have to find her before the killer does. "Counterfeit Angels" is an intriguing episode about a group with dubious intentions. Three gals pose as the angels and commit some robberies, including a sports arena box office. The act soils the good name of the angels and they are forced to go underground and bring the real fake angels to justice.

Overall, I did not find the series to be really impressive. The first episode of season three was hard for me to stomach, as the characters were uninteresting and the storylines were lackluster. The remainder of the season progressed in a similar manner with little to grab my attention. The cases and how they were handled failed to offer any intrigue. In the end, I suppose this might make for a good rental if you enjoy television with weak storylines, uninteresting characters, poor dialogue, and some cheesy 70s action sequences. Otherwise, I suggest you skip it.

Episode Guide
1. Angels In Vegas Part 1
2. Angels In Vegas Part 2
3. Angel Come Home
4. Angel On High
5. Angels In Springtime
6. Winning Is For Losers
7. Haunted Angels
8. Pom Pom Angels
9. Angels Ahoy
10. Mother Angel
11. Angel On My Mind
12. Angels Belong In Heaven
13. Angels In The Stretch
14. Angels On Vacation
15. Counterfeit Angels
16. Disco Angels
17. Terror On Skis Part 1
18. Terror On Skis Part 2
19. Angel In A Box
20. Teen Angels
21. Marathon Angels
22. Angels In Waiting
23. Rosemary, For Remembrance
24. Angels Remembered

The DVD

Video:
The video is given in its original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame color. The picture quality is good considering its age. The image is a bit soft at times. For the most part, it looks good with a slight grain and no noticeable issues attributed with video compression.

Audio:
The audio in this release is in English 2.0 Dolby digital stereo sound. The quality is good for its age. The track sounds relatively clean with dialogue easy to hear throughout. The track offers little in terms of stereo dynamics. This release also supports closed captioning.

Extras:
There are no extras included with this release.

Final Thoughts:
I am familiar with the Hollywood feature films Charlie's Angels and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle that based on this television series, but prior to watching season three I had not seen a single episode from the show. While I thought the movies were enjoyable (to some degree), I did not find I had the same feeling about the television series. The show offers several poor attempts at a crime show that fail on almost every level.