Ever hear the phrase "some things are best left alone"? Sometimes that's the best advice for the TV shows that you enjoyed in childhood. Certainly there are the instances in which you're charmed and delighted by something that you loved as a kid, but then there are other times when you realize that... well, tastes change, styles come and go, and what you once thought was classic is now just plain cheese. That's pretty much where I ended up with Remington Steele Season 2.

Nostalgia is always a powerful help in appreciating the good parts in programs that haven't aged as well as they might have, but I'm afraid that with Remington Steele, nostalgia can only go so far before smacking into the show's flaws. Remington Steele may have seemed ultra-cool to 9- or 10-year-old me in the early 80s, but now looking back on it, the series shows its age rather more than I'd have hoped. As a straightforward action series it might have aged better, but as an action series that staked a lot on also being a romance/comedy, it doesn't work out so well.

For one thing, the acting is downright awful. It's stilted and exaggerated across the board, from the actors playing the cardboard secondary characters to the leads Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist, where it's particularly awful in their painful (not very) humorous repartee. To be fair to Remington Steele, this is a characteristic of 80s television in general; for instance, I ran into the same problem in Murder, She Wrote, a show I was positively devoted to as a teenager. At the time, this was simply the style of acting on television, I think; now that a more naturalistic style has become the norm, the performances of the 80s shows stand out as being hokey and overacted. (Of course, there's no saying what reviewers in the year 2025 will think of modern shows!)

Then there are the plots, which are fairly ordinary mystery/action stories that have the protagonists dashing off here and there for adventures that, for the most part, could have been written for just about any television series in the same genre. Some of them do make use of the interesting element of the show - Remington's backstory - such as "Steele Knuckles and Glass Jaws," in which Remington meets up with his past career as a boxer. Others are potentially fun, like "A Steele at Any Price," which gives Remington a legitimate excuse for practicing his talents as an art thief, but run afoul of bad writing.

Part of the problem is that I found the majority of the show's charm to be in its first season, when the character of Remington was more mysterious and the overall story setup was newer and fresher. Now in the second season, Remington seems to have settled down to a more conventional detective character alongside Laura. Fans who enjoyed the spark of romance between Remington and Laura will find the season more to their liking, as this does get played upon, though that bit of character development just never clicked with me. The second season also drops the secondary characters of Murphy Michaels and Bernice Foxe, and in exchange gives us the new recurring character of Mildred Krebs (Doris Roberts), who would continue to be a regular to the show's end.

The second-season set includes all 21 episodes from the 1983-1984 run, including the double-length season premiere, "Steele Away with Me." The opener is weak even by comparison with the other episodes on the set, probably due to the added running time. The episodes in general tend to feel like they're stretching to reach the 45-minute mark, so 90 minutes feels rather padded. After getting past the season premiere, fans of the show will find the overall quality of the episodes to be fairly even.

The DVD

Remington Steele: Season Two is a four-disc set, with each disc being double-sided. The discs are conveniently packed in two ultra-slim cases inside a glossy paperboard slipcover; this is one of the most compact four-disc sets I've seen.

Video

The episodes all appear in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The overall image quality is satisfactory. Close-up shots look reasonably sharp, while middle- and long-distance shots show increasing amounts of softness and grain. Colors are handled well on the whole, as is contrast. You can tell that you're watching an older show, but it's good looking overall.

Audio

The original mono soundtrack is included. It's generally satisfactory; occasionally the sound feels rather flat, but overall it's a clean and adequate presentation for the show. English closed captions are included, as are Spanish subtitles.

Extras

The menus here are straightforward and easy to navigate. A preview clip runs before each episode, something that I don't care for as it tends to give away too much, but fortunately it's possible to skip past this and the credits.

Of most interest to fans will be the three audio commentaries: one on "Steele Eligible" by series co-creator Michael Gleason and director Sheldon Larry, the second on "Steele Sweet on You" with Michael Gleason and writer Susan Baskin, and the last on "Hounded Steele" with writer Jeff Melvain. The commentaries provide some interesting insights into the making of the show.

A few short featurettes are also included. These are of recent vintage (most likely made for the DVD release), and though they tend to have a lot of clips from the show, do provide some interesting behind-the-scenes information. We get "Steele Action" (13 minutes), a general look back at the show; "Steele Mildred" (10 minutes), on the character of Mildred; and "Steele Together" (10 minutes), taking a look at how the Remington-Laura romance was handled in the show. The use of current-day interviews with the cast and filmmakers makes these featurettes, though short, definitely worth watching for fans.

Final Thoughts

I found that Remington Steele aged rather badly; it was a lot more appealing back in the 1980s than it is to me now as an adult viewer. If you're just interested in checking it out because of the nostalgia factor, certainly a rental is all you'll want to do (and even so, I'd watch the fresher first season instead). On the other hand, if you're a fan and enjoyed the first season (that's probably why you're reading this review of the second season, after all), the set may be worth picking up. The transfers are respectable, the packaging is stylish, and the special features do add value for dedicated fans. Rent it.