Hello, My Lovely

Philip Marlowe, Private Eye 1
Episodes Season 2 (1986)

If you think that HBO suddenly started creating good television with The Sopranos then you need to go back and see some of their early series like Philip Marlowe, because it turns out they were doing some good stuff all along. The first season of this show ran in 1983 and then the second season ran in 1986. I wish I had seen this way back in the day, but hey, better late than never. I don't know how this series slipped through the distribution cracks, but this set has popped up everywhere of late. The only problem is, it's labeled as Season 1, but is in fact the second season. (The real season 1 has become very difficult to track down.)

So, why the big deal about Philip Marlowe? Well, maybe because Raymond Chandler's character is quintessential to American identity. Frankly, I think that if you've never imagined walking around narrating your life in the past tense then you should be deported or at least stripped of your citizenship until you appreciate that favorite of detective story tropes. At any rate, there's nothing like a good hard-boiled mystery with a tough detective with an internal code who navigates the sleazy underbelly of a city. And in this case, the city is Los Angeles, which is itself something of a sleazy underbelly of the country.
Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Mike Hammer...Fletch. What can be more emblematic of Americana than a good old fashioned detective story?

I'm anxious to dive into this series because the character of Philip Marlowe is as iconic as Hamlet and I can't wait to see how these stories turn out. I realize I'm heading into it with abnormally high expectations, but I love the noir, even in color as it is here. And I have a good feeling about Powers Boothe's ability to narrate.