Type of Series: Action-Adventure; Comedy-Drama; Cop Show;

    Similar Shows: The A-Team; The Mod Squad; The Rockford Files; Three;

    Typical Episode: Typically, the teams contact tells them who their target is, and the three guys set up an elaborate con on the individual. Typically, things go wrong (or appear to be going wrong) and the team do something ingenious to ensure a favourable outcome.

    The Inner Light:

    Strengths: Ice-T. Man, but he's cool!! Super-Cool and the perfect leading man for a show like this. As well as being the lynchpin of the team, Ice narrates each episode with his (ultra-cool) observations on cons, women and life-in-general. Great fun!

    Weaknesses:

    Impressive Characters: Ice Gregory, the central character is fascinating and enjoyable.

    Impressive Actors: Ice-T, of course, and Frank John Hughes.

    Ice, as I said, is probably the best thing the show has going for it, but Hughes runs a close second. When I saw the pilot I had no idea who Hughes was and I though he was getting swamped by the other two.

    Fat chance!

    His character was a scream and Hughes was evidently having a ball playing him.

    With Ice-T you had one team-member who was super-cool, on the other end of the spectrum you had this geeky nerd, utterly terrified most of the time and decidedly uncool.

    Yet, in episode ten, 45 minutes of excruciating sexual tension paid off when Hughes character got-the-girl in one the best scenes from the entire series. Making him see suddenly very darn cool indeed! Heh-heh.

    Impressive Episodes: ITV have been airing the show here in Monday nights at 11:20, and they seem to have stopped after ten episodes. However, from those ten the absolute best was "Rashacon", a wonderful homage to The Usual Suspects. "Rashacon" was Players at it's cleverest and funniest and best.

    Impressive Writers: Dick Wolf, Shaun Cassidy, Ice-T and Reggie "Rock" Bythewood created the show. Wolf, of course, is the man behind Law And Order, New York Undercover and other shows. While ex-Hardy Boy Shaun Cassidy was the brains behind American Gothic and Roar. Listed among the producers are Gerry Conway, Randy Anderson, Robert Lloyd Lewis. Conway was involved with Jake And The Fatman, The Father Dowling Mysteries, and (I think) he's the same Gerry Conway who scripted lots of superb Spider-Man comic-books.

    Less-Than-Impressive Characters:

    Less-Than-Impressive Actors:

    Less-Than-Impressive Episodes:

    Less-Than-Impressive Writers:

    Continuity: None.

    Rewatchability: Players episodes are lots of fun and cleverly scripted, so "Yes" they are rewatchable.

    Episode Guide: The Episode Guide Pages is a great place to go for Episode Guides.

    Reviews:

    Other Info: The 1997-8 season really stands out, for me, as a season of Great TV. Michael Hayes, Cracker, Nothing Sacred, Three, C16-FBI and, now, Players. None, of course, survived the irrational network chopping block.

    Miscellaneous Comments:    1 August, 1999

    Players has been one of the few shows I've watched every week as it goes out. And I hope the final seven episodes make an appearance on ITV in the near future.

    It was just a whole of fun from start to finish. Ice Gregory and Charlie O'Bannon were two utterly terrific TV heroes. Beside them the usually reliable Costas Mandylor did tend to pale, but they were still a fun trio. Aside from the smart scripts the actors had an infectious chemistry. I've been working some long days recently, 10am to 11pm most days. I love what I do, and all, but come 11 o'clock I was usually pretty darn tired. And I liked nothing better than heading home and sitting down to eat fast food and watch an episode of Players.

GRADE: B+

Review by Michael Leddy

Comments are welcome: rikerdonegal@hotmail.com

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