The first act confronts Washington with three different forms of injustice that challenge his role as protector. There's more than race at play in this movie, but race and history are a good introduction to the problem of heroism and justice. The suggestion is that Coates, although he seems a champion of race grievance and the intellectual face of Black Lives Matter, is in fact pretty realistic, trying to save young black men from the inevitable fate conflict with the white majority would lead to, as per Wright's novel. Richard Wright's Native Son also makes an appearance. In the sequel, Washington has the young black man read one of Ta-Nehisi Coates' books. The movie, instead, offers an all-American Stoic who thinks of himself as a protector facing wickedness, rather than nature. Hemingway's idea is that that confrontation brings out the greatest powers, the excellence of which any creature is capable, fish as well as man. In the original,Washington was reading The Old Man and the Sea, a book about confronting nature in its formless infinite character. Needless to say, it's a much more emotional relationship. In the sequel, he mentors a young black man with a talent for painting, but who's involved with a drug gang. He also saved a young woman with a talent for music from prostitution. The tough old action hero Denzel wasn't just an incredibly efficient killer who timed his kills to see if he’s still got it: he also mentored a young man who needed guidance in order to get the dignity of blue-collar work and manliness as a security guard. The strange thing about the original was fatherhood. Obviously, our political discourse on intersectionality focuses on power, not justice-the movie tries to reverse this. Now, they've gone woke and have ideas about how to re-think intersectionality. In 2014, when The Equalizer came out, it was all about a manly Stoicism. 7 after the Super Bowl on CBS.The Equalizer 2 is the first time director Antoine Fuqua and star Denzel Washington have made a sequel. The questions are whether Hollywood has somewhat greedily issued that call once too often, and how many of those post-football viewers come back for mor When such trouble comes, you go to “The Equalizer,” naturally. (The program carries a dedication to the original show’s co-creator, Richard Lindheim, who died in January.) “Who do you go to if you can’t go to the cops?” the premiere’s damsel in distress asks, encapsulating the underlying premise in a single sentence. Dana Owens, among the executive producers), it’s an unpretentious exercise that makes the most of its New York setting, a bit like the former CBS hour “Person of Interest.” There’s even an NYPD detective (Tory Kittles) wondering who this mysterious vigilante might be. Marlowe and Terri Edda Miller (joined by Queen Latifah, a.k.a. Like the CW’s recent revival of another old CBS title, “Walker, Texas Ranger,” the show emphasizes family a life apart from crimefighting in a way the original didn’t – a more character-driven sign of the times, transparently seeking to humanize its inherently-likable star beyond just serving as a robotic dispenser of justice.ĭeveloped by former “Castle” producers Andrew W. OK, so it’s not quite grandma’s “The Equalizer,” although the first show was probably most memorable for its synthesized theme. They include Bishop (Chris Noth), now running a private-security firm, and a husband-and-wife team that consists of a sharpshooter (Liza Lapira) and hacker (Adam Goldberg), both inordinately handy skills in a pinch. Robert McCall has become Latifah’s Robyn McCall, a former CIA agent quietly raising her teenage daughter (Laya DeLeon Hayes) with help from her live-in aunt (Lorraine Toussaint).Ĭonveniently stumbling on a young woman in jeopardy – she witnessed a murder by some very bad people – McCall quickly demonstrates her special skills, before calling on some old friends and colleagues for assistance. If they’re in the market for another procedural with a likable lead and an inordinately good cast for this sort of by-the-numbers endeavor, they just might. The premiere does a nice job of laying out all the ingredients, hoping at least some of that audience will come back for seconds. But the character isn’t all that’s changed, as the show adopts more of a team concept than the original’s loner, even if the basic template – a pretty fun one – still involves a shadowy savior of those in need.ĬBS was happy enough with the concept, ordered as a series without the usual pilot process, to give it a coveted introduction after the Super Bowl, which should ensure a fair amount of sampling. “The Equalizer’s” evolution continues, from that stately old British gent in the 1980s to a couple of Denzel Washington movies to Queen Latifah in a new CBS series.
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