Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s when The Untouchables first aired it was an incredibly controversial show. This piece of television history gave media junkies the well known (even if you are unfamiliar with The Untouchables) Eliot Ness played by Robert Stack. These days, The Untouchables no longer holds that controversial and dangerous feel that it once did. However, as a piece of television history it is still enjoyable and worth watching.

As volume two rolls around, Al Capone (Neville Brand) has been put in jail and now Ness is hunting other, lesser known mobsters in Chicago and other parts of the world. Ness is a standard hero that seems almost carbon copied. There is no unique likeness to Ness. He is one dimensional and has one goal. Unfortunately, many of the characters in The Untouchables have this problem. Ness has assistant agents that he works with, but he is the main character, and things do not move in this series unless he seems to move them.

The mobsters are more entertaining than the agents that are hunting them, but they suffer from oneness issues, as well. They are bad, but that’s about it. The layers of good and bad…simple and complex are missing. The dynamic layers of the human spirit were not written for these characters. Without these dynamic personalities you are left with the occasional interesting secondary character who you know is not staying for very long. It also becomes easy to realize that while the subject matter was so controversial back in the day, it caused few if any to recognize the problems that I have listed here.

Considering the one dimensional characters, you end up with a lot of episodes feeling like the same old thing. You really are watching the same show, over and over with minor differences because the characters never truly grow and move beyond their basic spirit. Additionally, none of the characters truly stand out in a real dynamic way so the show falls flat in that regard, as well.

Desi Arnaz was the genius behind The Untouchables. I know it sounds as if I am not a fan of the show, and while that is true, I am a fan of what this show helped to do. The Untouchables paved the way for controversial television. Some of the best shows (this being one of them back in its day) were controversial, but when people gave them a shot they were not let down. Had this been a lesser show it would have been removed from the air and likely never watched. The Untouchables was condemned by many and was looked at with a suspicious and cautious eye due to the fact that there was so much violence and murder on a show that was airing on a basic network.

One of the best things about The Untouchables is the quality of the shows. Arnaz spent a considerable amount of money making the show appear more like a movie than a television show. I imagine the quality stood out back on the old television sets when it aired weekly and it certainly transferred over nicely onto DVD.

The fourteen episodes for the end of season one are available on four standard DVDs. The video quality looked excellent. They mention on the DVDs that some episodes may be edited, but I did not notice the content of the show changing to signal there were edits. The audio quality was also just fine. I was able to hear and did not notice too much difference between music, gunfire, and speech audio levels.

The one and only special feature is also one of the best parts of this entire box set. The special feature is an episode of The Lucy Show that parodies The Untouchables. The episode, “Lucy and the Gun Moll” stars people from The Untouchables and like most Lucy episodes, is simply hilarious to watch.

Despite some basic flaws, The Untouchables was a great show when it was first made and it’s still alright today. Watching the guest stars was my favorite part. Seeing stars like Leslie Nielsen, Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York, and many others was interesting especially considering how long ago this was made. You may want to rent this one before you buy it, but if you are a lover of classic cinema or all things mobster you will want to make The Untouchables part of your collection.

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