"Contraband" - Series 1 Episode 13

First Aired: January 1998

Joshua Cox as "Commando #1"

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Production Information

Filmed At: Universal Studios, Hollywood

Format: One-hour action series

Executive Producers:

Dick Wolf, Ed Zuckerman, Clyde Phillips Created by: Reggie "Rock" Bythewood & Ice-T & Dick Wolf and Shaun Cassidy

Director of Photography: Victor Hammer

Casting: Megan Branman

Production: A Wolf Films production in association with NBC Studios and Universal Television

Players - Dick Wolf's short lived tribute to criminal ingenuity, is a programme about which little solid information exists. The apparent brain-child of latter day rap star Ice T, the show concerns a trio of former con artists who are granted early release from prison in return for placing their many dubious talents at the disposal of the FBI. Ice T made the unorthodox move of bringing the idea to producer Dick Wolf following a number of guest appearances he made on "New York Undercover."

"I was working on NEW YORK UNDERCOVER and I dug the whole vibe there. I had this idea for a story along time ago, but people said it was too hot for television. My initial story was also a little bit too hot for TV. And Dick Wolf and his team were able to bring it into a television format and not lose the edge, you know? And it worked."

"It's a story I wrote about three criminals who are released by the Justice Department to pull off one score for them because they are number one, the best people in the world. They can do it," Ice-T explained. "They got the skills... higher skills than the cops, but also they are expendable. "They pull off the score in the pilot, but of course the Feds say, 'You know what, you're so good we're going to keep using you guys.' So you have unwilling heroes that are going to fight crime using crime in order to stay on the streets. "It's a little premise I wrote, kind of like 'The Dirty Dozen' meets 'Charlie's Angels.' It's going to be something to bug out on."

Players represented something of a minor departure from grittier Dick Wolf offerings such as "Law and Order." Basically, every week the 3 con men - Isaac "Ice" Gregory (Ice T,) Alphonse Royo (Costas Mandylor,) Charles 'Charlie' O'Bannon (Frank John Hughes,) are instructed by Agent Christine Kowalski (Mia Korf) to set up some bunch of miscreants or another using an elaborate web of deceit. The plan invariably goes awry, and the onus of solution falls to the wily lads, with the assistance of some fast thinking, witty dialogue, spiffy cars, implausible computer trickery, and a comely wench or two thrown in for good measure. All of this takes place to the accompaniment of some truly awful songs, and Ice T imparting the wisdom of the streets in relentlessly cool and mellow tones while clad in an impossibly groovy outfit. It's fairly standard "the cops, indeed the Sate as a whole is rubbish, and only individualistic gunmen operating at the margins of the law can save the day" fare, and there's more than a flavour of a slightly more grown-up A-Team about the programme. Sadly, however, no one ever welds a fridge to a lawnmower and turns it into an armoured truck complete with rocket propelled grenade launcher, machine gun turret, and in house coffee making facilities. The A-Team comparison becomes yet more pronounced when you learn that according to the Icy one's original idea, the trio would have operated without the backing of the FBI, and it was apparently NBC who insisted on this alteration being made.

The show first appeared on NBC in the autumn of 1997, and ended after 18 episodes in June1998. Some attribute its untimely demise to poor ratings - according to Variety, the programme averaged a 5.4 rating and 10 share in homes and a 2.9/10 in the key adults 18-49 demographic on the largely incomprehensible Nielsen ratings scale, while others blame a lack of publicity for the fiasco. Alternatively the writers may simply have run out of punning titles, prefixed with the word "Con" with which to supply each episode. Indeed when you consider such adventurous turns as "Rashocon," "Mint Con-dition" and "The Wrath of Con" you get the impression that by show number 18 the bottom of the barrel was well and truly scraped to perfection. Whatever the cause, the death of Players was a bit of a shame. Utter shash it may have been, but it was at least entertaining shash, and during its 2001 airing on the UK channel ITV, Players claimed the heart of many a drunken insomniac in search of post pub viewing on a Friday night. While not exactly compelling stuff, it's the kind of cheerful rubbish most inebriates are prepared to watch while wondering why the kettle they've failed to plug in hasn't boiled yet, and desperately trying to avoid endless snooker highlights or whatever god-awful soft porn film Channel 5 are churning out that night.

Con-traband

Starring

Ice-T - Isaac "Ice" Gregory

Costas Mandylor - Alphonse Royo

Frank John Hughes - Charlie O'Bannon

Mia Korf - Special Agent Christine Kowalski

Synopsis

Following another narrowly averted disaster when an arms dealing bust goes wrong, the lads face a rather tricky time of it when Agent Kowalski is kidnapped by an irate member of the LAPD etc, etc, etc...

Rant:

There's something massively endearing about the sight of a competent actor throwing subtlety, restraint and years of training to the wind, and entering with boundless enthusiasm into some cheesy production or another. The "Players" episode "Con-traband" gives Josh more than ample opportunity to demonstrate that he can ham it up with the best of them. In fact, such is the honest and overblown moustache-twirling villainy depicted throughout, that his brief outing as Unpleasant Hench Individual #1 is one of the most unashamedly enjoyable bit performances I've ever seen the man provide.

The episode as a whole is reasonably straightforward. After an arms sting goes slightly awry, Agent Kowalski is abducted by some nasty lads deployed by the absurdly corrupt head of an LAPD SWAT team. She is held hostage, menaced and generally abused for 24 hours in an attempt to draw Ice - who met the offender in question during the aforementioned raid, and is therefore capable of identifying him, into a position where he can be swiftly murdered. Naturally - it doesn't work, the side of good prevails, and by the end of the episode order is more or less restored.

So what of Josh's involvement? Well - the man himself turns up in an encouraging number of scenes. He first appears towering ominously in the doorway of Kowalski's holding cell, and delivers one of the most hilariously naff lines I've ever had occasion hear, in a voice so deep it sounds as though he's been injecting testosterone directly into his vocal chords. Towards the end of the episode, he drags the unfortunate Agent on to the balcony of a disused factory (to demonstrate to her erstwhile liberators that she's still alive,) while brandishing a large weapon of some sort, and wearing an appropriately psychotic grin. Between sundry other bouts of looming, threatening and all-round disagreeable behaviour, he returns to the cell to restrain Kowalski as she attempts to make a run for it. This scene is well choreographed, but somewhat confusing, as Mia Korf sounds more like she's engaged in wildly energetic and enjoyable sex, than having the proverbial seven shades beaten out of her. On the other hand, I shouldn't really criticize. If Josh were dolled up in a SWAT team uniform, and throwing me bodily around a chamber, I'd probably react in very much the same way. *grin.* All in all - nice one!

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