So I'm sitting here watching the first season of one of my favorite shows, the Pretender, and I'm wondering if the creator's of The Pretender were fans of Repairman Jack. Many of Jarod's fixes remind me of Jack's.

So I'm sitting here watching the first season of one of my favorite shows, the Pretender, and I'm wondering if the creator's of The Pretender were fans of Repairman Jack. Many of Jarod's fixes remind me of Jack's.

[SIZE="3"]I've never heard of it. It's good?[/SIZE]

[SIZE="3"]I've never heard of it. It's good?[/SIZE]

"The Pretender" was a TV series that ran from 1996-2000. I found it so-so and I never associated it with Repairman Jack.

I'm hazy on the details, but I seem to remember a young boy who was taken away or at least not raised by his parents but by a government agency. He was turned into a government weapon in the form of a super agent of sorts. But he turns against the Center, where he was raised, and becomes a sort of lone ranger, helping folks with his unique talents, all the while trying to find his parents.

I've never heard of it. It's good?

It was a great show while it lasted. There was lots of conspiracy-theory type plotting in the whole backstory that was intriguing, but never completed (at least not fully).

[SIZE="3"]I've never heard of it. It's good?[/SIZE]

Although I haven't watched much TV for years, I watched several episodes and found the premise excellent. I'm surprised you never heard of it--it's right up your alley!

[SIZE="3"]I've never heard of it. It's good?[/SIZE]

I think it's good. It's very. . . I think the word is formulaic? Most of the episodes have the same basic premise: Someone somewhere has been killed, hurt, or otherwise seriously screwed. Jarod (The Pretender, played by Michael T. Weiss) takes on a role, via his special gifts (Pretending - he's a super genius), that allows him to gain access to the perpetrators.

Bing bang boom, Jarod traps the criminals in a situation similar to the criminal act they performed, and engages in what is essentially very cruel mental torture. Then everybody lives happily ever after. Well, they don't actually. Typically, the families of the initial crime's victim live best as they can with some sense of closure and justice. It's these often elaborate fixes that remind me of Jack. The fixes and Jarod's incredibly strong sense of justice.

While the formula in each epsode is pretty standard, it's interesting to watch Jarod put it together. What makes the show particualrly good is watching the character of Jarod develop. At the start of the show, he's been locked in the Centre for about 30 years IIRC, so once he's free, he begins to discover things he missed as a kid, like ice cream, Spiderman, silly putty, and what becomes the ubiquitous Pez.

At the same time as Jarod is finding justice for the "weak and abused", he is being hunted by the Centre, via an interesting trio of characters. These three, along with Jarod, are involved in a particualrly compelling ongoing story arc.

The best thing about the show are the actors though. They're all very good and work really well together. Weiss has to manage innocence, brutality, focus, loss, and a variety of characters all the time and does an excellent job. He's also the guy I'd pick to play Remo Williams. He can do the dead eyes.

If you have Netflix or something like that, I'd recommend checking it out.

I'm hazy on the details, but I seem to remember a young boy who was taken away or at least not raised by his parents but by a government agency.

Just change government agency to private super corporation and that's the basic origin.