There's a laundry list of reasons why one should accept USA Network's excellent dramedy Burn Notice as a legitimately good show, one of which is the fact that it generally doesn't take itself seriously. This lets the program deliver something that you enjoy, and in fact take seriously, while not having to put up with any arrogance on the show's part. This quasi-meta quality is embodied most noticeably in the casting of Bruce Campbell as Sam, Michael Westen's wisecracking, boozy ex-SEAL friend. Campbell is actually a very good actor, and he lends everything he does a winking-at-the-camera quality that prevents the stuff he's in from becoming ponderous. So on those rare occasions when Burn Notice is in danger of realizing just how good it is as a legitimate drama (most notably in both season finales thus far), there's always Bruce Campbell to steer it away. (That may sound like a backhanded compliment, but I assure you that I am legitimately praising Campbell's work.)
I mention this because it should give the viewer an idea of what Jack of All Trades is all about. It's a show starring (and produced by) Bruce Campbell and executive produced in part by Sam Raimi, uber-campy director of the Evil Dead and Spider-man movies. From this alone, we can gather that it goes to great lengths to make fun of itself. Indeed, it's so campy that you can't help but like it, particularly because it is in large part a vehicle for the one-liners that Campbell is so famous for: Campbell makes his first entrance by punching down a door and saying "sorry, I was gonna knock, but my fist had other ideas." Incidentally, another executive producer of the show was Alex Kurtzman, who has helped write any number of legitimately good TV shows and films, including J.J. Abrams' reboot of Star Trek.
Jack of All Trades was a half-hour live-action show that debuted as half of the short-lived Back2Back Action Hour on WB's Saturday night TV block, way back when I was in middle school. This was back when Xena and Hercules were successful on-air Saturday night shows. The other half-hour program in the block was called Cleopatra 2525, and all I remember about it is: A) it was rubbish, B) it was about a girl from our time who somehow ended up fighting in some sort of ultra-low-budget resistance in the year 2525, and C) it is the first time I ever recall seeing Gina Torres, who went on to play Zoe in Firefly/Serenity.
As you can imagine, the plot of Jack of All Trades was utterly ludicrous. Campbell plays Jack Stiles, an American secret agent in the year 1801 who is sent by President Jefferson to Palu Palu, a French-administered island in the West Indes. He is teamed up with Emilia Rothschild, a British secret agent played by Angela Dotchin, in order to disrupt the French rule. They are, of course, love interests, though Stiles is immature, boozy, and a womanizer. But when push comes to shove and rebellion needs to be fomented, Stiles ducks off-screen and becomes the Daring Dragoon, hero of the people, enemy to the incompetent Governor Croque. Emilia assists by running a wealthy import/export company and by inventing all sorts of crazy things such as (I kid you not) a submarine, a bulletproof cloak, love potion, and so on. As this suggests, it is a historical fantasy in the extreme, so much so that it is absolutely impossible for any person to take this seriously.
And therein lies the charm. Jack of All Trades goes so far out on a limb that it figures it may as well jump off. The show uses its historical setting to go absolutely nuts with history. For example, one recurring character is Napoleon, played by Verne Troyer. You may know him as Mini-me from the Austin Powers movies. Yes, a midget plays Napoleon. He's power-mad, horny, and comes up with increasingly ludicrous plots to take over the world, including building the Statue of Liberty as a Trojan Horse. Other guest characters include Blackbeard, Lewis and Clark (who have no sense of direction), Ben Franklin (who is a useless drunk) and King George III. Clearly, historical accuracy is not something that is aimed for here, which is fine: everything is done with a tongue-in-cheek attitude that always makes the show amusing, though not necessarily hilarious.
Past that, there's really not much more to say about Jack of All Trades. It was shot in New Zealand, so the outdoor scenes are quite lovely, and every plotline is always resolved neatly in twenty-two minutes. The writing vascillates between "quite good" and "reaching for the low-hanging fruit," but is still superior to most other half-hour shows. The action scenes are decent enough, considering this and Cleopatra 2525 were the first attempts at making live-action half-hour action shows since the 1970s, though I'd have to say that Jack of All Trades is more accurately described as a comedy.
So then, if you're a Bruce Campbell fan this is required viewing. If you're looking for something amusing to kill half an hour every now and again, this is definitely worth a Netflix or a torrent. But if you are not a diehard Campbell fan, you should definitely try it before you buy the complete series DVD set (all 28 episodes). Still, a very fun show that is equally happy to let you laugh at it as it is to let you laugh with it.
