The Man from U.N.C.L.E./YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Awesome Music: Jerry Goldsmith did the show's theme (and three episode scores).
  • Badass Decay: Heroes Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin are sometimes subject to plot dependent Badass Decay, when necessary. E.g., in the third act of the third season episode, "The Five Daughters Affair, Part II", Solo and Kuryakin fight THRUSH's "karate killers" ( who despite that name (as given in the credits) do very little actual killing in the episode) for about the sixth time in this two-part adventure. Despite holding their own in several earlier fights with the karate killers, in this scene Solo and Kuryakin completely lose whatever fighting skills they've demonstrated earlier, and are straightaway handed their asses by the THRUSH "killers" in mere seconds. This is necessary, of course, to set up the fourth act's climax and resolution (therefore "plot dependent").
    • Paired in that episode with plot dependent Took a Level in Badass; during the fourth act's climax/resolution, Solo and Kuryakin beat up on the karate killers even more easily than they themselves were beaten up on in the previous act (though it's arguable that the karate killers were subject to plot dependent Badass Decay vice Solo and Kuryakin receiving a plot dependent boost in skill).
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Illya Kuryakin.
  • Estrogen Brigade: Coalesced around Illya Kuryakin/David McCallum.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: "The Project Strigas Affair", which features William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy in their first appearance together, two years before Star Trek: The Original Series. And to make it extra funny, Nimoy's character is repeatedly derided as a "fool."
    • The sequence when, according to plan, a drunken Donfield (played by Shatner) wanders around an embassy reception, rattling off nonsense, and stumbles into Vladek (played by Nimoy) becomes a Crowning Moment of Funny.
  • Ho Yay:

Illya Kuryakin: [to Solo] You just like blondes.

[Solo raises his eyebrows suggestively]
—"The Girls of Nazarone Affair" [Season 1]
    • Every now and then, there's a gag on how Napoleon lost the girl but not Illya.
      • The Cherry Blossom Affair: "I'd like to hear your story. Any time." And then Illya puts his hand behind his head as if to pose and Napoleon scowls.
      • "At least we still have each other."
    • In The Virtue Affair, at a threat to Napoleon, Illya's lower lip actually wibbles before he gives up to save Solo's life.
    • Hell, there's an entire manifesto for the Napoleon/Illya pairing, written in-character as a THRUSH report by Angelique, in fact! (Fun note, due to broadcasting dates, this pairing actually predates the Ho Yay codifiers Kirk and Spock by a couple years).
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