Club Admiralty

v7.2 - moving along, a point increase at a time

Club Admiralty Blog

A blog about life in general, in as many languages as I can manage. Ενα ιστολόγιο περι ζωής, πολυγλωσσο - σε όσες γλωσσες εχω μεράκι να γράψω.

TV - Jean Clause Van Johnson


Here's one from May. I started this short series in January, but I really didn't get back to it until May.  I was bummed to learn that this came out a few years ago and I missed it, because it means that it most likely will not get a sequel.

I don't know why JCVD dropped off the face of the planet in the 90s, but this mini series was a fun way to poke fun at all the tropes of action movies of that era, with a focus on JVCD himself. The core idea behind this series was "What if JCVD was really a spy, and his movie career was just the cover to get him from location to location?"  I have to say that while I liked JCVD back in the day, the series really endeared him more.  It was "pure cheese" as some of my relatives would say, but it was entertaining and heart warming.  All I can say to Amazon is "more please!" (but I doubt that this will happen).  If you liked JCVD back in the day and like series that are poking fun at tropes of the past, give this one a try.

Synopsis (and spoilers) from Wikipedia:

The story centers on retired martial arts and action movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme playing himself. It is revealed that the movie career and personal history of Jean-Claude Van Damme is all a cover story. He is actually a secret agent known as Jean-Claude Van Johnson, aided by his personal assistant and make-up specialist who are themselves covert operatives as well — his handler and weapons master, respectively. After being out of the spy business for five years, Jean-Claude runs into his former handler Vanessa (Kat Foster) and realizes how much he misses both their work together (which made him feel like a hero) and the relationship they had. He decides to go back into action, tracking down a major drug lord only to later realize he has found a larger threat, that of terrorists who possess a weather control machine.

The show's supporting cast includes Jean-Claude's manager Jane (Phylicia Rashad) who is in reality his superior and in charge of his covert operations agency. Joining Jean-Claude and Vanessa on the missions is new weapons specialist Luis (Moisés Arias), a former child soldier who wishes he actually was just a hairstylist and make-up artist. Jean-Claude's new cover involves agreeing to star in Huck, a violent action film reimagining of Huckleberry Finn. This forces Jean-Claude to constantly deal with Gunnar (Tim Peper), the movie's self-absorbed director, in between his spy work. Throughout the series, Jean-Claude runs across Filip (also played by Van Damme), a fan who coincidentally shares his face, and who eventually comes to hate him.


Throughout the series, Jean-Claude's fragile ego is a running gag, as even while undercover he cannot help but reference his own films repeatedly and is constantly disappointed when people fail to recognize him. Another running gag is that Jean-Claude constantly finds himself in situations from his movies others think are unrealistic, such as being surrounded by enemies who insist on attacking him one at a time or seemingly meeting a version of himself from the future.

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