When we were kids in the 80s, my sisters and I only ever watched TV in the evenings. Our parents never allowed us to go out. So we watched TV with our parents, and from 7 in the evening, the TV programs were all American TV shows. The Equalizer was just one of those. Edward Woodward was great as Robert McCall.

When my husband asked me to watch a movie called The Equalizer and saw it was Denzel Washington, it never occurred to me that it was based on the TV series until I heard the character’s name was Robert McCall. Then I got so excited and sent a message to my sisters in the group chat asking them to watch it.

I was so young when I watched the TV series that I don’t remember much of it except for one episode when Robert McCall’s son (played by William Zabka) died and McCall said, “Children are supposed to bury their parents.” (I heard this again in Lord of the Rings when King Theoden buried his son.)

One scene in the movie made me pause. The doctor who helped McCall from his gunshot wound had asked him, “Are you a good man or a bad man?” McCall answered, “I don’t know.” Later the doctor said that only a good man would say “I don’t know.”

And I think that’s true. A good man will not be too confident of his goodness. A bad man will never admit he is being bad.

Most of the time I think we overestimate our goodness. It’s probably human nature, or our brains are wired to be such. (The more I listen to Robert Sapolsky the more I feel sorry for our lack of free will.)

I find the movie entertaining, and I like Denzel Washington as Robert McCall as much as I did Edward Woodward.

You need to have a willing suspension of disbelief, of course, to enjoy it as there are so many impossibilities, although not as crazy impossible as John Wick’s seeming immortality.

If you’ve seen the TV series and/or the movie, let me know what you think of either or both of them.

Have a good week.

T.