Thank you to all involved with this series

Bringing such a remarkable body of work to the screen would be daunting. but you did it. I don't buy television series, I think one of television's greatest assets is its transience, but I bought this one.

All the producers and writers and actors of this show are to be commended for assembling a great cast and staying fairly true to Rex Stout's books, both in a literal sense and in their "feel." I have a few quibbles with some minor details, and two of the roles seemed miscast to me (not worth mentioning which ones), but Colin Fox was a great Fritz (too bad they didn't film some of the books in which Fritz had a bigger role), and Kari Matchett ranged from delightful to amazing in her roles. I've always enjoyed George Plimpton, and his appearances in this series are great.

My hat is off to Maury Chaykin, though. Wolfe must be one of the most difficult characters to play AND make audiences feel sympathy for. He is churlish, bullying, and seemingly contemptible, but he does have compassion and seems to yearn to find good in people. Chaykin pulled this out of the character and translated it to the screen. For example, while Kari Matchett steals the show in Death of a Doxy, Chaykin manages to show Wolfe sliding from his normal attitude of contempt for women into respect, even admiration, for Miss Jacquette, and it's almost completely done with very subtle facial expressions and the way he holds his head - EXACTLY how Stout would have written it for Wolfe. In the books, Goodwin describes these things for us, but on TV the actor had to portray it. It was masterful!

Archie makes or breaks anything to do with Wolfe, and Hutton does a great job portraying him. While I may disagree with some minor stylistic points, overall Hutton brings Archie to life with all the flair, competence, brilliance, and cockiness found in the books. He and Maury Chaykin played off each other well, and the relationship between them was true to the books. At times I thought Hutton threatened to turn Archie into a caricature with his flamboyance in the role, but he never went over the top with it, and so Archie remained the glue that holds these stories together. Hutton's natural strut plays well in this role, and whoever came up with his suits brought a classy sense of style to the character.

This was a great series, and I'm sorry it ended before some of my favourite books were filmed. Oh well. Thank you one and all.