This series is essentially Get Smart - The Next Generation, since the focus of the series is on Max's and Agent 99's son, Zach Smart (Andy Dick), who has just gotten promoted out of research and into the field.
The setup is pretty simple for people who are already familiar with the original series. Even though the Cold War is over, Kaos is still up to its old tricks and a few new ones as well. Their philosophy is while they may have lost that war, they will surely win the next one. What they seem to have forgotten about is the super-secret spy agency Control, which is now headed up by their top agent. Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) has moved on to a career of politics as a congresswoman, and a new generation of agents has filled the ranks.
Among these new spies are Agent 9, a little girl, Agent 0, a master of disguise who takes the place of 13 in the previous series as the field-informant, and Agent 66 (Elaine Hendrix), who becomes Zach Smart's agent and love interest.
The revived Get Smart series was short-lived and only contains seven episodes. What it has isn't bad; in fact, it feels just like the classic Get Smart series, complete with most of the classic lines like "Missed it by that much" and "Would you believe", but when these lines came up, they were almost jabs at the original series since the formula was changed just enough for people to make fun of it. For instance, in "Wurst Enemies," Siegfried (Bernie Kopell) comes out of retirement, and when he and Max get together, Max starts to say "Would you believe," but Siegfried interrupts him and goes through the run down of what the next few lines would have been before, and asks that they just cut to the chase.
In a way, the fact that this series doesn't feel very different from the original might have been its downfall. People who loved and watched the original series won't get anything new or fresh out of this run, and more modern viewers who aren't familiar with the original series could easily feel lost or not interested since they have no existing investment in the characters.
Also, it seems like there is a bit of an ordering issue. It is obvious throughout the series that Max's secretary doesn't really know what's going on and is there just to answer phones. At one point, Max yells out to her "This is not a talent agency." This seems like an odd statement until a couple of episodes later when Zach and 66 act like they've never met the secretary before and Max informs them that the temp agent misinformed her when they hired her, and she didn't realize she was working for a government agency.
The other place where things seem out of whack is the last couple of episodes. The second to last episode ends with a nuclear bomb going off, but the last episode, "Liver Let Die" (an episode about organ trafficking), occurs as if nothing happened, and doesn't end in any kind of series-finale. It feels like these last two episodes should be flipped, and the series should end with the nuclear strike.
When it comes down to it, only the most devoted of Get Smart fans should consider this purchase. If you want to see just a taste of what could have been with Zach as a secret agent, then this will get you there, but the series, in general, isn't as satisfying as the original show.
