Pretender

The Pretender 2001 / The Pretender - Island of the Haunted

Disc 1 Side A: PRETENDER 2001 (Full Screen) Picking up where the television series left off, Jarod reunites with two old friends and unleashes some powerful Centre revelations. This film opens with a sequence that will allow it to be enjoyed by individuals who have not yet seen the TV series.

Disc 1 Side B: PRETENDER: ISLAND OF THE HAUNTED (Widescreen) Through a series of bizarre circumstances, Jarod and Miss Parker find themselves trapped together on a strange island in a life and death situation, out of which come some of the most important revelations about their pasts.

The Pretender - The Complete Third Season

The next installment of this cult-fan favorite! Jarod's suspenseful journey continues as he uses his powers of reason and logic to right wrongs, while searching for his past and the family he lost.

The Pretender - Season 4

After eluding agents from the nefarious Centre for a good three years, Jarod (Michael T. Weiss) finds himself back at the shady research facility (that kidnapped him during his youth) in the opening episode of the fourth and final season of The Pretender. Held against his will, Jarod is caged and routinely tortured by Miss Parker's (Andrea Parker) calmly evil brother, Lyle (Jamie Denton, who would go on to bill himself as James Denton on Desperate Housewives). But, as the opening to each episode points out, Jarod is a pretender--a genius who can become whoever he wants to be. He can pass himself off as an FBI agent, surgeon, or drug addict. But what he wants more than anything else is to be free from the Centre and search for his family. By the end of the premier episode, Jarod has escaped the Center (again) and is helping those in need. In this final season, which ran on NBC in 1999-2000, Jarod finds love with a woman who has cancer, Miss Parker and Broots (Jon Gries) have an affair (albeit in a Raymond Chandleresque dream sequence where Miss Parker says of their unlikely tryst: "Do you hear that Broots? Pigs are flying."), and Raines (Richard Marcus)--carrying a bible as he drags around his oxygen tank on a squeaky cart--claims to have turned over a new leaf. Of course, nothing is as it seems.

This four-disc set includes all 19 episodes. (Look for Erika Christensen ( Traffic) in "Corn Man A Coming.") As much as it is a show about righting wrongs, The Pretender is also a drama about revenge. Jarod has no problems crossing the line and doses out an eye-for-an-eye method of justice. Carve up a soldier and try to pass his murder off as a suicide? Guess, what, buddy? Jarod's going to do the same to you. Of course, Jarod isn't a murderer and he never actually lets anyone die. But he does scare his victims into confessing. Never mind that the taped confessions wouldn't hold up in court. It still makes for good drama. As for the photogenic Jarod and Miss Parker, the writers have created an intriguing codependent relationship that's rooted in love, admiration, and just a touch of fear. Their lives are intertwined--especially after they discover a young man to whom they're both related. The final episode is a tad anti-climactic, leaving viewers wondering who survived a horrific explosion. Of course, the answer is to be found in the two made-for-TV movies released after the series ended. --Jae-Ha Kim

The 4th and Final Season of this fan favorite! Jarod is a genius of exceptionally high I.Q. who was brought up at the Centre, a clandestine research facility where he was kept against his will until he managed to escape. Although constantly on the run from Miss Parker, one of the Centre's most deadly agents, Jarod uses the unique abilities he learned there to help innocent victims get the justice they deserve. He also continues to hold out hope of finding his missing family. But what he never expected to find is evidence of an old DNA experiment that connects his father and Miss Parker's murdered mother an experiment which creates an ironic link between hunter and prey

The Pretender - The Complete First Season

Jarod (Michael T. Weiss) is a Pretender. As a five-year-old in 1963, he was taken from his home and "adopted" by The Centre, a mysterious Delaware-based think tank. Why Jarod? His superior intellect--Jarod can "pretend" to be anything he wants: doctor, lawyer, engineer, astronaut and, as he quips in episode five ("The Paper Clock"), "I'm working on Indian chief."

Thirty years later, once he realized his efforts were not being used for good, Jarod escaped from the Centre. Psychiatrist and surrogate father Sydney (Carnivàle's velvet-voiced Patrick Bauchau) and sociopathic sidekick and Emma Peel lookalike Miss Parker (ER's Andrea Parker) have been trying to track him down ever since. They're assisted by the technically proficient, if socially inept Broots (Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Gries). Each and every time, Jarod eludes their grasp, but not before helping some stranger who's been dealt an injustice (just as he once was). Along the way, he hopes to figure out who he is and where he came from.

Each of these 21 episodes moves deftly from Jarod's lonely past to his more satisfying, if precarious present (the human "science project" was constantly videotaped as a boy, hence the abundance of footage from his childhood). It's a worthy successor to paranoid thrillers like The Fugitive and the unjustly obscure Nowhere Man (from X-Files creator Chris Carter), and the droll performance of Weiss (Jeffrey) adds a dose of levity to a concept usually painted with a darker palette. The Pretender ran on NBC for four seasons and was followed by two TV movies, The Pretender 2001 and Isle of the Haunted. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Jarod is a Pretender-a genius whose exceptional intelligence allows him to assume various identities at will, be it doctor, test pilot or lawyer. Taken from his parents at an early age, Jarod was brought up in the Centre, a think-tank facility where he believed his computer-like mind was being used to benefit mankind. But when he learned the simulations he solved were being sold to the highest-bidder no matter what their intent, Jarod escaped. Now on the run, Jarod embarks on a search for his true identity while also attempting to balance out any wrong his simulations have caused by helping people who are as powerless as he once was.

The Pretender - The Complete Second Season

According to his sleek nemesis Miss Parker (Andrea Parker), Jarod (Michael T. Weiss) is "a genius who can become anyone that he wants to be." As the second season begins, he's still on the run and her father, Mr. Parker (Harve Presnell, Fargo), is still missing. In his place, the Centre has installed the smooth Mr. Lyle (Jamie Denton, Desperate Housewives) and his associate Brigitte (Pamela Gidley, whose British accent will soon disappear). In the premiere episode ("Back From the Dead Again"), it will also be revealed that Mr. Raines (Richard Marcus, 24) survived last season's assassination attempt. A few episodes later ("Exposed"), Mr. Parker will return, but by then Miss Parker won't be so sure he's really her father. Then again, nothing on The Pretender is ever what it seems...

Throughout the 22-episode season, Jarod's "pretends" will range from firefighter ("Over the Edge") to FBI Agent ("A Stand Up Guy")--even male escort ("Gigolo Jarod"). Along the way, he'll catch up on some of the childhood staples he missed, like Jell-O and Twinkies (both of which he'll use against the bad guys). Meanwhile, Sydney (Patrick Bauchau) will reunite with his twin brother, only to lose him again ("Indy Show," featuring a cameo from Mario Andretti). Other pivotal episodes include "Bulletproof," in which Sydney meets up with another figure from his past, "Crash," in which Mr. Lyle's true identity is revealed, and double-length season finale "Bloodlines" (featuring Haley Joel Osment as a potential pretender), in which Miss Parker finds out she has a brother. Alas, it's either the psychotic Mr. Lyle or Angelo (Paul Dillon), the Centre's idiot savant or, as she calls him, "Cousin It." The second season ends with a cliffhanger as a bomb goes off in the Centre--just as Jarod is trying to make his escape. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Jarod is a Pretender—a genius whose exceptionally high I.Q. allows him to master virtually any profession. Since escaping from the Centre, the secret research facility where he was brought up after being taken from his parents, Jarod has managed to stay one step ahead of his ex-captors, Miss Parker and Sydney. Although still reeling from the death of his brother, Jarod also continues to make sure that justice is done by helping innocent victims wronged by society. In the second season we are also introduced to the mysterious Mr. Lyle, played by James Denton of Desperate Housewives fame.

The Pretender - Seasons 1 - 4

The Pretender - TV Starter Set (Season 1, Episodes 1-2)

Pretender Bundle. Complete Seasons One Thru Three

Seasons one, two and three

The Pretender - Complete Season Two

Complete second season of this popular television show on four DVDs.