I should have commented on this sooner, because now I've forgotten the particulars. But in an early episode of Wild Wild West, Artemus Gordon presents James West with an invention: a rebreathable lung, a rubbery sack you clamp to your mouth when underwater or locked in a gas-filled room.
A few episodes later, the same device, previously shown to be the exclusive creation of Mr. Gordon, turns up in the hands of the bad guys. It's appearance is unremarked. No one brags about stealing the invention, or reverse-engineering it. Mr. Gordon isn't accused of selling patents to the enemy. It's just there, as if anything the heroes devise will eventually fall into common use.
A touch of realism in a series not known for it.
I wish they had carried this real-world logic further, where every villain wore boots with smoke bombs in the heel, or ropes of plastic explosive stuffed into coat linings.
There's a Tex Avery cartoon (I think it's a Tex Avery cartoon) where two characters chase each other in and out of frame, each time reappearing with a new weapon, the upperhand passing back and forth between them...little gun, bigger gun, cannon, bigger cannon, until finally the world is blown up by some ultimate weapon.
I'd love to see a spy series where the clever inventions of the first week appear in general use the next week; where each gimmick has a consequence beyond the initial ooh and ahh.
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