This serial turned out to be a bit better than many, despite the constraints of a low budget. (Something almost all serials needed to deal with.) Yes, it uses lots of stock footage, but pieced together to good effect. There are all the standard serial tropes - lots of climatic cliff-hangers from the which the heroes are revealed to have walked/rolled/jumped away from at the start of the next chapter. Some of these are above average, in that it is not always obvious how they will have avoided that one. This serial is one of the type where the true identity of the villain is unknown until the end. In this case, the villain is not only masked but in a full-length supervillain outfit which is speculated to have inspired Darth Vader's wardrobe. His look seems out of place among all the standard 1930's suits and uniforms, but it is all in campy fun.
For the most part I thought the story was quite good. My only real disappointment with the serial was the final chapter. The final reveal opened up plot holes and relied on rather unrealistic behaviour by some of the characters. In my opinion, the red herrings were all better thought out. Either the writers didn't agree on the end until the last minute, or someone stepped in and imposed an ending, unsupported by the rest of the story. Still, most of the prior three hours plus had been good enough that I could shrug off the weak ending as part of the camp of serials
The serial is 12 chapters, mostly around 15 minutes each. The first chapter is twice as long and seems to combine several situations in what may have originally been intended as a couple of additional chapters. It serves to help get you into the story if you are not watching the episodes all at once. There is also a recap episode part way through.
If you are into serials, this one is worth a watch.
