Category: TV DVDs (Page 43 of 54)

TV DVD QT, Vol. 6

February 9, 2007 / Will Harris

All in the Family: The Complete Sixth Season – Ah, geez: this is the season when “All in the Family” jumped the shark. Or was it? My perception has always been that things started to go downhill this year, when Mike and Gloria moved out of the Bunker’s house, and Gloria gave birth to baby Joey; the majority of the votes on JumpTheShark.com, however, don’t have it occurring until the end of the eighth season, when Mike, Gloria, and Joey moved away. All I know is that after this season, “All in the Family” dropped to #12 in the ratings after spending five years at #1. That can’t be a coincidence.

The Big Valley: Season Two, Volume One – After watching seasons of “The Time Tunnel” and “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” you sometimes forget that the ‘60s actually produced some dramas that provide entertainment on more levels than just kitschy fun. “The Big Valley” is probably best remembered by kids raised in the ‘70s and ‘80s as the show Lee Majors did before “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Fall Guy,” but it’s a solid Western drama that provides a twist on the “Bonanza” formula by having several strapping young brothers living on a ranch with their ma (played by Barbara Stanwyck) rather than their pa. It’s loaded with guest stars, but surely the most interesting performance here is the surprisingly effective dramatic turn by Buddy Hackett, who sports a beard and an Irish accent for his role.

Dallas: The Complete Sixth Season – If you didn’t watch the show, there are probably only two questions you have about this set, so let me answer them for you quickly. 1) No, it’s not the season where J.R. got shot; that happened at the end of the third season. 2) No, it’s not the season where Bobby shows up the shower and it turns out that the previous season was an entire dream; that happened at the end of the ninth season. So if you’re only a casual fan, you’ll probably be able to take a pass. If you’re a diehard…well, of course, you’ll buy it, anyway, but you’ll be excited to check out the new featurette, “Power and Influence: The Dallas Legacy.” It’s only 12 minutes long, but at least it’s a special feature; you get so few of those on ‘70s shows sets.

The Golden Girls: The Complete Seventh and Final Season – Criminey, another season already? Man, I am so freaking tired of writing about this show. Thank God it’s the last time I’ll have to do so. What else is there to say about it, really, that I haven’t already said before? It’s four old ladies living in a house together, it’s a funny show, and it shouldn’t be the guilty pleasure for guys that it is, because the writing is often downright hilarious. Plus, it was a great venue for older stars to get work…and, unlike “Murder, She Wrote” or “Diagnosis: Murder,” the odds were pretty decent that you’d get out of the episode alive! There’s also a nice retrospective on here, entitled – what else? – “Thank You For Being A Friend: A Look Back with the Golden Girls.”

La Femme Nikita: The Complete Fifth Season – Peta Wilson is hot. I think that’s pretty well inarguable. But having not watched this show at any point prior to receiving this set, it’s hard to do a review of it justice…which is why I’ve been sitting on it for so long. I tried to watch it, but, frankly, it bored me very quickly and I bailed out. I’m willing to presume that’s because I was coming in blind, though, so I’ll at least praise the fact that it includes a few special features, including deleted scenes, a teaser for the season that was previously only viewable online, and a featurette called “Season Five: Declassified.”

Penn & Teller: Bullshit! – The Complete Fourth Season – Hard to say how long Penn Gillette’s NBC game show, “Identity,” will stick around, but, frankly, who cares? Sure, it’s nice that he’s getting a paycheck for doing not very much at all, but if it vanishes tomorrow, he’s still got “Bullshit!” – already renewed for a fifth season – to fall back on. You might occasionally find yourself flinching at Penn’s explosive obscenity-filled responses to various on-screen contributors (my personal favorite: “Fuck you in the neck, motherfucker!”), but whether you agree with the show’s spin on their subjects – which, rest assured, are always well-documented – or not, every episode “Bullshit!” is invariably illuminating. And, guys, you know you want to watch the one on prostitution…

External Entertainment, External TV, Reviews, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV DVDs

TV DVD QT Special Edition: 2 Miniseries and a Movie

January 19, 2007 / Will Harris

Another posting to clean house of 2006 releases in this, the first month of 2007. This time, it’s a trio of DVDs that didn’t fit properly into my last posting, since those were / are regular weekly series.

Broken Trail: A 2-part Western – 184 minutes – that originally aired on American Movie Classics, starring Robert Duvall, Thomas Haden Church, and Greta Sacchi, among others. Not everybody enjoys a good Western, but make no mistake, this is a good Western. Then again, it’s not exactly the first time Duvall has been in the saddle (he was fantastic in Kevin Costner’s “Open Range”), and although he was still pretty much a nobody at the time, Church was actually in “Tombstone,” playing Billy Clanton. It also doesn’t hurt “Broken Trail” any that it was helmed by Arthur Hill, who also directed “Wild Bill” and “Geromino: An American Legend.” I mean, hey, who better to tell a cowboys and Indians story, right? Anyway, it might feel a bit long at times, but the performances and scenery make “Broken Trail” absolutely worth renting for fans of the genre.

The Hades Factor: Stephen Dorff and Mira Sorvino take you on a journey through a Robert Ludlum novel that, on occasion, feels much longer than 165 minutes. Blair Underwood, Colm Meaney, and Anjelica Huston are around to class up the joint a bit, but somebody should’ve done some serious streamlining; as it is, “The Hades Factor” is a drag.

Mrs. Harris: And I’m almost ashamed to admit that I feel much the same way about this made-for-HBO film starring Ben Kingsley and Annette Bening. It just did nothing for me, despite the fact that it won an Emmy. Sorry, I just found it to be a snooze.

External TV, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas, TV DVDs

TV DVD QT, Special Edition: The 2006 Closeout

January 17, 2007 / Will Harris

I’d just as soon start 2007 with as clean a slate as possible, so I wanted to toss out a few quick takes of stuff that I’d really intended to do longer takes on, except that…well, I just never had the time to watch them in their entirety, basically. I hate to knock out a full-length review on a season of a show if I’ve only watched a few episodes; it results in a composition that’s mostly filler…and if it’s gonna be mostly filler, then why not just do a quick take in the first place? So here goes…

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist: Season Two: Jonathan Katz’s animated creation returns with another season of stand-up comedians who need therapy. Katz once again returns to do a few audio commentaries, though unlike the previous DVD set, none of his former guest stars took time out to revisit their appearances; they’re barely missed, though, given that Katz is a man who’s always “on,” thereby resulting in always-enjoyable commentary. The biggest question you’ll have after watching this set is, “What the hell happened to Kevin Meaney, and why doesn’t he get more work?” Damn, that guy’s funny.

Criminal Minds: The First Season / Numb3rs: The Complete Second Season: I’m pretty sure CBS has more crime dramas than ABC, NBC, and Fox combined, and here are two of them, both of them about the FBI. “Criminal Minds” focuses on the organization’s criminal profilers, and while the show has an okay ensemble, it’s clearly a vehicle for Mandy Patinkin’s character, Special Agent Jason Gideon, who’ll remind you of Will Graham, from Thomas Harris’s novel, “Red Dragon.” Of the aforementioned ensemble, the character that really stands out is Dr. Spencer Reid – played by Matthew Gray Gubler – who’s a genius with virtually no social skills. It’s an okay show, but it’s not must-see TV. And neither, for that matter, is “Numb3rs”…and, yet, David Krumholz’s performance makes it a show that you’ll almost always stop to watch when you happen to flip by it. Having a supporting cast that includes Peter MacNicol and Judd Hirsch doesn’t hurt any, either…but – and maybe this is just me – I just don’t buy Rob Morrow as a tough-guy FBI agent. It’s worth nothing that both of these DVD sets include decent special features, featurettes, behind-the-scenes docs, commentaries and whatnot, furthering the theory that CBS treats fans of its recent shows better than just about any other studio.

Joan of Arcadia: The Second Season: This is a show that had its one-liner of a premise – teenage girl talks to God – played up way too much. Until I got this set, I had absolutely no idea that Joan’s parents were played by Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen. Hell, if I’d known that, I’d’ve watched the show when it was on the air in the first place! Seriously, though, while Joan’s conversations with God in all his various guises are a major part of the show, “Joan of Arcadia” is a well-written drama that parents could watch with their teens with neither party feeling like the show isn’t aimed at them. It’s philosophical, it’s intelligent, and it provides a positive message without getting mired in schmaltz. Basically, it’s “Touched By An Angel” for the crowd that understands that, in life, every ending isn’t happy.

Ghost Whisperer: The Complete First Season: I think you’re either a “Medium” guy or a “Ghost Whisperer” guy, but you can’t be both. And, frankly, if you’re a guy, you might think you’re not supposed to be either one…but the reality is that “Medium” is awesome. “Ghost Whisperer,” meanwhile, stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, who’s way too perky and cute to be talking to the dead. Sorry, I’m just not buying it. And you probably shouldn’t, either. If you do happen to be a fan, however, you’ll be pleased with all the special features. (Yep, it’s another CBS release.)

Beverly Hills 90210: The Complete First Season: My wife saw this set come in, and while she didn’t exactly grab it with a “Yoink!” and run off to watch it in one sitting, she did find herself wrapped up in the series just as much as she had been during its original release. Me, I was mostly fascinated by how the show’s 2-hour pilot plays less like a teen-angst drama and more like an attempt to reproduce the feel of a John Hughes movie on TV; it doesn’t really succeed on that level, but that’s definitely what it feels like they were going for. While my wife mostly rejoiced in watching episodes she’d already seen half a dozen times on FX, she did observe that “the producers must’ve had a checklist of every teenage problem they could think of and were going through, checking them off as they went through them. And they’re all solved so fast – generally before the end of a single episode – that they must’ve been scared they were gonna get cancelled and didn’t want to leave any cliffhangers.”

Melrose Place: The Complete First Season: Has any guy ever watched a complete episode of this show and not felt guilty about it? Yeah, maybe. After all, the cast includes Courtney Thorne-Smith, Daphne Zuniga, Heather Locklear, and Josie Bissett, making it pretty easy to keep your eyes on the screen and still live with yourself. Actually, this first season of the show – which, FYI, was a spin-off from “90210,” thanks to Jennie Garth’s character from “90210,” Kelly, dating studly carpenter Jake Hanson (played by Grant Snow) – is before things went so far over the top that Locklear was willing to mock the show on “Saturday Night Live.” It was actually a pretty decent nighttime soap at this point. And can you believe there were 32 episodes in the first season? That’s a lot of backstabbing and bedhopping in a year’s time.

Def Comedy Jam Classics, Volume 1 & 2: What’s that? You say that you love comedy, but you can only afford to buy one of these volumes and you want to make sure you get the one that’s got the highest ratio of f-word usage to funny material? Well, I don’t want to make your decision for you, but Volume 2 features James Hannah, Arnez J, and Rich Vos, and it’s hosted by Steve Harvey, while Volume 1 features Dave Chappelle, D.L. Hughley, and Chris Tucker, and it’s hosted by Martin Lawrence. Go ahead, pick.

External TV, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV DVDs

TV DVD QT, Vol. 5

December 29, 2006 / Will Harris

Perry Mason: Season 1, Volume 2 – If you’re thinking about bitching because CBS split this first season of “Perry Mason” into two volumes, consider that this second part of the season includes 20 episodes…and the first part contained 19! Holy crap, 39 episodes in one season…? When people talk about how today’s work ethic is shit compared to what it used to be, they aren’t kidding! Of course, you won’t be surprised to hear that Mr. Mason’s record is 39-0 by season’s send, but you will be depressed to find out that there aren’t any special features.

7th Heaven: The Complete Third Season – As family dramas go, “7th Heaven” is pretty solid – Stephen Collins and Catherine Hicks make plausible parents, and on the kid front, there’s the always-hot Jessica Biel to look at – but let’s talk about the set and its packaging. In a nutshell, both suck. There are no special features, which is pretty much inexcusable, given that the show is still on the air and the cast is decidedly accessible, but even after saving money by not paying anyone to do commentary, CBS / Paramount additionally stuffed six discs into a standard-sized DVD case. Lazy and cheap.

Survivor: Vanuatu – There’s a reason you don’t see very many competition-based reality shows released as full-season sets on DVD: they don’t tend to have much in the way of replay interest. I mean, once you know who’s won, what’s the point, right? Well, in the case of “Survivor,” it’s clearly more than just the competition; in addition to the interviews with the contestants and the camaraderie between them, the show ends up being worth watching over and over again just because the scenery is so beautiful. CBS offers up commentary for this set as well as four featurettes and the reunion special. Believe it or not, I’d never watched a complete episode of the show before checking out this set, but it’s clear why “Survivor” continues to be a ratings monster; it’s a lot of fun.

Thundercats: Season Two, Volume 2 – Well, you have to give Warner Brothers credit: they’re so certain that “Thundercats” fans are going to buy both halves of this second-season set that they’ve continued the numbering of the discs from Volume 1 and labeled these as Discs 7 – 12. I can’t speak to the quality of the show itself – it premiered right about the time I stopped watching cartoons regularly – but, at the very least, I’m comfortable in saying that the character designs remain some of the best of the ‘80s. The only special feature, though, is the Thundercats Ultimate Adventure Challenge. Yawn.

Touched By An Angel: The Third Season, Volume 2 – Okay, so I only watched one episode from this devoid-of-special-features set…but that episode (“Inherit the Wind”) sure had some kick-ass guest-stars. It opened with Keb’ Mo’ as an Angel of Music, and it also featured Bill Cosby as the Angel of Reconciliation (named Phil), as well as appearances from Charlie Schlatter (he played Ferris Bueller on the short-lived TV version of the flick), Ian Abercrombie (Mr. Pitt from “Seinfeld”), Cloris Leachman, and the great Paul Winfield. The older you get, the more you’ll like this series…but if you’re under 40, you’ll probably find more inspiration from “Joan of Arcadia.”

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: Season Two, Volume 1 – As the series moves into color for the first time, so does it become harder for viewers to suspend their disbelief during the episodes with the more bizarre premises. How bizarre are we talking here? Try this synopsis on for size: “A cyborg double of Admiral Nelson boards the Seaview as part of a sinister plan to launch missiles at China, Russia, and the U.S..” There’s also an episode where a scientist is turned into a giant, as well as the obligatory discovery of aliens in another episode. Given the limited special effects of the era, the show was generally at its best when sticking with some semblance of reality.

External TV, Reviews, TV, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV DVDs

TV DVD QT, Vol. 4

December 21, 2006 / Will Harris

MacGyver: The Complete Final Season – I’m no Patty or Selma Bouvier, but I understand what people enjoy about “MacGyver.” You can’t deny the inherent coolness of a guy who can take a paperclip, a wad of gum, three sheets of toilet paper, and a sprig of parsley and make a functional radio transmitter. By this seventh and final year of the show, however, two things are woefully apparent. The first is that Richard Dean Anderson’s hairdresser had lost control of the man’s mane; the thing is on the verge of getting a co-starring role, so prominent is it. The other is that when you have to resort to a two-part episode where MacGyver dreams he’s gone back in time to the days of King Arthur, it’s time to call it quits. Fortunately, the producers of the show agreed with my position on this matter.

The Golden Girls: The Complete Sixth Season – Say what you will about “The Golden Girls,” but in addition to being a guilty pleasure, it also gave a lot of actors who weren’t exactly spring chickens a chance to appear on TV again. This season found Don Ameche, Cesar Romero, Harold Gould, Hal Linden, Bill Dana, and Alan King popping up either as relatives or dates of the girls, and it also saw Debbie Reynolds showing up as a potential new roommate. (Dorothy was planning to remarry her ex-husband, Stan, but it didn’t take.) Fans will enjoy the bonus feature, a 20-minute segment from a Museum of TV and Radio appreciation of the show where Rue McLanahan and Betty White detail the origins of the series.

Charmed: The Complete Sixth Season – And now, the polar opposite of the Golden Girls. The reality of the matter, folks, is that no matter how hot Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan, and Holly Marie Combs may be…and they are damned hot, my friends…I will never, ever forgive the WB for canceling “Angel” but allowing this show to stay on the air. It’s not bad; it just tends toward being a bit silly. That having been said, having these three witches appear in tight outfits and hot costumes in the various episodes makes it much easier to watch. (Milano spends an enjoyable amount of time in a bikini top during this season’s first episode.) It’s still a chick show at heart…the longest running female drama in TV history, in fact…but it gets short shrift for its DVD releases; there’s not so much as the first special feature here.

Gilmore Girls: The Complete Sixth Season – Otherwise known as the last season of the show that purist fans will ever watch. This is the year that starts with Lorelai and Rory not talking and Rory taking a break from college in order to do community service for stealing a yacht with her boyfriend, Logan…and it ends with Logan leaving Rory to take a job in London and Lorelai sleeping with Christopher a.k.a. Rory’s dad. And somewhere in between, there are guest appearances from Joe Pernice, Sparks, Sonic Youth, and Paul Anka. What’s not to love? Season 7, apparently…but that’s just the word on the street; I won’t watch it ‘til it’s out on DVD.

Home Improvement: The Complete Fifth Season – Yawn. More tool-related shenanigans with Tim Allen…and, again, the only extra is a bunch of bloopers.

J.A.G.: The Complete Second Season – Please offer a hearty hello to Catherine Bell, who joined the series during this, its second year. More military courtroom action for your viewing enjoyment, plus audio commentary and two featurettes (one about the season itself, the other about the J.A.G. Corps in the real world).

Stay tuned for at least one more volume…possibly two more volumes…of TV DVD QT’s before the end of 2006. I’d like to not start 2007 with a gargantuan backlog, thank you very much…