The Corner
October 2003 Reviewed by: Wes Phillips Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

You really have to give HBO credit for all but sewing up the quality-TV niche. It's gotten to the point where I've heard people refer to a good show on any other network as "the best thing not on HBO." Even by HBO's own high standards, The Corner stands out as an ambitious and successful undertaking.

The six-part miniseries is adapted from The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, a book by David Simon (who also wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets) and Edward Burns (a former Baltimore cop and, currently, the writer for The Wire). It was adapted for TV by Simon and David Mills, best known for Homicide: Life on the Street, and directed by the actor Charles S. Dutton. Dutton is best known as an actor, but The Corner testifies that his eye for telling detail is every bit as acute as his ear for a true line of dialogue was on the Broadway stage. Here's hoping we'll see a lot more of him behind the camera.

None of this would amount to a hill of beans if The Corner did not deliver the goods. But it does, and with a direct brutality that can make it hard to watch -- and just as hard to avert your eyes.

The series tells the tale of a street-level drug market in a shabby part of Baltimore, telling true tales and using real names to illustrate the ways poverty and drug addiction can destroy neighborhoods and their inhabitants. If this sounds like familiar territory, The Corner gives it a twist -- it does not demonize these folks; they retain their humanity. They may be drug addicts and dealers, but they still have hopes, dreams, and ambitions.

The six episodes follow a narrative arc defined by a year in the lives of crack addicts Gary McCollough (T.K. Carter) and Fran Boyd (Khandi Alexander), and their 15-year-old son, DeAndre (Sean Nelson), who deals but doesn't use (yet). Peripherally, we also follow their extended network of friends and neighbors, all of whom are affected by drugs and drug use -- some directly, others as innocent bystanders.

None of this has any vestige of After School Special moralizing or the kind of simplification so beloved by over-the-air networks. McCullough is a dope fiend, but he's not completely lost yet; nor is Fran, who heroically fights against her demons. DeAndre's situation is presented with great sensitivity. Kicked out of the house for dealing, he falls deep into the dealer lifestyle, questioning what other skills he might have.

The writing is strong, the acting vivid. Dutton's control over all gives the proceedings confrontational directness that seems uncommonly free of artifice. At the same time, the director also reveals the lyrical side of these stories. His affection and empathy for the characters is obvious, and the series has numerous grace notes of dignity and poignancy that linger long after the tale has been told.

It is hard to grade the telecine transfer of The Corner. Shot for TV before 16:9 was common, it's full frame. Further, it has a quasi-documentary style that employs hand-held cameras (shaky cam!), intentionally graceless composition, and a faded color palette, which is only occasionally contrasted with a more vivid one. Details are frequently blurred or washed out, and there's quite a bit of grain, but these seem to have been intentional side effects of Dutton's visual choices, not evidence of a poor transfer. So, do we call The Corner a good transfer of an intentionally poor-quality original? I suppose we must -- and I have to confess that it was never a problem for me.

The sound is similar to the video. It is good, honest Dolby 2.0, which is not very exciting, but it is consistent with the other choices Dutton has made. Another of the director's choices, however, is surprising: There's no audio sweetening. The only music you hear is snatches of songs heard through open windows or on radios playing in the background. There's lots of overlapping sound and speech, although the dialogue is clear and easy to follow. It's stark sound, but very effective.

The two-disc set offers no extras, which is a shame. I, for one, would be very interested in hearing Dutton do a scene-by-scene commentary. However, The Corner itself is so strong and so compelling, asking for more seems almost ungrateful.

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