| DVD Roundup March 2007
Rad in TV Land, Part 1
 In the early days of DVD, people
scoffed at the idea of TV shows on the format: there were so many reruns on the air, and
they were free. But after a few seasons’ worth of several popular TV shows were
released in DVD editions, the light dawned: On DVD, you can watch great shows without
commercials.
The ads have gotten out of hand. If you look at show
timings, you’ll note that those made ten or more years ago come in at about 50
minutes per one-hour episode. Now they run about 42 minutes. That means that nearly a
third of each hour is spent on advertising -- but not on DVD. A TV episode can also
entertain when you don’t have time to watch a feature-length movie.
I’ve been watching some shows that I’d never seen
in their broadcast versions, and have found that some of them are quite good. The
production values and acting are close to what I’d expect from a first-run feature
film. The scripts are the most variable factor, but even those are often good. Because
shows are now being released so rapidly in multiple-season DVD sets, it’s impossible
to cover many of them in the regular review section. Here, in Part 1 of "Rad in TV
Land," I share with you a few shows that I like that are now available on DVD. Two
are still running new seasons, and two have completed their runs.
CSI (CBS-Paramount) ****
CSI follows a team of forensic scientists who work
for the Las Vegas police department. The lab situations are all very high-tech and not at
all realistic in portraying the work of real-life forensic workers, but taken as
present-day science fiction, the plots and solutions are engrossing and exciting. The
ensemble cast, led by William Petersen as Gil Grissom, is one of the tightest and most
appealing on TV. The show’s film techniques have become trend-setting: Fluctuating
camera angles, fast editing, and graphic animations of bullet trajectories and organ
damage make the show visually distinctive, if at times a bit too graphic. CSI
is, in my opinion, currently the best-looking high-definition network TV show, so
it’s not surprising that its super-sharp focus and rich color patterns have produced
standard-definition DVDs that, when upsampled, come very close to HD quality. The
5.1-channel sound is also impressive, with lots of pounding bass that will put a subwoofer
to good use.
CSI has spun off CSI Miami and CSI New
York, which also look and sound good -- especially CSI Miami, once you get used
to all the yellow filtering used to make it look Florida-hot. All of the CSI shows
are calculated to keep your adrenaline pumping, dazzle your eyes and ears, and keep your
brain looking for clues. As of today, six seasons are available on DVD. The generous
extras include featurettes on the structure of each season and how various special effects
are achieved, selected commentaries, and much more.
House, M.D. (Universal) ****1/2
The central character of this series is the gnarly Doctor
Gregory House, played to perfection by Emmy Award winner Hugh Laurie. House is an
unorthodox diagnostician who leads a team of young doctors at the fictional
Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. It is the job of House and his team to identify
diseases and conditions that defy simple diagnosis. House is addicted to pain pills due to
a leg injury, and his manner is gruff to the point of obnoxious, but he’s a genius at
precise diagnosis. House continually declares that "Everybody lies" because his
cases are so often complicated by prevaricating patients who must confront the truth
before they can be treated properly. The supporting cast is excellent, the suspense
palpable, and the video quality good to very good. The sound is excellent 5.1. The show is
shot widescreen for HDTV, but the first season’s DVDs were letterboxed. The second
season is in true widescreen, and presumably the third will be as well. Of the two seasons
currently available on DVD, Season One has quite a few extra featurettes, Season Two only
a commentary and alternate takes.
JAG (CBS-Paramount) ****
Though it never caught on with the general public, JAG
has a huge cult following. JAG stands for Judge Advocate General, a US Navy division
comprising lawyer-officers who investigate cases involving military personnel.
There’s a lot of adventure along the way, and many of the cases have unusual twists
and different locations to keep things interesting. One show might be set in the mountains
of West Virginia, the next at sea, the next in South America. The chief character is
Captain Harmon "Harm" Rabb, Jr., played by David James Elliott. With his
All-American good looks, Elliott anchors the investigations with a truth and honesty that
are highly romanticized but quite appealing. Harm is always paired with a female partner,
often Lt. Meg Austin (Tracey Needham). Patrick Labyorteaux, as the bumbling but
well-meaning Lt. Commander Bud Roberts, provides comic relief. The fullscreen (1.33:1)
image is amazingly crisp and clean at times, and the heroic American-hero type music, by
half a dozen different composers, comes through sounding remarkably good. If you’re
like me, you’re liable to feel a patriotic rush at the end of some episodes. Three
seasons are on DVD now, with eight more to come. There is a featurette summary for each
season, commentaries for selected episodes, and featurettes on military accuracy and the
actual JAG corps.
Slings and Arrows (Acorn) ****
This Canadian black comedy is set at the fictional New
Burbage Festival, a Shakespearean fête similar to the real-life Stratford Festival. Its
main characters are actors Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross) and Ellen Fanshaw (Martha Burns),
and director Oliver Welles (Stephen Ouimette). Geoffrey and Ellen have back history as
lovers, and in the past starred in a production of Hamlet when Geoffrey had a
nervous background. At the beginning of the series Oliver is killed by a truck and
thereafter reappears, though only to Geoffrey, as a ghost. The rest of the cast, both
actors and production crew, are a lovable, dotty lot that you can’t help but like.
One might collectively call them lovable eccentrics, the wry humor being closer to British
than American style. Season Two is best, as Geoffrey attempts to direct Oliver’s
vision of Macbeth -- with, of course, Oliver’s ghostly assistance. The show is
shot widescreen with stationary cameras, and smoothly edited. The spirit and agitation
come from the script and actors, not production tricks or techniques. The color is
particularly rich, and the sound is very clear 2.0-channel stereo that can be decoded into
decent matrixed surround sound if you run it through your system that way. Unfortunately,
the show ended with Season Three, shown at this year’s Sundance Festival and no doubt
soon to be released on DVD. The first two seasons are available now, and I strongly
recommend beginning with Season One, Episode One (each season comprises six episodes).
Extras include blooper reels, deleted scenes, cast interviews, and the lyrics to some of
the clever songs used in the series, including "Cheer Up Hamlet" and "Call
the Understudy."
...Rad Bennett
radb@hometheatersound.com |
