Television

The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2015

If ever a show were more aptly named, it would have to be HBO’s The Jinx. It’s a documentary on Robert Durst, who had been charged with three murders and never convicted. The title comes from his own description of why he never had any children. He believed he would be a jinx to any child as a father. It turns out that this HBO series would be a jinx for Durst himself, because he couldn’t quite keep his mouth shut and ends up making potentially incriminating statements.
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Big Bang Theory: Season 8 (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2015

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Finally a situation comedy for geeks. Ever since Urkel went from being a one-off character on Family Matters to the star of the show, the geeks have been looking for their own series. With The Big Bang Theory you get plenty of geek factor with a healthy dose of laughter. I honestly haven’t laughed this much at a situation comedy in decades. Meet Sheldon Cooper (Parsons). He’s a brilliant young scientist working at a Pasadena university. His field was string theory but now he’s shifted to dark matter.
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Supernatural: Season 10 (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 21st, 2015

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“‘Tis the season for Demon Dean.”

It’s almost like some twisted holiday season. Each season finds the Winchester Brothers in some way divided following an apocalyptic event. The world might be saved once again, but Either Dean or Sam is in Hell or Purgatory. One might be living in an alternate reality or just in a coma. This season starts with the tradition very much alive as the Mark of Cain has finally turned Dean into a demon, albeit one who loves to do bad karaoke. His partner in crime isn’t his brother Sam, but the King Of Hell himself, Crowley.
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Homeland: The Complete Fourth Season (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on September 17th, 2015

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“You need to promise…something goes wrong, you need to drop a bomb on this whole mess.”

The biggest literal bang on Homeland came courtesy of the explosion that wiped out CIA headquarters in the season 2 finale. However, many fans and critics would argue the subsequent third season was an even bigger bomb. (I thought season 3 at least finished strong following that dismal start.) Nevertheless, season 4 of Showtime’s cracked, crackerjack spy drama represents a soft reboot for the show. It’s also a return to its Emmy-winning season 1 form.
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Gotham: Season 1 (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 16th, 2015

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Gotham City. You know the name just as you know the names of Metropolis and Smallville. These are important places in the DC comics universe that have existed as part of modern American mythology since the 1930’s. Warner Brothers has decided to tackle Gotham in much the way it spent 10 years bringing us to Smallville. But there is a decided difference to be found here. Smallville was indeed the origin story of Superman, and while the obvious answer might be that Gotham serves the same role for Batman, I found that to be a bit of an oversimplification.
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Scorpion: Season 1 (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 14th, 2015

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“My name is Walter O’Brien. I have the fourth highest IQ ever recorded: 197. Einstein’s was 160. When I was 11 the FBI arrested me for hacking into NASA to get their blueprints for my bedroom wall. Now I run a team of geniuses, tackling worldwide threats only we can solve…”

By now you are used to the geeky technical expert that is a requisite part of many television crime-solving teams. It’s become such a stereotype that it’s more formula than character by this point. So what if you had an entire team of these super-intellects, and there was only one normal person in the line-up.
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Nightingale (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on September 14th, 2015

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“He is a confused and tortured young man…”

The “he” in this case is Peter Snowden, a chatty, charismatic, and deeply troubled war veteran. “He” also happens to be the only character who appears on screen in Nightingale, a potentially-fascinating HBO Films experiment that doesn’t quite reach its potential. At least, “he” is played by Selma star David Oyelowo in what is a thoroughly mesmerizing performance.
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The Vampire Diaries: Season 6 (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 9th, 2015

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For most of our characters, the season begins pretty much in real time from the season 5 finale. There is a spell keeping magic out of the city limits of Mystic Falls, and that means no vampires or supernatural beings can cross into town. Elena is taking pre-med courses at college, mostly because it gives her access to the hospital’s blood bank. Stefan is supposed to be out looking for a witch powerful enough to bring back Bonnie and Damon after they were trapped destroying “the other side”.
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Lego Star Wars: The New Yoda Chronicles

Posted in No Huddle by J C on September 9th, 2015

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The Star Wars universe is famously vast, and that’s before the Force even Awakens this Christmas and kicks off a new series of feature films. (And let’s not even go down the Expanded Universe rabbit hole.) My point is that it’s been almost 40 years since Star Wars premiered, and the army of artists who have taken on George Lucas’ iconic creations haven’t even come close to running out of material to explore. It was actually 10 years ago that the first Lego Star Wars short premiered and applied the toy company’s irreverent, spoofy brand of humor to deconstructing Lucas’ “Empire” brick by brick.
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Star Wars Rebels: Complete Season One (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on September 8th, 2015

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The Star Wars universe is famously vast, and that’s before the Force even Awakens this Christmas and kicks off a new series of feature films. (And let’s not even go down the Expanded Universe rabbit hole.) My point is that it’s been almost 40 years since Star Wars premiered, and the army of artists who have taken on George Lucas’ iconic creations haven’t even come close to running out of material to explore. Disney XD’s Star Wars Rebels is an engaging, thoroughly zippy entry that is likely to entertain its intended young target audience along with those who have been obsessed with the Force since a long time ago.
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Texas Rising (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 5th, 2015

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“1836, Republic of Texas. The Mexican territory is home to thousands of US settlers. Tensions rise as Comanche and Kawakawa fight to keep their lands. Outlaws roam free, and slaves are caught in the crossfire. Mexican General Santa Anna battles to reclaim the land. US President Andrew Jackson is hesitant to intervene, and Texas has no choice but to declare itself an independent nation… The Alamo in ashes, pioneers, Tejanos, Indians and soldiers have no choice: fight or die.”

Houston, we have a problem.
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The Originals: Season 2 (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 1st, 2015

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“Once upon a time, there was a majestic king, who lived with his noble brother in a colorful kingdom where music and art were celebrated. The king did not foresee having a child, but he lived in an enchanted land where all things were possible. In time, he was blessed with a beautiful baby daughter for whom he wished only peace and happiness. Still, the king had demons who pursued him.”

If you’re a fan of The Vampire Diaries, you need no introduction to Klaus Mikaelson and his family of original vampires.
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The Walking Dead: Season 5 (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 28th, 2015

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So what will you be doing when the zombie apocalypse finally hits? Will you be fighting endlessly to survive? Will you be hoarding food and supplies? Will you be seeking out other survivors and band together? Maybe you’ll just hole up somewhere and try and wait it out. Me? I’m going to find a solid generator, a high-definition television, an Oppo Blu-ray player, and all of The Walking Dead season sets I can get my hands on. You could consider it survival training, but I’m going to binge-watch one of the most unique shows in television history.
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Once Upon a Time: Season 4 (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 25th, 2015

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“There have been many authors throughout time. It’s a job, not a person… Tasked with the great responsibility to record. To witness the greatest stories of all time and record them for posterity. The job has gone back eons from the man who watched the shadows dance across cave walls and developed an entire philosophy to playwrights who tell tales in poetry to a man named Walt.”

OK, so you’ve tapped into almost every Disney classic story and quite a few that weren’t Disney. The television show is still going strong. What are you going to do next?
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NCIS: Season 12 (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 19th, 2015

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CBS has finally decided to release the number-one-rated show in the world on high-definition Blu-ray. It’s a milestone event for the network and for fans of the show, and it only took 12 years to get it done. To be fair, Blu-ray hasn’t quite been around for 12 years, but many networks have gotten us caught up with popular shows in high definition by this time. It’s remarkable that it did take this long to get a season of NCIS on Blu-ray. Let’s hope the numbers warrant that future seasons be given the same treatment and that we’ll then be able to get the previous 11. It’s an experiment CBS has tried with both CSI and NCIS: LA. Unfortunately, numbers must not have supported that move.
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The Knick: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 17th, 2015

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“Welcome to The Knick.”

The Knick is the fictional Knickerbocker hotel in 1900 New York. It’s a hospital that was once part of an affluent neighborhood but now finds itself in an area falling to poverty. Still it’s a place where innovations are being made on a daily basis, thanks to an inspired group of doctors led by Dr. J.M. Christiansen (Frewer) and his relentless search to find ways to decrease the mortality rate in surgery patients.
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Person of Interest: The Complete Fourth Season (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 17th, 2015

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“We are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I designed the machine to detect acts of terror, but it sees everything. Violent crimes involving ordinary people. The government considers these people irrelevant. We don’t. Hunted by the authorities, we work in secret. You’ll never find us. But victim or perpetrator, if your number is up, we’ll find you.”

The premise of Person Of Interest was turned on its head in season 3. If you are new to the show, don’t even think about starting here.
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The Killing: The Complete Fourth Season

Posted in No Huddle by J C on August 17th, 2015

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The Killing will leave behind two lasting legacies: it’s the show that wouldn’t die, and it could never quite stick the landing. The bleak crime drama drew intense criticism after failing to resolve its central mystery at the end of season 1, and was canceled by AMC after wrapping up the Rosie Larsen case in the season 2 finale. The show got a last-minute reprieve when AMC ordered a third season that I personally considered to be show’s strongest. But instead of leaving well enough alone, The Killing returned for a six-episode fourth season on Netflix.
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2 Broke Girls: The Complete Fourth Season

Posted in No Huddle by J C on August 17th, 2015

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Everyone on TV has nicer clothes and a bigger home than you do. And I’m not just talking about fictional doctors or lawyers. Even small-screen characters with relatively modest incomes manage to live in palatial apartments. Need proof? The 2 Broke Girls in CBS’s hit sitcom have an apartment that is literally big enough to fit a horse. (Hi, Chestnut.) Season 4 even manages to squeeze in a gaggle of Victoria’s Secret models (Ep. 6/“And the Model Apartment”), and the girls’ building gets a new tenant when lewd line cook Oleg (Jonathan Kite) moves in with larger-than-life upstairs neighbor Sophie (Jennifer Coolidge), leading to the one-liner “the booty call is coming from inside the house.”
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The Dovekeepers (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by J C on August 14th, 2015

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“You will remain my prisoners until you’ve told me what really happened in Masada.”

Those words are spoken by Flavius Josephus, the real-life historian for the Romans who chronicled the Siege of Masada. In The Dovekeepers, Josephus is talking to two iron-willed female prisoners who also happen to be among the few people who survived the attack. Their story is told in flashback, and this two-part miniseries brushes up against some interesting points about who gets to write humanity’s history. But in telling the story from a female perspective — an admirable, out-of-the-box idea — this miniseries reduces a complex, fascinating historical event into a stiff, protracted soap opera.
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Hell on Wheels: Season 4 (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 11th, 2015

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“Milk will be spilled.”

That’s for sure, and you can expect more than a little crying over it all. The saddest news, however, is the coming fifth season will be the show’s final year. You really should not even think about joining the series from this point. I suspect it will still be quite entertaining, but for the full experience you do have to start from the beginning. The evolution of the Cullen character from Civil War veteran out for vengeance to the man who we see in the fourth season is a rather nice journey to witness. So saddle up for the first three. You can find the reviews for other seasons here.
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The Comeback: Seasons 1 & 2

Posted in No Huddle by J C on August 10th, 2015

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“What’s this? The Comeback comeback?”

The most unlikely program to air on HBO over the last year didn’t feature dragons or detectives…it was the story of a diva. Obviously, The Comeback — the rare HBO show that wasn’t granted a second season — isn’t as lavish as Game of Thrones or as ambitious as True Detective. But even for a network with a sterling reputation for taking chances and thinking outside the box, the return of The Comeback as an 8-episode “limited series” was somewhat of a shock.
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Strike Back: The Complete Third Season (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 5th, 2015

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“This ain’t no place for a hero.”

Strike Back follows the exploits of an elite and secret British military team called Section 20. On paper they do not exist, but they’ve got all the best new high-tech toys, and they’re going to need every one of them. They’re going after the top terrorist threats. They combine the intelligence-gathering network of a CIA-type organization with the precision strike force impact of a top Navy Seals team.
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The Affair: Season One

Posted in No Huddle by J C on August 5th, 2015

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The notion that there are two sides to every story is at the center of The Affair. Almost every episode depicts the same events related to the titular adulterous relationship from two different perspectives. It’s an ingenious and inclusive storytelling tool because TV viewers are encouraged to spot the differences in each character’s account of events. (Along with inconsistencies in hairstyles, wardrobe, wallpaper, etc.) That’s why I was somewhat disheartened by the latter portion of the season veering away from what made the show great.
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I Love Lucy: The Ultimate Season 2 (Blu-ray)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 4th, 2015

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I Love Lucy changed the fledgling television industry in the 1950’s. This was a time when network television was less than a decade old. Most folks had never heard of television just 15 years earlier. I Love Lucy defined the concept of a sitcom. The show was driven by the very strong personalities of the cast. Desi Arnaz was considered a charismatic Latin lover by American women. Lucy played the perfect foil and found a mountain of gold to mine in strong physical comedy. So many modern shows owe their roots to this classic that it would be impossible to mention them all here. Now CBS and Paramount are bringing the show back in brand-new high-definition restored image that will delight even the pickiest fans of the show.
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