Television

Office, The – Season 1 (US Version)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 14th, 2005

Synopsis

There was a huge amount of anticipation over the American adaptation of the British sitcom hit of the same name. The original version, with Ricky Gervais as the office manager David Brent, won a series of Emmy equivalents in England and Gervais even won a Golden Globe for his work on the show. And with Steve Carell (Anchorman) appearing in the American version as Brent’s counterpart, expectations were high from more than a few people.

Not having seen the British version of the show…
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Saturday Night Live – The First Five Years

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 11th, 2005

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Synopsis

With all due respect to The Kids in the Hall, Saturday Night Live has an uncontested place in television history as one of the most influential shows ever to air on a small box of cathode ray tubes and circuit boards. Over the years, the show has launched the careers of Will Ferrell (Anchorman), Eddie Murphy (Beverly Hills Cop), Adam Sandler (The Waterboy) and a host of other notable actors. The talent that creator Lorne Michaels has put together for over a quarte…
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Good Times – The Complete Fifth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 10th, 2005

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First there was no James. This year no Florida. Yes, the Sunshine State is alive and well even after a year full of hurricanes, but the lovable mother Evans is not a part of Good Times 5th season. I found these episodes to be the show’s least funny. There’s no doubt that the scripts are trying way too hard to cover the awkward situations. The addition of young Penny is really no compensation. It doesn’t help that after 5 years JJ’s shtick is beginning to show its wear. Still, there are some good moments here for the show’s legion of fans.
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Alf – Season Two

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 7th, 2005

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ALF stands for Alien Life Form, but anyone who has seen this hit 1980’s comedy knows ALF stands for “laughing your ass off funny”. That’s what I had to say about season 1. Season 2 is just as funny, if not tons more. Of course, it helps that the show got its first full run of episodes in this year. Each episode shares its name with a song title. To the show’s credit, many are obscure. The big problem here continues to be the use of cut syndicated episodes. At least on this set the box clearly alerts you to this fact.
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Kingdom Hospital: The Beginning

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 4th, 2005

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Synopsis

Kingdome Hospital is built on the site of a former Civil War textile mill, where many children lost their lives in a tragic fire. The ground is therefore haunted, and strange things are happening in the hospital. We follow the lives of many characters here, including one particular patient, an artist who was hit by a truck (the incident is very faithful reproduction of what happened to Stephen King himself) and is haunted, in his comatose state, by visions of a supernatural anteater (I’m not…
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Married With Children – The Complete Fourth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 3rd, 2005

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Married With Children was something of an anomaly among the pantheon of breakthrough television shows throughout history. Shows such as Archie Bunker and Roseanne broke through the stereotypes of the television family, and showed life much more as it really is in most American households. What made Married With Children especially unique is that while those other shows often-times made very real comments about society through their laughter, this program mainly focused on the American mal…
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Reno 911! The Complete Second Season (Uncensored)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 27th, 2005

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Synopsis

While some sketch shows like The Ben Stiller Show and Mr. Show have managed to touch on the Cops parody with their material, the only one that does it regularly now is a show that uses it for inspiration.

In Reno 911!, produced and aired on Comedy Central, the show focuses on a group of police in the sleepy Nevada town doing what they can to keep law and order. You’ve got Lieutenant Dangle (Thomas Lennon, The State), a bicycle cop who perpetually wears h…
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Dallas – The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 24th, 2005

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It sometimes becomes quite challenging to write a review of a television show release in the mid-seasons. The opening season of the show has plenty to talk about, and the final season wraps things up, but what about season six, say, of an eleven season show? What is there to say then? “Well, this season involves the same characters doing the same stuff they have been doing for years.”

Lucky for me, this is a mid-season set that has something to talk about. Something big. Something the whole nation was talking…
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Columbo – The Complete Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 14th, 2005

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Synopsis

Another eight Columbo mystery movies are included here. The formula they follow is familiar: a murder is committed (and we generally know whodunit right off the bat), and we watch as Columbo, apparently absent-minded, closes in on the culprit, making said individual sweat like the dickens before he closes in for the kill. The episodes here also feature turns by such stars as Martin Sheen, Vincent Price and Johnny Cash, which makes this nostalgic trip all the more fun. These short movies-of-t…
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Star Trek Enterprise – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 12th, 2005

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Season Two of Star Trek Enterprise was without a doubt the weakest of the series. It’s no mystery that the show’s demise was already being talked about by the time Year Two was finished. The stories were unoriginal and it appears budgetary concerns often meant unimaginative bottle shows. The words Star Trek were finally added to the title. Rick Berman has always tried to distance himself from Gene Roddenberry. When Enterprise was first released he felt it was time to finally cut the umbilical cord and drop the franchise tag.
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Home Improvement – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 11th, 2005

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Synopsis

Tim Allen was fortunate enough to ride a couple of trends and nurture them into a steady paycheck without really having to do anything. He was a stand-up comic in the mid ‘80s and early ‘90s and was pretty good at it. And like many other stand-ups during the time, he was given a sitcom with which to basically recycle his act onto a smaller stage. And to his benefit, the public enjoyed it, and Allen’s pet project Home Improvement was a smash hit, and would later go on to enjoy eight seasons o…
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Lost in Space – Season 3 (Volume 2)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 2nd, 2005

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By the last half of season three Lost In Space was certainly showing its wear. The stories would sink to simply camp with little or no redeeming value remaining. It’s no surprise that this once smart bit of space humor was on the way out after season 3. By now it appears the writers were fresh out of anything new and opted to recycle already tired formulas. Just how many times can Smith sell the family out for a long-shot return to Earth? Will and the Robot remain the best reason for watching the show.

Cleopatra 2525 – The Complete Series

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 26th, 2005

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Synopsis

In the year 2525, humanity has been forced to seek refuge deep in the earth from robots known as “Baileys.” The title character is a stripper from our century, who went in for a breast enhancement and wound up cryogenically frozen until now. Thawed out, a stranger in a dangerously strange land, she winds up joining forces with two other female freedom fighters.

Though much is made of Sam Raimi’s involvement as exec-producer on this series, his direct role on the creative side is pr…
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Sliders — The Third Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 26th, 2005

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Synopsis

The premise should be familiar to anyone interested in the third season: Jerry O’Connell and friends continue sliding from one universe to another, encountering a different alternate earth in each episode, always trying to find the way back home. The range of possibilities is naturally pretty wide, so our heroes wind up in a deadly war game show (granted not the most original idea), in a world devastated by electric tornadoes, and so on. It’s all done with engaging humour and energy, though …
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Daily Show With John Stewart, The – Indecision 2004

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 22nd, 2005

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In its early days of existence, I was a big fan of The Daily Show. I assumed that when Craig Kilborn left the show, it would die off (in much the same way that Talk Soup tanked after Jon Hensen left). Boy, was I wrong. Instead of fading away, the show took off beyond my wildest expectations. No longer a funny little show on cable, The Daily Show became a cultural and critical phenomenon. What was really surprising, however, is the political importance of the show, as guests went from the People M…
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Homicide Life on the Street – The Complete First & Second Seasons

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 20th, 2005

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Synopsis

Let me get this out of the way first: I’m a Homicide junkie. While I’m grateful it got the run it did, to see it almost eternally on the graveyard TV timeslot of Friday at 10pm crushed me. And to see it get beaten in it’s time slot by Nash Bridges and remain virtually anonymous in the shadow of NYPD Blue discouraged me. But I’m a fanboy. It was filmed in my hometown (Baltimore), and while some of its actors were noteworthy elsewhere (among those were Ned Beatty, Yaphet Kotto an…
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Tales from the Crypt — The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 20th, 2005

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Synopsis

Hugely popular in the 1950s, but politically excoriated and ultimately shut down, EC Comics such as Tales from the Crypt saw their stories revived first in the theatrical Amicus anthologies of the early 70s, and then as this TV series. Here is the first season (a mere six half-hour episodes), directed by the likes of Richard Donner, Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis and Mary Lambert, among others. The stories are very faithful to the spirit of the comics (and are taken from actual stories)…
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Brady Bunch – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 15th, 2005

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“Here’s the story…of a lovely lady…”. We all know the beginning of this familiar ditty. It’s the Brady Bunch. And they’re back in The Brady Bunch – The Complete Second Season. All 24 episodes are classic Brady Bunch fare. Oh to live in a world of ice cream contests, science projects, and slumber parties; and the worst thing you could do was “smoke” *sigh*. Alice, the housekeeper, is along for this harmless ride. The astroturf front yard is still there. The Brady Bunch is a trip back to the “garden”…
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Carol Burnett Show – Let’s Bump Up the Lights!

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 13th, 2005

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The Carol Burnett Show – Let’s Bump Up the Lights! is the DVD re-issue of an original CBC broadcast. The content is in the form of one of Carol’s famous Q & A sessions that started every show. Carol answers questions, she does her Tarzan yell. Burnett does there here too. But she asks other cast regulars (Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner) to join in. Clips from the show are interspersed to back up the answers to the questions.

The 42 minute disc is too short to make a…
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Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman – The Complete First Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 10th, 2005

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Years before she was a resident on Wisteria Lane, and even before she was a notorious Bond girl, Teri Hatcher played Lois Lane on the New Adventures of Superman. Along with Dean Cain who played Clark Kent (aka Superman), these two actors brought the traditional story (unlike the recent Smallville) of superman once again to the small screen. Although Cain has not been able to reach the recent success that Hatcher has, the pair did share good chemistry on this show – creating an enjoyable television ex…
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Hitchhiker Volume 2, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 27th, 2005

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Synopsis

Back in the early 1980s, HBO ran this anthology series, wherein the denim-clad Page Fletcher does the Rod Serling thing, introducing and concluding each dark morality tale. Though the stories varied (in content as well as quality), certain factors remained the same: you could always count on at least one sex scene, plus some dollops of gore. This was, in sum, The Twilight Zone with extra violence and cable-friendly T&A. As far as horror goes, there is nothing very groundbreaking here,…
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Las Vegas – Season One (Uncut & Uncensored )

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 24th, 2005

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Las Vegas has a credo of sorts: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Well… not anymore. Las Vegas tells all in a new smart and often sexy NBC series. Most of the cast was chosen for their more physical attributes; however, the performances are not bad either. James Caan takes a surprising journey to TV land. The part of an ex-CIA boss fits Caan like one of Sonny Corleone’s tailored suits.

The series always features special guest stars, often playing themselves. The lineup of guests includee Vegas names like Penn&Teller as well as box office champions that include Dennis Hopper and Sean Astin.
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Andy Griffith Show – The Complete Second Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 24th, 2005

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Who doesn’t have a soft spot in their heart, if not their DVD collection, for The Andy Griffith Show? The denizens of Mayberry have been with many of us our entire lives. For most of America, The Andy Griffith Show has become the template for any small rural town. The characters stand as prerequisite citizens in any said town. The town drunk, the local barber, the motherly little old lady, and the corner mechanic all look like Otis, Floyd, Aunt Bee, and Goober to most of us now.
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Stargate Atlantis – Rising (Pilot Episode)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 20th, 2005

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Stargate SG-1 is about to enter its ninth year. There was speculation that after season 8 the series would bow out gracefully with the anticipated exit of Richard Dean Anderson. With that plan in mind the folks at Stargate Command decided it was time to spin off the franchise, and so was born Atlantis. Stargate Atlantis boasts pretty much the same team as SG-1. The quality of the production and tight storytelling have translated well to this sister series. The only flaw in this plan is that fans don’t want to let go of the original.
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Walker, Texas Ranger – The Final Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 20th, 2005

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Ten years ago Chuck Norris took his movie tough guy routine to television. It is there that he has enjoyed far greater success than in his films. For nine years Norris brought us the ultimate Texas Ranger in a formula cops and robbers show. The show often became a parody of itself, but maintained a solid viewership throughout. Hell, Norris even sings the theme song. Truthfully, what started as a one man show had become a good working ensemble that probably kept the train going for so long.

Walker (Norris) is a tough guy Texas Ranger.
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