Disc Reviews

"In the 19th century, persons suffering from mental illness were thought to be alienated from their own true natures. Experts who studied them were therefore known as alienists."

The Alienist is a new drama airing on TNT and is the latest in the recent trend of period-piece dramas to populate the television series market. Like many of these kinds of shows, The Alienist relies as much on atmosphere as it does on the actual story being told. The series is intended to attack the senses and obviously elicit some kind of a reaction. Filmed in Budapest, the show takes us back to New York City in the 1890's and truly builds a rather deep and dark environment that you will likely remember far longer than any other element of the show. The series also utilizes a tremendous amount of computer-generated images for set extensions and sometimes complete environments. It's an ambitious undertaking and might well have been the crowning achievement of the series. However, Warner has decided to send the DVD of the series and not their usual Blu-ray for my review. Unfortunately, the bandwidth of a DVD can not do justice to these grand illusions. The entire show suffers from compression issues and an off-putting soft focus that totally distracts from all of this creativity. I wish I could have enjoyed the show in its apparent grandeur, but alas, I can really only speak to the drama itself.

Last month it was officially 50 years since the Manson Family brought chaos into the world with the massacre at Ciello Drive that left a pregnant Sharon Tate brutally murdered along with her friends.  Since then the name Charles Manson has become a symbol of pop culture despite not ever being a part of the actual murders.  Even after all these years, there are so many myths about Manson and his followers, it’s doubtful we’ll ever really know the truth.  Over the period of 50 years there have been countless films about the murders and the Manson family. Most recently Quentin Tarantino put out Once Upon a Time in Hollywood that gave audiences a fantasy perspective of the events of that night and came out to be a successful film over the summer and a contender for numerous awards.  With that being said, there are also films like Manson Family Movies that came out in 1984 and was nowhere near the commercial success.  Manson Family Movies is impressive where it dabbles in the found-footage genre as a recreation of the events that led up to the murders while also recreating the violent crimes.  Unfortunately, despite how ambitious it may be, this looks like it was made with no budget and at times is painful to watch.

One of the first things you’ll notice while watching Manson Home Movies is that it was filmed on 8mm and shot as though these were random videos done by the Manson Family.  There really doesn’t seem to be much of a plot, as we get footage of them around Los Angeles and then shooting at Spahn Ranch.  When a plot is sort of introduced, it’s a bit hard to follow, though we are introduced to the characters as the actors hold up signs for whom they are playing.  Considering there is no dialog, and actors become interchangeable in various roles, it shouldn’t be a surprise that this wasn’t a SAG-sanctioned film.  While this is somewhat a silent film, there is music that plays over the course of the film, and a good portion of it is performed by Charles Manson…yes, you read that correctly.  Getting back to the “narrative” of this film, it wants to introduce bookies and drug deals gone bad to explain why the murders occurred.  Granted we know this wasn’t the case, but hopefully no one is watching this in hopes of watching a true account of the events.

"Everything is always about Sheldon."

Warner Brothers is very familiar with superheroes. That goes double for the character of Sheldon, played by Jim Parsons, on The Big Bang Theory. A common thread in the superhero business, of course, is the origin story. With the popularity of The Big Bang Theory, and the Sheldon character particularly, it isn't all that surprising that we would eventually be treated to Sheldon's origin story. But instead of flashbacks on the series, the decision was made that Sheldon's childhood was territory that could be mined for years. Thus is born Young Sheldon. For fans of the original show and character, it couldn't have come at a better time. Parsons just turned down an offer of $50 million for two more years of Big Bang. I can't imagine how it must feel to be able to turn down that kind of money. But faced with doing the series without him, the smart decision was to shut it down. What started with a big bang ends with a tiny little man. The Big Bang Theory has ended. I'm not sure we've seen the last of it in some form or another. Sheldon will live on as a kid for years to come. Not sure what Parsons' paycheck is here, but it requires only his narration.

"Don't stop me now. I'm in the zone."

Every year at this time, I end up having to binge watch a ton of television. A lot of previous seasons get released on disc in anticipation of the new seasons about to get underway. It's a daunting task that often makes me feel a little silly when I complain to friends that I have to watch so much television.  You kind of have to get yourself on a roll and immerse yourselves in these fictional television worlds. More and more I find so much of my time is taken by the NCIS franchise, which has just completed 30 seasons of episodes and is about to rack up three more very soon. Add that to the fact that this has been going on for the better part of the last decade, and NCIS has accounted for a fair amount of my waking hours. And while it does appear that the L.A. version of the show might be pulling up to its final destination, the New Orleans show is just getting its legs and looks to be here for the better part of the next decade. But it's the mothership, originally spun off from JAG, that has just completed its 16th season with no signs of slowing down. Sometimes it feels just like a runaway train. The cast has changed over almost completely since that first season, with only a handful of actors and characters still on board. But wherever this train stops, and whoever happens to be on board at various stretches of the journey, I don't see us getting to a station anytime soon. And if Season 16 is any indication of what's yet to come, I've got my ticket in my hand, ready for the ride to continue.

"Sam Hannah without a bomb is like Aquaman without... I got nothing."

This is absolutely an explosive year for NCIS: LA which just finished its 10th year, and now those episodes are together in one place thanks to CBS Home Entertainment. The series has become one of the most successful spin-off shows in the history of television. Only CSI and the Law & Order franchises have brought more episodes to our television screens, and next season the NCIS franchise will have passed CSI. The truth is, if you go all the way back to the original JAG series, this is hands down the most prolific one-hour series in television history. What is even more amazing is that the NCIS shows continue to be the most-watched franchise in the entire world, a position they have held for over a decade. No one has come close to this kind of television domination. If this collection of episodes is any indication, the ride isn't anywhere near reaching the end. All three shows have been renewed, with NCIS getting a new two-year commitment at CBS. If you haven't already caught up on all of those earlier episodes, you don't necessarily need to do that, but why wouldn't you? You can at least catch up with the first nine seasons of NCIS: L.A. Here.

Here we go again, another revenge film. Despite my love for the “revenge” sub-genre, it is getting to the point where there just seem to be too many uninspired films flooding the market.  Blue Ruin is perhaps the best revenge film I’ve seen in the past ten years, and it seems several other filmmakers feel the same way because of the amount of films that have been churned out, all attempting to emulate its gritty realistic style, but just fail in the process.  Into the Ashes could have been something different; we get some glimpses at what could have steered this film into some interesting territory, but before it gets to take any chances, the film is quickly reeled back to the overbeaten path so many have tread upon before. In a small Alabama town, Nick (Luke Grimes) is trying his best to live a quiet, peaceful life.  He’s married to the sheriff’s daughter and has a decent job that pays the bills; the trouble is he has a violent past, and it’s catching up with him in the form of Sloan (Frank Grillo), who has just been released from prison.  Before Nick was living the quiet life, he used to run with a violent crew, and Nick took off with their money after things went bad.  Nick’s used the money to start a new life, but as you would expect, his former criminal partners don’t care that Nick has started a new life, and they are out for some payback.  Things go from bad to worse when the old gang goes to pay Nick a visit but instead find his wife home alone, and they kill her. Like I said, it’s familiar territory, though in many ways this film plays it safer than other films. Usually there are beatings, rapes, and then burning homes down, but these guys seem content with just shooting the wife (something we don’t even get to see).  One of the films biggest mistakes is they don’t do much for us to hate the bad guys. I mean, in many ways they have every right to come after Nick, and if we believe what Sloan says occurred with the wife, well, it was sort of a fair shooting. So when Sloan and his crew leave Nick for dead with only two bullets in him, one could almost argue they let him off lightly (in relation to other revenge films).

The film then fumbles again by allowing Nick to live and puts him in the driver’s seat for revenge, while the sheriff (Robert Taylor) really does nothing but follow Nick’s trail.  Sure, the sheriff always had a bad feeling about Nick and resents his daughter being killed because of Nick, but we never get to see the rage that should have been injected into this character.  Because he believes in this code of justice, he seems to do very little to find justice for his daughter.  If he was overly distraught, I could understand why he does so little, but instead this is all treated as though losing his daughter was just another day on the beat.

It's been nearly five years since FX's hit television series Sons of Anarchy rode off into the sunset. A lot of fans, myself included, were not necessarily very happy with the way it all ended. It wasn't Sopranos bad, but it wasn't the kind of closure or satisfaction one expects from such a compelling drama and well-written show. We all calmed a bit when we started hearing from the Sons of Anarchy Universe creator Kurt Sutter that he wasn't quite done with that world. At first there was serious talk of there being a prequel series or movie that would take us back to the days of the original nine founders of the club. It seemed the perfect follow-up, because we already knew so much about that world through the pages of manuscript left behind by Jax's father. It was a rich landscape, and we eagerly awaited more word. After a couple of years, hopes were starting to fall when word came that while the early story was still going to be told, the next visit to this universe was going to be the Mayan MC, which were sometimes allies and sometimes foes for SAMCRO. But another couple of years went by and there was still nothing concrete. Just when I was beginning to suspect these were nothing more than Sutter's wish list of projects, things started to move forward on The Mayans MC. Still, as expectations began to grow, the project appeared to be in even more trouble. It was fair to ask if we were ever going back to that world again, a question I'm sure that Kurt Sutter was tired of hearing asked.

Even when the show got off the ground, it was a short flight. Sutter wrote and directed a pilot episode, but it didn't go over too well with the network. At first he approached it with the attitude that the complaints were the same he initially got for Sons of Anarchy, and look how that turned out. After a while he started to think maybe he needed to take a step back and re-evaluate things. It was probably a smart decision. Tweaks were made to the script. A new director was chosen, and some of the characters were changed or recast. With Norberto Barba now at the helm, a second pilot was shot. I've not had the opportunity to see that first pilot. It's not available in this release, and depending on how fragile Sutter is about the quality, we might get to see it somewhere down the road. So I don't exactly know what these changes involved. I do know the result is something that will comfortably fill the gap before those early years are revisited. It's not Sons of Anarchy by any means. It doesn't really try to be, and that's likely a smart choice. It's different but fits well into that same world. It'll certainly get us over the hump and kill some of those withdrawal pains.