Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 29th, 2009
I think it’s safe to say that HBO changed the face of television with the arrival of The Sopranos back in 1999. The show raised the bar for television across the board. Before we knew it, many of the cable networks were scrambling to offer up the next show that would generate the same praise […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 1st, 2009
Dexter continues his jump to the world of high definition as the second season finally makes its way to Blu-ray. The show is killer, if you’ll pardon the expression. In the first season, Dexter pointed out the contradiction of a crime scene in sunny Miami. The aftermath of brutality appears somewhat surreal in such a […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 23rd, 2009
I’m not a wrestling fan. There is very little about that world that holds any charm for me. I find the grandiose posturing to be rather dull. The characters aren’t all that interesting to me, and I don’t find myself compelled to spend 100 bucks on a “free for all” pay per view event. With […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 1st, 2009
For anyone not familiar with here! TV’s series The Lair, let me bring you up to speed. The setting is a picturesque little town on an island somewhere on the East Coast. What makes this town so picturesque? Well, there’s its lush greenery, its sweeping ocean views, its many gorgeous houses, and there is also […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 4th, 2009
Meerkat Manor is back for a fourth season on DVD. You’re invited back into the South African desert with the famous Whiskers Clan. Animal Planet has themselves a relatively big hit here with Meerkat Manor. OK, so, it’s not exactly The Sopranos or The Shield, but it does have a modestly dedicated audience. Seems that […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 6th, 2009
The Tudors returns for a rather triumphant second season. The series attempts to modernize the story more than a little. Henry’s attire is more akin to a rock star than a 16th century ruler. The language is also more updated, often filled with modern colloquialisms and the like. The story of Henry VIII is well […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 5th, 2008
What can I say about Showtime’s huge hit, The L Word? If you don’t already know what this show is about, and I was surprised at the number of people I talked to who didn’t, then I’m pretty sure this isn’t the show for you. Remember the old days when you used to watch Sesame […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 17th, 2008
I think it’s safe to say that HBO changed the face of television with the arrival of The Sopranos back in 1999. The show raised the bar for television across the board. Before we knew it, many of the cable networks were scrambling to offer up the next show that would generate the same praise […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 30th, 2008
Meerkat Manor is back for a third season on DVD. You’re invited back into the South African desert with the famous Whiskers Clan. Animal Planet has themselves a relatively big hit here with Meerkat Manor. OK, so, it’s not exactly The Sopranos or The Shield, but it does have a modestly dedicated audience. Seems that […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 19th, 2008
When MI-5 first hit American shores, Alias was in full swing, and the comparisons were inevitable. After all, both were sy shows set in a post September 11 world, and both were slick, fun thrillers. Fast forward to 2006, however, and the landscape has changed dramatically. Alias is now off the air, having crashed in […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 7th, 2008
HBO’s Rome was cutting edge historical drama and, of course, was crazy successful. Is it any surprise that their largest rival Showtime would attempt to cash in on that success? Showtime’s The Tudors flashes forward a few centuries to 16th Century England and the rule of Henry VIII. The Tudors has more than just history […]
Posted in Highly Defined, Regular Columns by Archive Authors on August 6th, 2007
This is one of those weeks where I don’t have a catchphrase. Except in talking about it, this is probably the catchphrase in particular. Well what’s new in the world this week? Well, to answer it with a shred of obviousness, Spider Man 3 is coming out on Blu-ray on 10/30, right next to the […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 6th, 2007
Rockford, James Rockford. OK. So that doesn’t sound as suave as you know who. Still, for me growing up, there was perhaps no one cooler. We all wanted to be Rockford. Created by Stephen J. Cannell and Roy Huggins, the same team that brought us Maverick, Rockford really was just a modern day Bret Maverick. […]
Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on November 20th, 2006
Normally, I’d tell you about the PS3 or something, now that it’s out, but if I need to have a bulletproof vest on when I buy a gaming console, something’s friggin wrong in my country. Snacking on ginger snaps at work while I try to figure out how to kill these next three days, I […]
Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on October 16th, 2006
Happy belated Columbus and Thanksgiving Days! Well, while early HD-DVD adopters were poring over the Batman Begins release, assuming one could be found somewhere in North America, the business of trying to win the hearts and minds of the next-generation home video buyer continued in earnest, with various types of news coming out over the […]
Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on August 14th, 2006
Where your trusty columnist has joined the ranks of the Xbox owners… Things have moved along like people have figured in the next-gen DVD wars, which is to say, there isn’t a clear winner since the last time we talked. There is some news from Paramount, being that Mission: Impossible III will release SD, Blu […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 2nd, 2006
The Brilliant But Cancelled DVD series is the brainchild of the web site of the same name, run by the Bravo network. As of now, there are just two titles in the series, a set of four different crime dramas, and this show. EZ Streets was a show from the 1996/1997 television season that was […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 29th, 2006
Synopsis Growing up as the oldest son in an upper-middle class neighborhood outside of Washington, DC, I am familiar with rap as much as, or even more than, KRS One, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Public Enemy or NWA. I come from dem hard streets, where I can kill a muhvuggah! Well, maybe not […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on January 3rd, 2006
When did it become mainstream to root for the bad guys? Certainly our pop culture has been propagated with colorful villains since Shakespeare, goons we love to hate or even just love. Still, the rule always seemed to be that the white hats always win and the black hats get what’s coming. Maybe it all […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2005
Synopsis Peter Bogdanovich may be the victim of having too much too soon, as he was well known for his work in the early 1970s, starting with The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, but experienced a string of poorly received work as well. Following the 1980 murder of his girlfriend Dorothy Stratten (at the […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 20th, 2005
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 […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 1st, 2005
As I always say when I review HBO television sets… you gotta love HBO. Entourage cannot be placed in the same family as Six Feet Under or The Sopranos, but it still can hold its own against the offerings from other networks. Not only do you get a good show, but you also get the […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 24th, 2004
Easily the best animated series to hit the airwaves over the past decade, Gennedy Tartovsky’s Samurai Jack has developed a devoted following owing to it’s superior storytelling and cinematography (if you can call it cinematography when it’s on TV). It follows the story of Samurai Jack – a time displaced samurai looking to restore order […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 25th, 2003
Ben Franklin once said that two things one should never see being made are sausages and laws. So far there haven’t been any pilots occurring in a meat factory. Politics aside, Aaron Sorkin has created a first-rate TV show. The real success here is the casting. I’ve always preached to whoever would listen that its […]
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2003
FX decided to jump on the cable bandwagon last year and come up with their very own original series, The Shield. The show stars Michael Chiklis, formerly of The Commish, as Vic Mackey, a hard-nosed Los Angeles detective that gives bad cops a good name – but in a bad way. Mackey is head of […]
