ER – The Complete Fourteenth Season (2007 – 2008/Warner Bros.) + Rules Of Engagement - The Complete Fourth Season (2010/Sony) + The Secret Life Of Us - The Complete Series
(2001 – 2005/Umbrella Entertainment/PAL/Region Free/0/Zero Import/DVD Sets)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C/D/B-
Episodes: C/C-/B
PLEASE NOTE:
ER & Rules are NTSC/Region One DVD sets, while Life can only be operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs
that can handle Region Zero/0/Free PAL format software and can be ordered from
our friends at Umbrella Entertainment at the website address provided at the
end of the review.
Since the
1980s, scripted TV has taken a beating, even under the best of circumstances
and U.S. and U.K. broadcast
TV has been particularly effected. While
“reality TV” is the ultimate evidence of that, you can see it more specifically
when you look at some of the successful shows.
ER is one of those shows that ran on
much longer than it should have as we have noted before and The Complete Fourteenth Season (2007 –
2008) has so few original cast members, it is almost like watching one of its
imitators. Maura Tireney, Mekhi Phifer,
Goran Visnjic and even John Stamos are good here, but the show was just too
long in the tooth at this point, as the 19 hour-long shows (over 5 DVDs)
show. Stanley Tucci shows up in the
season opener and that is a highlight, but as you may know, NBC simply held
onto this show (at great expense) because they did not want it to go to another
network. That worked out for Warner and
Amblin, but was just too little and also helped NBC before it really slid low
in the ratings. You can start with the
earliest seasons and see more of our coverage as far back as the Ninth Season. You can go the link for the Twelfth and see more:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9494/ER+-+The+Complete+Twelfth+Season
Extras
include a Gag Reel, Outpatient Outtakes
on select shows and a Paley
Center tribute to the
show on its 300th Episode.
Then
there is the comedy Rules Of Engagement,
somehow making it to its Complete Fourth
Season (2010), here in 13 half-hour shows over two DVDs. I was no fan of the show, as these links will
show:
One
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5882/Rules+Of+Engagement+%E2%80%93
Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7655/Rules+of+Engagement+%E2%80%93
In this
case, the writing improved slightly, which is why it was not cancelled, though
I also think the chemistry of the actors (including David Spade, Patrick
Warburton, Megyn Price, Bianca Kajlich, Oliver Hudson), but Producer Adam
Sandler has allowed the show to coast on lame material and all have settled for
a lesser show that is forgettable for the most part. It is very disappointing it never worked
anywhere near as well as it should.
Let’s see how much longer it lasts.
There are no extras.
Then
there is the big surprise of late, an Australian TV series that should have
either arrived in the U.S. by now or been remade by someone who wanted to make
a good TV show. The Secret Life Of Us - The Complete Series (2001 – 2005) succeeds
where so much “reality TV fails as well as scripted shows as diverse as Skins, Friends, Melrose Place and
others about young adults. The show
involves the events and interactions between friends and new people coming into
their lives.
After
being launched by a 2001 telefilm (or telemovie as the menu refers to it,
presented here as two episodes), events are set in motion with characters that
are developed more thoroughly than most such shows we have seen since the 1980s
and the cast of unknowns can not only act, but have a natural chemistry and
interaction that sued to be common on U.S. and U.K. TV a long time ago, the
kind that makes TV shows classics.
This one
is at least a minor classic, managing not to become a self-absorbed soap opera,
a petty tale of shallow people trying to stab each other in the back (these are
people who, for a change, are actually not boring and about something) and the
fact that the show ended while it was on top speaks volumes about how much the
makers cared and that all quit while they were ahead.
Regulars
for most of the series are played by Claudia Karvan, Samuel Johnson, Deborah
Mailman, Joel Edgerton, Abi Tucker, Sibylla Budd, Spencer McLaren, David
Tredinnick, Damien de Montemas and Judi McCrossin in a show that ran four
seasons and 86 hour-long shows on 24 DVDs.
The characters often lend voice-over to their situations, but it is not
filler or a substitute for good writing, which this show has consistently
considering the many writers it had over the years.
The show
deals with issues of relationships, money, having a future, sex, is honest
about the way people talk in real life (no silly infinite politically
correctness here) and is never phony.
There is drama, but it is never sappy.
There is comedy, but it is never condescending. Australia itself is a character to
some extent, but not at the expense of the story or people. This is a show that respected its audience
and can definitely claim to be one of the best scripted Australian TV shows of
the last 30+ years. Extras on a bonus
DVD include Interviews with the main cast, “The Secret Life Of The Secret
Life Of Us” featurette and a Photo Gallery. This box has four cases for the four seasons
inside.
All three
sets present their shows in anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image playback and
are apparently shot in HD. Rules is the softest here, but there
are various detail limits throughout all the sets. Oddly, Secret
is the oldest shoot here and often has the best shots throughout and that is
beyond the fact that it is on PAL DVDs versus the NTSC of the U.S. sets. It is just a nicely shot show and I expect
we’ll see all three shows on Blu-ray sooner or later. All have Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mixes, save
Rules with Dolby 5.1 that is so
restricted and towards the front and center channels, they should have also
only had 2.0 Stereo.
As noted
above, you can order the Secret PAL
DVD import set exclusively from Umbrella at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
