All In The Family – The Complete Ninth Season (Final Original Season/Shout! Factory DVD) + Capadocia: A Place Without Forgiveness –
Season One (2007) + Hijos Del
Carnival (aka Filhos do Carnival)
– Seasons One & Two (2006 –
2009/HBO/Maya DVD Sets) + Melrose Place –
Sixth Season, Volume One (1997/CBS DVD) + The Red Green Show – Midlife Crisis (Seasons 10 – 12/2000 – 2002/Acorn Media DVD Set)
Picture: C+/C+/C/C/C Sound: C+ Extras: C+/C+/D/D/C- Episodes: B/B-/C+/C-/C
And now
for a look at some familiar shows we have seen before and two Spanish language
series that are not bad and better than many U.S. productions of late.
First we
start with the end of the original run of the Norman Lear classic All In The Family – The Complete Ninth
(Final) Season which really was the end of the original show, though it
continued as Archie Bunker’s Place,
but more on that in a minute. For those
unfamiliar with the show, here are links to previous seasons covered:
Six
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5082/All+In+The+Family+-+The+Complete
Seven
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10404/All+In+The+Family+%E2%80%93+T
Eight
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10650/Adventures+Of+Merlin+%E2%80%93
Though
most shows might have run out of steam by this point if they survived, but
Family ended in its original form on top.
Besides a terrific 200th Episode celebratory show, we see the
decline of the Mike & Gloria marriage, the debut of Daniel Brisebois as
Stephanie, a funny show about a counterfeit $10 bill and there is the usual
melodrama, but the show also started feeling less live and that was a problem
no amount of good writing could fix.
Whether you consider this the last season ever or are a fan who thinks
of the first Archie Bunker’s Place
season as the 10th of this show, they quit while they were
ahead. Oddly, Sony had already issued
the First Season of Archie Bunker’s Place a while ago on
DVD, so it is already available, making it ten non-stop seasons of Bunker. There are no extras.
Now for
the new Spanish language shows, made with HBO.
BO.
Capadocia: A Place Without
Forgiveness – Season One (2007) has a great cast led by Ana De La Reguera (who you may have
seen as the only good thing in the Jack Black dud Nacho Libre) as an officer involved in her own life troubles and
those of an experimental Mexico City prison for women. Though not Oz or always a hardcore look at crime, it is a well, acted, well
written series that avoids clichés, shows us places we have not been to before
and could easily find a U.S.
audience, even if one had to read subtitles.
This is so good, you don’t mind.
You get 13 70+ minutes episodes over 5 DVDs plus a bonus 6th
DVD of extras including a brief clip of the beginning of the next season,
trailers for both seasons, filmographies with moving text of each actor, a
7-part making of featurette (runs about 25 minutes) and a stills section. Our copy also came with five trading cards.
Taking
place in Rio de Janeiro, Hijos Del
Carnival (aka Filhos do Carnival
and not a remake of HBO’s Carnivale) – Seasons One & Two (2006 – 2009) is a more basic series about
the dark side of the great country of Brazil, involving gambling, crime, sex,
drugs and murder. Some of this we have
seen before and the show is consistently low key, but it also still has some
good moments and those who like Gangster/Crime drama will enjoy this enough for
having a different sense and set of elements about it that separate it from the
likes of Outrageous Fortune from New
Zealand and The Sopranos from the
U.S. (both reviewed elsewhere on this site) with a grittier approach like Treme or maybe The Wire. All 21
under-an-hour episodes from both seasons are here over 4 DVDs and there are no
extras, but it is a show worth your time if this is your kind of fiction.
Melrose Place – Sixth Season,
Volume One is the
latest release of episodes from the original series, but CBS is now releasing
half-season sets. The only other set we
ever covered was when I bashed Season
Three at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6193/Melrose+Place+%E2%80%93+The+Thi
Needless
to say the series did not get the show became more tired, silly and phony at
this point, but at least Aaron Spelling made that phoniness distinct and that
is why all the revivals of his shows bombed.
You get 13 hour-long shows over three DVDs, but only fans will care, the
picture and sound are as problematic as the older set and the same. There are once again no extras, but each show
is summarized inside the paper sleeve in the clear plastic case. However, if you (do you really have to?) have
to see this show, you might as well start with the first set. Otherwise it will just come across as worse,
which tells you what trash TV this is.
Heather Locklear, Alyssa Milano, Jack Wagner, Rob Estes and Doug Savant
head the cast.
Finally
we have the latest volume of The Red
Green Show – Midlife Crisis (2000 – 2002) which consists of three triple
DVDs of each of the later seasons in single cases that have actually been
issued separately. Those interested in
the hit Canadian show can see more in our coverage of the following previous
DVD releases:
Stuffed & Mounted Six Pack Box
Set/Hindsight Is 20/20 compilation DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1969/The+Red+Green+Show+-+Stuffed+&
Infantile Years: 1991 - 1993
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9547/The+Red+Green+Show+-+The+Infanti
1997 Set
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3531/The+New+Red+Green+Show+%E2%8
1998 Set
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5278/The+Red+Green+Show+%E2%80%93
1999 Set
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6613/The+Red+Green+Show+1999:+Collect
I always
found the series odd and at least understood some of its appeal, but it lost
some of its soul and unique feel by this point, so I do not consider these
later shows to be as good as the original productions. Once again and for different reasons, I
recommend the earlier shows to start with or you’ll likely not enjoy this as
much. Extras include text profiles,
Production Notes by star/creator Steven Smith and introductions by Smith.
All the
shows are here in 1.33 X 1 framing except for the anamorphically enhanced 1.78
X 1 image on Capadocia and
letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image on Carnival. Family
looks a little better than pervious sets, but still has some aliasing errors
and softness form its professional NTSC tapings, Capadocia looks the best and was shot in the Super 16mm film
format, Carnival was shot in HD and
it has haloing, softness and motion blur throughout, Melrose was a 35mm production and should look better than Capadocia but was edited and completed
on analog NTSC video with its own aliasing errors and detail issues
throughout. Green is also an NTSC analog tape -produced show and softer than Family with aliasing issues and other
picture flaws.
All have
Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, with all the shows in Stereo save Family in 2.0 Mono and Capadocia
with a Portugese 5.1 mix and slight edge over the others, but has its dialogue
too much in the center channel. At least
none of them have major audio problems.
- Nicholas Sheffo
