Brad Meltzer’s Decoded: Season Two (2011)/Dog
The Bounty Hunter: Taking It To The Streets (2010)/Gene Simmons Family Jewels, Season 6, Volume 1 + Volume 2 (2010 - 2011/A&E DVDs)
Picture: C+/C/C+/C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C/D/C+/C Episodes: C+/C/C+/C+
Now for
further coverage of four reality TV hits for A&E, including one that is a
speculative show, Brad Meltzer’s
Decoded: Season Two (2011). If you
are unfamiliar with the series, here is our coverage Season One:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11245/Brad+Meltzer%27s+DECODED+%E2
Not as
impressed as our friend with the show, some of the ideas seems accurate, a few
are and others are speculative and/or seem too easily confirmed. Meltzer and his team do well to explore some
interesting issues, thing and ideas, but looking at the likes of Fort Knox,
Mount Rushmore, The Declaration Of Independence, Patton, UFOs, The Vatican and
even gangsters is still subtle sensationalism and sensationalism is still
sensationalism. Older viewers will be
reminded of Sun Schick Classics from the 1970s, a howler of a bad movie series
(In Search Of Noah’s Ark, etc. and not to be confused with
anything Leonard Nimoy did on TV).
This is
amusing filler TV at best, but nothing great.
The only extra includes additional footage, as if these episodes were
not run-on enough.
Dog The Bounty Hunter: Taking It
To The Streets
(2010) is the latest single DVD offering of the hit show that we have covered a
good bit of before as well, as these links will show:
Wild Ride MegaSet
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10449/Dog+The+Bounty+Hunter+%E2%80
This Family Means Business set
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11092/Dog+The+Bounty+Hunter+%E2%80
They even
have other links, so there is plenty of Dog out there. Unfortunately, a little goes a long way and
this single DVD only has four shows: The
Ice Man, Trouble In Paradise, Mano-a-Mano and The Comeback Kid. It makes
for a good sampler and there are several of those out there, so try this if you
missed it on TV, but if you are a fan, go for a larger set or wait and see if a
Blu-ray is on the way. There are no
extras.
Last but
not least is Gene Simmons Family Jewels,
Season 6, Volume 1 and Volume 2
(2010 – 2011) sets in which the KISS member and longtime love Shannon Tweed may
or may not tie the knot. Getting married
has ruined several narrative shows, but I doubt it would affect a semi-cynical
show as this one, which has its interesting moments. However, this is a long time for this show to
be on and no matter what, I wonder how much longer this family will tolerate
having their privacy (to the extent they are opening up, which is not all the
way due to the phony “reality TV” formula here) they will tolerate. Maybe part of it will be about how long the
children live at home.
If you
are unfamiliar with the show, you can see our coverage of the previous two
seasons we covered on DVD at this link:
Seasons Four & Five DVD Sets
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10630/Billy+The+Exterminator+%E2%80%9
KISS fans
are likely to keep watching, but a little goes a long way here. If you must watch, you might want to start at
the very beginning when the show was actually better. Volume 1 has seven Season Five episodes not on that set for some reason and Volume 2 has Additional Footage as
their respective extras.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on in all four cases are soft, HD shot
and despite having some good color, are not great, but Dog is even poorer with more motion blur and more difficult to
view. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
on the sets are evenly matched with their share of loud music and location
audio issues, but are audible at best in the least.
- Nicholas Sheffo
