Californication – The Fifth Season (2012/Showtime)/Gunsmoke - The Seventh Season, Volume One (1961 – 1962)/House Of Lies - The First Season (2012/Showtime/CBS
DVD Sets)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C/C-/C Episodes: C+/C+/C
Here is a
selection of the latest TV on DVD releases from Showtime and CBS…
It is
hard to believe, but we are now on Californication
– The Fifth Season (2012) with David Duchovny continuing his role as a sex
addict, a problem he had somewhat in real life.
He is good here and can act, as this show has stayed a hit and is not
equal to The X Files in being the
work he is most associated with.
However, the show is starting to wear thin and I think the show has
peaked. You can see my reaction by
seeing what I said about the previous seasons at these links:
Three
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10590/Californication+%E2%80%93+The+T
Four
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11416/Californication+%E2%80%93+The+Fo
Like Hung, it seems they have gone just
about everywhere they could. We yet
again get 12 episodes over two DVDs and it is professionally done, but it is
starting to fall victim to the weekly TV grind.
Fans will enjoy it and others should see the earlier season first or
this will not play as well. We’ll see
how much longer this can go on, but unless there are some new fresh surprises
ahead, the show is in decline.
Extras
include bonus episodes of Dexter, The Borgias and Hou$e Of Lie$ (see more below), plus PC extras by putting the DVD
in a computer.
By the
early 1960s, Gunsmoke - The Seventh
Season, Volume One (1961 – 1962) had the show doing very well in the
ratings, but the series was nearing the end of its effective black and whit
early era as the show started to get a little formulaic itself. Bonanza
had debuted in color around this time (though hardly anyone had color TV), so
other Westerns were starting to challenge it and the show was going to have to
start making changes.
The only
thing is that the actors had definitely settled well into their characters, but
the scripts and look were starting to get stale. For fans only, the shows are well written and
acted still, but the 17 hour-long shows over 5 DVDs lack the energy and
freshness of the early seasons. Changes
were soon to take place.
Extras
include episode previews on some episodes and two sponsor spots on DVD 5.
Finally
we have Hou$e Of Lie$ - The First Season
(2012) with Don Cheadle as the head of a group of managers that get hired by
big corporations for big money to help them through crisis and to hold onto
their money. He has a son who is
interested in female clothes and acting roles (the use of the musical Grease here get obnoxious very
quickly), his ex-wife is part of a competing firm more successful than his and
he has all kinds of other personal and professional issues.
Meant as
a comedy, Cheadle and his supporting cast (including Kristen Bell) have the
energy to do all that they have to in first 12 half-hour episodes over two
DVDs, but the comedy is predictable, sometime too safe and his constant
interruptions to break the ‘fourth wall’ and talk to the audience hinders the
show big time. As for spoofing and
criticizing the business world in this way, the show plays less effectively
than the underrated Franklin & Bash
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) and is going to have to come up with much
more if it is going to survive as a series.
We’ll see where the writers go next.
Extras
include text bios of the actors, audio commentaries on two episodes and four
clips on the show including a profile of Cheadle’s character, separate
interviews with Cheadle & Bell and “The Rainmaker”.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Californication
and Lies are HD shot and have a
certain softness throughout that hinder overall playback performance, while the
1.33 X 1 black and white image on the older Gunsmoke episodes are shot on 35mm black and white, yet despite
showing their age can more than complete with the newer shows in picture
playback quality.
Sound has
the same issue with the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Californication and Lies
sounds good and are new, nicely recorded mixes, but they tend to be limited in
soundfield and not great. Maybe they
would be better in lossless versions, but the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Gunsmoke is in pretty good shape
throughout and fuller overall. Despite
showing its age and some sonic limits, those shows can more than compete with
the newer ones here.
- Nicholas Sheffo