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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Comedy > Suburbs > Sex > Addiction > Western > Drama > Business > Finance > Scandal > Cable TV > 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)

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


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