Damages – The Final Season (2012/aka Season
Five/Sony DVDs)/Falcon
(2012/Acorn DVDs)/Matlock – The Ninth
& Final Season (1994 – 1995/CBS DVDs)/Medical Center – Season Three (1971 – 1972/MGM/Warner Archive
DVDs)/North & South
(1975/BBC/Acorn DVDs)/Orphan Black –
Season One (2013/BBC Blu-rays)/Unforgettable
– The First Season (2011 – 2012/CBS DVDs)
Picture:
C+/C+/C/C+/C/B-/C+ Sound:
C+/C+/C+/C+/C/B-/C+ Extras:
C/C/C-/D/D/C/x Episodes: C/C/C-/C+/B-/C+/C
PLEASE NOTE: Medical Center is only available from Warner Bros. through their
Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here’s
our latest batch of TV shows old and new, but this time, some are starting and
others are ending…
Damages – The Final Season (2012) is remarkable in that the
show survived cancellation this long in that it was losing support despite
being an ambitious quality show. Cheers
to Glenn Close for backing it all the way too.
For those who missed the previous seasons, here is the extent of our
coverage of past seasons:
One on Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6532/Damages+%E2%80%93+The+Complet
Three on DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11044/Damages+%E2%80%93+The+Compl
Four on DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11663/The+Best+Of+Foyle%E2%80%99s+W
If there
is any ambitious show you need to see from the beginning of so many made in the
last few decades, this is one of them and with 10 episodes left here, the
series does not offer easy, simple, pat conclusions to the various storylines
and struggles going on, but I think the writing team did everything they could
with the characters, situations and wrapped things up as well as can be
expected for a show that is more ambitious than it often gets credit for. Though not always, great, Damages will hold up better than many
shows of its time and will still be discussed years from now.
Extras
include Outtakes and Deleted Scenes.
Falcon (2012) is based on the novel
series by Robert Wilson and wants to be a darker, edgier detective crime drama
series, here offering three telefilms as a lead-in to a possible series, but
despite the good casting of Marton Csokas in the title role, having the show
take place in Seville and some moments that work and have some suspense to
them, the scripts and the way they are handled are sometimes sloppy and flawed
as well as eventually too violent, killing any further suspense and rendering
it a desperate police procedural instead of the potentially great detective
series it could be.
The
supporting and guest cats are not a problem and it is made for mature
audiences, but each telefilm eventually missed the boat and I was
disappointed. If the show continues,
maybe it will make a shift and work better, but if not, the makers will have
themselves to blame for lack of concentration on what they were doing.
Photo
Galleries and three Behind The Scenes featurettes are the only extras.
As for a
show running on way too long, we have Andy Griffith in Matlock – The Ninth & Final Season (1994 – 1995) which shows
how desperate CBS was for hit TV shows before their comeback after decades in
the bottom of the ratings. The
“fuddy-duddy” TV show was a bigger hit than anyone expected at the time, but
without Griffith,
this show would not have made it. We
have only covered two previous seasons on DVD that shows the two sides of
option on the show, pro and con:
Five
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10355/Matlock+%E2%80%93+The+Fifth+Se
Eight
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12091/Matlock+%E2%80%93+Season+Eight
I covered
Five and am the one who thinks the
show was long played out from the start, but it had enough viewers like Murder, She Wrote and likely the same
audience. His assistants changed over
the years (unlike Raymond Burr’s Perry Mason) and though the actors were not
bad, their lack of character development made them a bit interchangeable. At least the show was ambitious enough to do
long seasons and we get the last 15 hour-long shows here on 5 DVDs. To say this is for fans only is a huge understatement,
but it all finally ended and now you can see it for yourself... if you can stay
awake through it all.
Episodic
teasers on all episodes are the only extras.
Though it
seems dated today, Medical Center –
Season Three (1971 – 1972) was considered a big deal in its time, being
realistic, taking on some serious issues at times (like abortion in a timely
show with Stephanie Powers) and having Chad Everett as TV’s first full-fledged
lead young doctor was considered a step forward after the likes of Marcus Welby, et al. Unfortunately, the show had become corny and
silly at this time with people passing out or falling and getting knocked out
in every episode!
The
melodrama got worse as you would get so many car crashes that the series may
hold the per-season and series record for auto injuries sending people to the
hospital, plus we will not even discuss the overacting and near-death scenes
that turn this show into campy territory more than a few times.
Still,
MGM had a big hit on their hands and secured some great guest stars including
Powers, Forrest Tucker, Ida Lupino, Michael Douglas, Vera Miles, Leslie
Nielsen, Kim Hunter, Claudine Auger, Carol Lawrence, William Windom, Percy
Rodriguez, Vincent Van Patten, Dick Van Patten (in separate episodes), Steve
Lawrence, Pippa Scott, Jessica Walter, Barry Sullivan, Bradford Dillman, David
Wayne, John Ericson, Herb Vigran, Jo Van Fleet, Earl Holliman, Louise Latham,
Diana Hyland, Susan Strasberg, Greg Mullavey, George Maharis, Jason Wingreen,
Louise Sorel, Suzanne Pleshette, Ed Nelson, Diana Sands, Sheree North, John
Larch, Frank Campenella, Glenn Corbett, Fritz Weaver, Georg Stanford Brown,
Jeanette Nolan, Clu Gulager, Tyne Daly, Michael Tolan, Michael Anderson, Jr.,
Jared Martin, Craig Stevens, Barbara Rush, Tisha Sterling, Shelly Novack, Meg
Foster, James Shigeta, Howard Duff and a very young, unrecognizable Willie Aames
several years before Eight Is Enough
made him a star.
There are
no extras, but that wild Lalo Schifrin, guitar-based theme song with early
electronic keyboard backup is a hoot!
Not to be
confused with the Patrick Swayze U.S. Civil War TV Mini-Series, the British
made 1975 North & South comes
from the BBC and has a young, relatively unknown Patrick Stewart (with hair!!!)
as a rich mill owner who wants a wife and meets, as well as annoys Margaret
(Rosalind Shanks) when she and her parents move to Milton during the Victorian
Era. The workers at the mill are on
strike and as relationships all around get heated, this makes everything even
worse.
Based on
the Elizabeth Gaskell novel, this is the best entry on the list, has some great
acting, fine writing, fine directing by Rodney Bennett and holds up well enough
after all these years. I have not seen
this one for a very long time, but the more I watched, the more I remembered and
those seeing it as a curio only for Stewart in early form will be pleasantly
surprised how well made it is. Sure, the
usual dialogue about manners, class division and family pop up, but it is the
less expected parts that still work and are as relevant as ever.
There are
no extras.
With as
much potential as any new show of late, Orphan
Black – Season One (2013) starts off well with the creepy set up of a young
woman (Tatiana Maslany) going to a subway train platform and suddenly noticing
a woman she cannot see getting nervous.
The woman is not well, acting strange, starts taking off her jacket and
eventually jumps to her death as a train speeds into the station. This suicide would be shocking enough alone
until she (and we) see the woman looks just like her as if they were twins!
Is she losing
her mind? Is it a bizarre
coincidence? Is it a sick joke? Is she being set up? Has she entered some strange dimension? Does she exist anymore? It is just an unknown twin? The show has many fine possibilities and a
good supporting cast, plus some good ideas, but by the latter of the ten
episodes turns into the kind of silly action dreck the Fox Network has been
passing of as Action TV for years and this becomes formulaic beyond belief,
stretching itself way too far after such a promising start.
It
becomes mechanical, is not eventually as good about identity issues as other
works in its genre and may become a cult item, but unless it is suddenly a
worldwide blockbuster TV hit, I don’t know how long the show can really last
since the writers burned so many bridges and possibilities so soon. Now you can see for yourself.
Extras include
Inside Vignettes and two Behind The
Scenes featurettes.
Even more
slap dash and from the first show sadly is the somewhat forgettable Unforgettable – The First Season (2011
– 2012) with the well-cast Poppy Montgomery as Carrie Wells, a woman with an
extremely incredible memory that is more than photographic who now works at an
old folks home helping patients who cannot remember much and no longer
interested in helping the police.
Part of
the reason is because a former boyfriend (Dylan Walsh) is a cop, the other is
because she feels rightly that she has seen enough blood, gore and death. However, she cannot escape it when in the
first episode, a murder of an abused female neighbor makes her change her mind
temporarily and that sets off the series.
Like Falcon, it has some suspense, good casting and good ideas and
though it can get graphic, it does not go as far as that show, yet it follows
the loud, obnoxious editing with sound effects noise formula that is behind
played out from shows like CSI, NCIS and the rest of the robotic zombie
police procedurals we have way too much of today.
The
set-up needs more silence, suspense and autonomy like Numb3rs, Millennium or X-Files to really work, but it does not
get it and what could have been CBS’ next huge hit crime drama gets lost in the
formulaic shuffle. We’ll see if it can
make changes for the sophomore season to get better or just burn out quickly
into a big disappointment.
Extras
include CBS Launch Promos, three Making Of featurettes, audio commentary on two
episodes and Gag Reel & Deleted Scenes on select episodes.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the Orphan episodes may have some motion blur, minor detail issues and
intended stylizing that can hold fidelity back at times (not even counting
“video” images) but it is the best performer on the list as expected being the
only Blu-ray release here. The show has
a little more of a look than expected, but nothing that stuck with me either.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 HD-Shot images on Damages, Falcon and Unforgettable tie with the 1.33 X 1
35mm full color-shot image on Medical
Center as the next best performers on the list. The newer HD-shot shows have their occasional
nice shots, but are softer and have more motion blur more often than Orphan, while Center can be a little
soft at times (possibly from the DVD-R discs as well as the transfers), but
outside of a few episode prints that look a little faded and some minor print
damage, color is pretty consistent throughout and I have never sent he show
look so good.
That
leaves the 1.33 X 1 color images on Matlock
(shot in 35mm, but from masters obviously finished on old analog videotape) and
North & South (shot on old
analog PAL videotape that has not survived in good shape or in first-generation
copies) tend to be very soft, noisy, detail challenged, have color that can be
off, have some haloing and are not always pleasant to watch for prolonged
periods. They both need some restoration
work, though North & South comes
with a quality disclaimer.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the Orphan episodes may be a bit towards the front speakers
soundfield-wise, but the shows are well recorded, have some warmth and are
easily also the sonic champs on the list.
The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on North
& South is the big sonic loser here being poor in playback quality,
having some background noise and is obviously at least second generation or
worse throughout. Again, we have a
disclaimer and be careful of volume switching and high levels when watching.
The lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on Damages, Falcon and Unforgettable tie with the surprisingly clear, if lossy Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo on Matlock and lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Medical Center
as the second best sounding releases on the list. The newest shows have soundfields that are
lacking and put too much sound in the center channels and would likely benefit
from lossless presentations, but only so much.
Matlock and Medical Center
have some harmonic distortion expected for shows their respective ages, but
they are professionally recorded and hold up better than you might think.
To order Medical Center,
go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
