Being Human: Season Five/Final Season (2012/BBC Blu-ray Set)/Haven: The Complete Third Season (2012/E1 DVD Set)/Revolution: The Complete First Season
(2012 – 2013/Warner Blu-ray w/DVD)/Spartacus:
War Of The Damned - The Complete Third Season (2013/Anchor Bay DVDs)/Supernatural: The Complete Eighth Season
(2012 – 2013/Warner Blu-rays)/The
Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fourth Season (2012 – 2013/Warner Blu-ray
w/DVD)
Picture:
B-/C/B- & C/C+/B-/B & C
Sound: B-/C+/B & C+/C+/B/B- & C+ Extras: C/C+/C/C+/C/C Episodes: C/C+/C/C+/C-/C
It is
another fall TV season and both the networks and studios issue the previous
seasons of their hot TV shows to promote the launch of the new ones, plus first
time show’s debuts seasons to see if the series can become larger in a second
season. Here are several such shows…
Being Human: Season Five (2012) is the original British
U.K. version of the BBC hit series that also manages to have a U.S. remake
series with as much of a following if not more.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of the vampire, werewolf and ghost
roommates show, here is our coverage of both series that we have managed:
One Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10105/Being+Human+%E2%80%93+Season
Two & Three Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11396/Buffy+The+Vampire+Slayer+%E2%2
U.S. Two Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12058/Being+Human:+The+Complete+2nd
Not a fan
of the original version, I am still not impressed, except that it lasted as
long as it did. These shows are just as
flat as those in the debut season and though the actors have grown into their
roles, I just never bought their characters.
Everything has been building to these last shows (the BBC is ending this
one while they are ahead) and we get an evil government force getting in their
way as well. It is a for-fans-only
affair and I was not as lost as I expected, which tells me not much happened in
recent shows. This version, for what it
was, peaked early and never found a new way or place to go, which is why
perhaps the U.S. version has had a more enthusiastic reception.
Anyone
who wants a serious personal analysis of the show should start at the
beginning, but both versions ere not big enough hits combined to get that Randall
& Hopkirk: Deceased re-revival going… and that is probably a good
thing.
Extras include
Cast/Crew Interviews, an Exclusive Scene, Alex’s
Unfinished Business and Deleted Scenes.
The most
pleasant surprise on the list is Haven:
The Complete Third Season (2012), based on the Stephen King novella The
Colorado Kid, this Canadian production has quietly been a moderate hit
on the SyFy Channel and takes place in another one of King’s prototypically
nice small towns in the New England mode and involves a guy with superpowers, people
who might not be dead when they should, people in the present possibly being
people from the past, a murder mystery and now, maybe aliens from outer space.
It all
becomes convoluted quickly, and yet, it has its entertaining moments thanks in
part to a cast that is good, obviously having fun and keeping the pace of
energy going in one of the few post X-Files
series of its kind to have any heart or soul whatsoever. It may not be a great series, but it is
interesting and enough so that I will be actually interested in seeing the next
season.
Extras includes
a graphic novel comic book inside the DVD case, while the DVDs add feature
length audio commentary tracks on about half the episodes and the final DVD 4
also has a Blooper Reel, Season Three
Trailer, Season Four teaser, Behind
The Scenes reel, Escape To Haven
Webisode, Cast Interviews, Haven
panel from the most recent New York Comic Con, The Haunting Truth About Haven documentary and Deleted/Alternate
Scenes.
J.J.
Abrams and Jon Favreau have teamed up for a new TV series and the result is Revolution: The Complete First Season (2012
– 2013) which is yet another tired post-apocalyptic set-up. This time, logical or not, all the
electricity in the world stops working, even the battery power! It is not a nuclear explosion (think GoldenEye) or anything supernatural
(yet?) but something strange has happened and as a result, authority has
collapsed. Suddenly, everyone has been
set back a few centuries and militias are trying to take over.
The pilot
was directed by Favreau with more than a few visual references to Michael
Anderson’s Logan’s Run (1976, see
the Blu-ray review elsewhere on this site) and Spike Lee veteran Giancarlo
Esposito shows up as the tough military fighting head of one militia up to more
than no good in what seems like an empowered African American role, but is a
bit angry, bitter and still plays to too many Hollywood stereotypes in the
syntactic construction of the teleplays. None of the roles are well developed,
which adds more problems.
In the
extras, the makers reference the original Twilight
Zone and other popular classics, but they miss (on purpose?) similar past
TV shows (plus Logan’s Run, film and
TV show) that also had post-apocalyptic settings (some episodes of the original
Star Trek and Space:1999, plus the conveniently forgotten hit Ark II and underrated 1970s TV series
version of Planet Of The Apes) that
worked so much better on so many levels than this cynical, dull, flat and
uninspired run of a TV show in which Abrams wants to recreate hit Lost success. The problem is the issues in the first season
of that show that eventually sabotaged it from really working in later seasons
all happens here very quickly within a few episodes. The unique brand of Abrams cynicism is
getting played out (which is why older Trek
fans hated his second new hit Trek
film when it did not need to be that way) and the subplots are never
convincing. You can see for yourself,
but I wonder how long this show can hold out.
Extras include Ultraviolet Digital Copy for PC, PC portable and
iTunes-capable devices, 5 Webisodes, an in depth look at the Pilot episode,
exclusive featurette on the cast at the 2013 PaleyFest, Creating A Revolution Behind The Scenes featurette, Gag Reel and Deleted
Scenes.
A few
years ago when I saw there would be a TV series called Spartacus, I knew the Stanley Kubrick film would cast a shadow on
it somehow, even though it was not Kubrick’s best film or one he really had any
real control over. He took it over at
the last minute and despite being a hit, censors edited out footage, only some
of which was eventually recovered.
Despite the death of a lead actor to cancer, the Starz Network has had a
good run so far with the series and Spartacus:
War Of The Damned - The Complete Third Season (2013) has finally arrived on
home video.
With the
title changes along with cast changes, here are links to our coverage of the
previous seasons, including a smaller release that was seen as a Third Season piece:
Blood & Sand: Season One Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10446/Spartacus:+Blood+&+Sand+%E2%80
Gods Of The Arena: Season Two Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11355/Spartacus:+Gods+Of+The+Arena+(2
Vengeance Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11864/Spartacus:+Vengeance+(2012/Anchor
Picking
up here, you do not necessarily need to see the previous episodes, but it helps
understand the more intricate sides of what are involved goings on. At this point, Marcus Licinius Crassus (Simon
Merrells good in the role held by Lawrence Olivier in the Kubrick version) is
the next hope of keeping the Roman Empire
alive as our title hero (Liam McIntyre) is more determined than ever to bring
down the evil empire that has created so much unnecessary bloodshed.
While the
acting is good, writing not bad and sets decent, the monochrome, slow motion
style (by way of Zack Snyder’s long played out 300) makes the battle scenes a joke and we get far too much digital
enhancement to boot. I know some budget
restrictions (including HBO’s Rome) were
inevitable since even cable networks only have so much money for budgets, but
the good parts, what is realistic and works has a very hard time cutting
through the plasticity of this approach.
It is still one of the better shows on this list, but by only so
much. Not bad, bit not for everyone.
Extras in
this DigiPak with a transparent slipcase that has the title repeated on the
front top includes Making Of featurettes.
Of al the
shows, I cannot believe we have Supernatural:
The Complete Eighth Season (2012 – 2013) and that this has been as
long-running as it has been, but at this point, even the actors look like they
are about to fall asleep and it is truly a zombie show without zombies… well at
least not all the time.
We have
covered most of the series, including the following seasons in both formats at
these links:
One Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10025/Supernatural+%E2%80%93+The+Co
Two Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11002/Breaking+Bad+%E2%80%93+The+C
DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5931/Supernatural+-+The+Complete+Secon
Three Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7931/Supernatural+%E2%80%93+The+Com
DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7498/Supernatural+%E2%80%93+The+Com
Four Blu-ray + DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8972/Supernatural+%E2%80%93+The+Com
Five Blu-ray + DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10361/Supernatural+%E2%80%93+The+Co
Brother
Dean (Jensen Ackles) is back from hell (no comment), the Leviathan Threat (they
did not threaten to remake the bad Abyss clone?) is over and brother Sam (Jared
Padalecki) Winchester is determined to help him close The Gates of Hell (you
can’t make this stuff up) forever), even if it means letting the show go on and
on. This might make sense in the logic
of the show and, to make the understatement of this review, a fans-only affair,
but it is just plain awful and if the show were not a moderate CW Network hit
with a following, they would have pulled the plug on this one a long time ago.
Do not
operate heavy or dangerous equipment when playing!
Extras
include Ultraviolet Digital Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes-capable devices
and a paper foldout episode guide for all 22 episodes, while the Blu-rays add
three episode audio commentary tracks, three Behind The Scenes featurettes,
Unaired Scenes and a Gag Reel.
Finally
we have the ever-silly The Vampire
Diaries: The Complete Fourth Season (2012 – 2013) with a series my fellow
writer was at least somewhat happy with when watching its First Season at this
link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10400/The+Vampire+Diaries+%E2%80%93
Either
way, whatever the show had going for it has played itself out as well (it was
never as annoying as Supernatural,
though) as the voiceovers have become too silly to be taken seriously, the
situations (damn vampires in senior year!) so much nighttime soap opera that
vampire hunters show up (don’t fool with their schools!?!) and all played so
seriously, it is campy enough to warrant MST3K
treatment.
All the
actors look like they are ready for modeling or modeling school (including the
guys with more make-up and favorable lighting than usual, so you know this is a
show aimed at a female audience) leaving the supernatural elements secondary,
ineffective and over 23 episodes, a real run on. Again, for fans only, but we’ve seen it all
before and it all makes Dynasty look
like Mad Men.
Extras
include Ultraviolet Digital Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes-capable
devices, five Making Of featurettes, Fan Gallery Artwork Unaired Scenes, A Fan
Video and Second Bite: Gag Reel.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on Vampire Diaries is easily the visual champ with the best playback
performance on the list with only minor stylistics getting in the way. That makes it more watchable than its
material would allow. Being Human, Revolution and Supernatural tie
for second place with less defined images throughout (the styling and digital
work degrade the frames more and more often), while the anamorphically enhanced
1.78 X 1 Revolution DVD is so weak
that it joins Haven (which we
believe would look much better on Blu-ray) and the DVD version of Vampire Diaries as the poorest
performers on the list, looking too soft for their own good. That leaves the anamorphically enhanced 1.78
X 1 image on Spartacus the best DVD
presentation here, not as good as any of the Blu-rays, but one that would
obviously look better on Blu-ray despite severe styling choices.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the Revolution and Supernatural
Blu-rays tie for the best sonic
presentations here with very well recorded sound effects and dialogue, which
are integrated very well in the soundfield.
The same mixes on Being Human
and Vampire Diaries are a little
more towards the front speakers as well as sometimes quieter than expected. That leaves the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes
on Haven, Revolution, Spartacus
and Vampire Diaries DVDs not bad,
but tying for last place. Of course, Haven and Spartacus would likely benefit from lossless presentations on
Blu-ray.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
