Californication
- The Final Season
(2014 aka Season
Seven/Showtime/CBS)/Perry
Mason Movie Collection: Volume 3
(1990 - 1991/CBS DVDs)
Californication
- The Final Season
(aka Season
Seven/2014)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: C- Episodes: C
David
Duchovny (The
X-Files)
returns in this seventh and final season of Californication.
The show follows New Yorker Hank Moody (Duchovny), a troubled
novelist who moves to California and suffers from writer's block.
His drinking, womanizing and drug abuse complicate his relationships
with his longtime lover Karen (Natascha McElhone) and their daughter
Becca (Madeleine Martin). The show isn't half bad - a few of the
episodes are pretty funny and there are some pretty good cameos
including Oliver Cooper (Project
X)
plays Levon, Hank's son from a previous relationship; Heather Graham
(Boogie
Nights)
plays Levon's mother, Comedian Jim Florentine plays a pimp, and Rob
Lowe reprises his role as the movie star Eddie.
Episodes
on the two disc DVD release are: Levon,
Julia, Like Father Like Son, Dicks, Getting The Poison Out, Kickoff,
Smile,
and 30
Minutes or Less
on disc one.
Disc
two features the episodes Faith,
Hope, Love, Dinner With Friends, Daughter, and Grace.
Also on the disc two are the first two episodes of Penny
Dreadful.
The
transfer and sound on the disc are pretty standard for DVD. The show
is presented in standard definition anamorphic 16 X 9/1.78 X 1
anamorphically enhanced widescreen with a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1
track - both of which are fine for the format, but I'm sure a Blu-ray
upgrade would do the show more justice.
Extras
on the disc aside from the Penny
Dreadful
episodes is a way to unlock additional features on your PC via
eBridge Technology - if you can crack that code then you get two
episodes of Ray
Donovan
and The
Affair: Episodes one and two
- whoopee. Not too impressed with the lack of extras here.
Perry
Mason Movie Collection: Volume 3
(1990 - 1991)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: D Telefilms: C
Perry
Mason (Raymond Burr), America's favorite defense attorney, is back in
action once again! Employing the skills of Della Street (Barbara
Hale) and Ken Malansky (William R. Moses), Perry once more attempts
to exonerate the accused. From Las Vegas to Paris, France, Mason and
his team travel to the scene of the crime, crossing paths with
mobsters, war criminals, and demanding divas at almost every turn in
this riveting 6-movie set in an Amazon exclusive release. (Volumes 1
and 2 are also available on Amazon, reviewed elsewhere on this site.)
Thirty
Perry Mason telefilms were made, though the last four are without
Burr, the actor having died in 1993, shortly before his last one
aired. (Paul Sorvino and, later, Hal Holbrook replaced him, playing
different characters.)
Perry
Mason Movie Collection, Volume 3 contains the thirteenth through
eighteenth of these thirty films: The
Case of the Poisoned Pen, The Case of the Desperate Deception, The
Case of the Silenced Singer,
The
Case of the Defiant Daughter
(all 1990), The
Case of the Ruthless Reporter,
and The
Case of the Maligned Mobster (both
1991).
As
for the sounds great but looks pretty terrible, especially compared
with the crisp black-and-white transfers of the original series.
Likewise shot on 35mm film but finished on tape, these 4:3 shows look
soft and smeary, visually at odds with their lively and imaginative
use of early television stereo sound, presented here in a lossy Dolby
Digital 2.0 format. Optional English SDH are included and the discs
are Region 1 encoded.
The
set features three double feature DVDs (three separate DVD cases) and
each contains but a single disc with two each of these 95-minute
shows.
No
Extra Features... A mystery not even Perry Mason can solve!
-
James Harland Lockhart V
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv