The
Newsroom: The Complete Second Season
(2014/HBO Blu-ray Set)/Pay
2 Play: Democracy's High Stakes
(2014)/Who Killed Alex
Spourdalakis?
(2014/Disinformation DVDs)
Picture:
B/C+/C Sound: B/C+/C+ Extras: C+ Main Programs: B/B/B-
Here
are the smart new releases that entertain, inform and make the viewer
think about important issues, including a few you should know more
about...
The
Newsroom: The Complete Second Season
(2014) is back for what has turned out to be its middle season, a
shame for such a smart show we first covered at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12200/Eight+Is+Enough+%E2%80%93+The+Complete
This
time round, without ruining anything, the adventures of Atlantis
Cable News starts off with a major reporting scandal just before the
Occupy Movement is about to happen, who will stay at the network and
who will go, what is responsible journalism and how ugly is massive
litigation today that it stops more pure journalism from happening?
The cast, including Jeff Daniels, Jane Fonda, Sam Waterston, Dev
Pavel, Emily Mortimer, Olivia Munn and company are even more settled
into their roles which continue to be some of the best written on
television anywhere and I am pleasantly surprised at the high quality
the show has retained. You should ABOSLUTELY start with the first
season, but even if you see this on its own, it is still very
impactful and asks the hard questions few seem to anymore.
Extras
include
Digital HD UltraViolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes capable
devices, while the Blu-rays add Inside
The Episode
mini-featurettes,
audio commentary tracks on four of the episodes and Deleted Scenes.
John
Wellington Ennis' Pay
2 Play: Democracy's High Stakes
(2014) at first might look merely like it is a political documentary
with references to the popular board game Monopoly, but it turns out
to be an all-out look at not only how money has corrupted democracy
in the U.S., but does this laying out the entire history of Monopoly
including how it was originally a public domain board game called The
Landlord's Game and what a twisted, amusing, interesting and ironic
history we get there.
However,
this is as good as any such look at the problem we have had to date,
even with slight overlap on programs that have rightly attacked the
Koch Brothers before, yet it has its own new edge, sensibilities,
great new ways of explaining how bad the situation has become and at
89 minutes, I wanted it to go on a lot longer. Excellent and highly
recommended!
Extras
include a trailer and 6 featurettes including M&W
Art Show 2011
and Who
Is Alex Monopoly? (amusing
for the ways people mistake his use of the paintings of Rich Uncle
Pennybags as pro-money when they are not), all to be seen after
watching the main feature and running 24 minutes long.
Andy
Wakefield's Who
Killed Alex Spourdalakis?
(2014) is
the latest in releases about those suffering from autism and the most
disturbing since it is about a young boy who had the condition, was
doing fine with a special diet, then medical people started tampering
with what they should have left alone and the mother of limited means
started to find herself in a hideously spiraling out-of-control
situation between HMOs, contradictory advice and extremely high
stress in their hometown of Chicago. It did not help that her son
was restrained like an animal for days on end or that treatment was
with endless drugs he should not have had and his condition was
approached as if autism was mental illness.
Running
a rich and never-long-enough 66 minutes, the title tells you what
happened in a real-life story uglier than you could imagine, with the
fallout still going on as you read this. People with autism are now
the most vulnerable persons of all groups of the ill in our society
and they are dying (as well as being abused and exploited) more than
any others and that needs to change immediately. As this posts,
another young autistic male child was found dead in a body of water
and we have the most underreported crisis in the U.S. of its kind
right now. An important documentary work, everyone should see Who
Killed Alex Spourdalakis?
as soon as possible.
Extras
include Filmmaker Interviews and two featurettes: A
Success Story
about helping someone with autism and a Tribute
To Alex,
all running 17 minutes long in total.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on Newsroom
look as good as the last season and are a true pleasure to watch like
so many of the high quality HBO Blu-ray releases we have seen over
the years. It helps build the atmosphere of the narrative and is
solid throughout. Needless to say it outperforms both DVDs here,
both in
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image presentations, though Alex
has more rough low-definition material by necessity and softness
throughout, so expect it but don't let that stop you from seeing it.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on all Newsroom
episodes are also as warm, rich, well recorded and well mixed as the
previous season (down to the score and use of popular hit songs)
while both DVDs have lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo that is sometimes
monophonic and rough, but are consistently good in the face of what
they had to work with.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
