The
Red Road: The Complete First Season
(2014/Sundance/Anchor Bay DVD Set)/TURN:
Washington's Spies: The Complete First Season
(2014/AMC/Anchor Bay Blu-ray Set)
Picture:
C+/B Sound: C+/B- Extras: C Episodes: B-
In
a glut of bad and even overrated television series, two new shows
turn out to be very pleasant surprises not enough people have seen
and deserve to know about.
The
Red Road: The Complete First Season
(2014) is a drama whose title refers to Native American land and
lives, but even more so, the murder and lies of the setting of the
story with Martin Henderson as a police officer who seems like a good
guy up front. However, he has secrets and they keep piling up. A
former resident (Jason Momoa) is out of jail and back home, up to no
good, but also straightening out his own things from the past.
The
two land up colliding and happen to know each other somewhat, though
they are about to learn much more about each other and everything
happening in the six hour-long shows that are very watchable and have
some great supporting work including from Juliana Nicholson, Lisa
Bonet, Mike Farrell, Tom Sizemore, Nick Gomez and Gary Farmer.
TURN:
Washington's Spies: The Complete First Season
(2014) takes us back to a true story out of the Revolutionary War,
where then General George Washington ran a spy network along with
fighting the British redcoats to win the colonies' freedom from the
British and establish the United States of America. Jamie Bell play
the farmer who becomes a key spy before he knows it and happens tobe
more on the inside than anyone could imagine. His father (Kevin
McNally) is already juggling the people and unwanted British
presence.
This
to may get a little soap operaish, but the convincing production and
solid cast (including Seth Numrich, Heather Lind, Megan Warner,
Daniel Henshall, Burn Gorman, Angus Macfadyen and Samuel Roukin) make
this very watchable throughout its 10 hour-long episodes and is one
of the best shows of its kind (a period piece, essentially) in a
while. Both shows are worth going out of your way for.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Road
is not bad throughout each show, with only minor moments of motion
blur where the HD quality drops. Otherwise, not badly shot at all.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on TURN
has more money in it as expected being a period piece and despite
some obvious digital work, the sets, costumes and production design
are worth of everything from Barry
Lyndon
to The
Patriot.
Color is really good as well and I like the look of the night shots
too.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Road
is nicely recorded and mixed to the point that I wished this were a
lossless track, but the lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 on TURN
can be on the quiet side so surrounds do not always kick in, but that
makes narrative sense. We do get some fine sonic moments when the
sound kicks in and it is well recorded.
Extras
in both sets include small promo clips to push the respective series,
while TURN
adds Deleted Scenes, and Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC
portable and iTunes capable devices.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
