Halt
And Catch Fire: The Complete First Season
(2014/AMC/Anchor Bay Blu-ray Set)/Masters
Of Sex: Season Two
(2014/Sony DVD Set)
Picture:
B-/C+ Sound: B/C+ Extras: C- Episodes: B/B-
Here
are two new TV shows you may or may not have heard of, but you need
to see both for yourself due to their intelligence and actually being
about something...
Halt
And Catch Fire: The Complete First Season
(2014) is a pleasant new surprise, a show that deserves a much larger
audience in a really smart show about the rise of the computers and
consumer personal computer market in the early 1980s, happening
before many realized it. You have shot shot Joe MacMillian (Lee Pace
from Guardians Of The
Galaxy) showing up in a
Porsche out of nowhere to work for a small tech company, but bringing
big ideas. Then you have Punk/New Wave computer geek Cameron Howe
(Mackenzie Davis) who meets Joe early on and has her own ideas about
the business and field. Then Joe meets Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy
from Argo
and Wonderland)
at the new company who had a failed project with his tech savvy wife
(Kerry Bishe) doing what he can to hold his family together. Too bad
he has a drinking issue.
Also,
he has regrets his project failed, something Joe knows about and
intends to exploit along with bringing in Cameron to take on his
former company... IBM! Psychotic in the least, he devises a plan to
take them on with a PC in a suitcase and the madness begins. From
there, the show handles all of its plot sand subplots well, has great
humor, is smart, offers all kinds of hint and looks at the technology
at the time (sometimes with fine irony) and the cast (chemistry and
all) really delivers. Some people have found it hard to find a
character to love or root for, but the teleplays are so bold and
honest, it is about all these persons being caught up in the sweep of
a sudden tech revolution even they are not privy to (we are, of
course) and it actually achieves a sense of Noir as a result.
I
don't know where the show will go and if they can keep this up as it
comedy cousins The Big
Bang Theory and the UK
classic The IT Crowd
(see both elsewhere on this site), but the strength and talent is all
over the place making it one of the best debuts of a drama of its
kind since the likes of The
Wire, The
Sopranos and Boardwalk
Empire, if not as street
or criminal. This one is worth going out of your way for.
Masters
Of Sex: Season Two (2014)
continues its tale of how research into human sexuality turned out to
be groundbreaking and make advances that changed life for the better
for us all, even as many have tried to roll back said progress in
vain. We covered the debut season at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12843/The+Chambermaids+(1974)/42nd+Street+Forever
While
the characters have advanced with the foundation being set, this
sophomore outing is a mixed bag. The arc of the storylines is fine,
but for some odd reason, the makers have decided to go for a slightly
more visually dark look for the show. This affects the show, changes
it too much from the first season, is a bit dishonest as if they are
now trying to hide the era and the sexuality and even the talent
cannot totally overcome this odd, unexplained, senseless visual
shift. Maybe it might not be as bad on Blu-ray, but the change is
there and it is a bit of a cop out. Otherwise, it is worth a look if
you have seen all of the first season.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Halt
has some nice shots, but some shots are weak and there are others
with degraded images on purpose, if not all the time. Color is
consistent and you get some nice demo shots on occasion. I like the
editing here too.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Sex
is a bit darker as noted above, though the DVD's softness makes it
worse since the lower definition cannot resolve the shadow detail of
the show as Video Black suffers. If you can get the Blu-ray, better
go that route to be on the safe side.
The
lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 on Halt
is simply some of the best, most natural playback I have ever heard
in the format, including all the titles in the defunct DVD-Audio disc
format with its lossless precursor, Meridian Lossless Packing. I
wish more TrueHD releases sounded this good, but the recording and
mixing are a plus and you will be surprised, but expect silent and
laidback sonic moments as well, including in dialogue-based
sequences.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Sex is a little weak, but on par
with the last DVD set and would sound better lossless on a Blu-ray
edition, which you should again go for if you are interested in the
show.
Extras
on both editions include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC
portable and iTunes capable devices, while you get one Making Of
featurette on Sex
(the Blu-ray edition has more extras) and Halt
has 13 clips averaging 3 minutes each (used to promote the show) that
serve the same function.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
