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Category:    Home > Reviews > TV Situation Comedy > School > TV Variety Show > Music > Superhero > Action > Politics > Cable TV > Myster > Hangin' With Mr. Cooper: The Complete Third Season (1994 - 1995*)/I Got You Babe: The Best Of Sonny & Cher, Volume One (1971 - 1974/Time Life DVD Set)/Krypton: The Complete Second & Final Season (2019

Hangin' With Mr. Cooper: The Complete Third Season (1994 - 1995*)/I Got You Babe: The Best Of Sonny & Cher, Volume One (1971 - 1974/Time Life DVD Set)/Krypton: The Complete Second & Final Season (2019/DC Comics/Warner Blu-ray Set)/Veep: The Complete Series (2012 - 2019/Warner DVD Set)/You: The Complete First Season (2018/*both Warner Archive DVD Sets)



Picture: C/C+/B+/C+/C Sound: C/C/B+/C+/C+ Extras: D/C/C+/B-/D Episodes: C+/B/B/B-/C+



PLEASE NOTE: The Hanging' With Mr. Cooper and You DVD sets are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.



Now for a new set of TV releases....



Hangin' With Mr. Cooper: The Complete Third Season (1994 - 1995) joins the hit series in its prime as it sails on talent from the new wave of African American actors that came out of both the success of All In The Family and now-infamous Cosby Show, with the title character (Mark Curry) joined by late Nell Carter (Gimme A Break), Raven-Simone (after Cosby) and Holly Robinson-Peete (early Fox Network hit 21 Jump Street) in one of the few hit shows or shows of any kind about the life of a school coach since the first Bill Cosby Show and maybe a little bit of Gabe Kaplan in select episodes of Welcome Back, Kotter. That makes it a time capsule of sorts too.


However, the show is mostly safe, predictable sitcom that was regressive versus All In The Family and the like, but for fans, it is at least pleasantly consistent and that is why it was a hit. These 22 episodes are competent, professional and their civility now makes them seem dated, though that's better than much of the poor TV we are now in a glut of. Still, this is not too memorable and without the cast, this would not work. Thus, this is for fans only.


There are no extras.



I Got You Babe: The Best Of Sonny & Cher, Volume One (1971 - 1974) is a 5-DVD set that is part of a larger set we hope to cover later, but it picks up where we left off over a decade ago with a now out-of-print 3-DVD set of the show we covered at this link...


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1355/Sonny+&+Cher+Ultimate+Collection


My thoughts on the set cover the entire run of the series and still hold for me in what is the best variety show of its time, give or take The Carol Burnett Show (also reviewed in several releases elsewhere on this site) and has aged better than I think many realize or have given the series credit for. Except for overlap in a few extras here, this set has totally different episodes and the guests include Jimmy Durante, Dinah Shore/Tony Curtis, Carroll O'Connor, Art Carney, Jerry Lewis/The Supremes (Jean Terrell/Mary Wilson era), Bobby Vinton/Jim Brown, Jim Nabors, The Righteous Brothers/Joe Namath and two music-centric bashes that shows how big the show had become.


Focusing on music from the 1950s and 1960s Rock years, Dick Clark helps lead a show that features no less than Chuck Berry Edd Byrnes (Kooky from 77 Sunset Strip, then a bunch of Spaghetti Westerns), Bobby Vinton again, Jerry Lee Lewis and Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. The second such show has Wolfman Jack (himself a host of the classic music series Midnight Special, also reviewed on this site) taking over the co-hosting with music guests The Coasters, Neil Sedaka, The Coasters and Herman's Hermits lead singer Peter Noone. Sonny and Cher more than hold their own here and their covers of other classic hits range form surprising to maybe 'no, they didn't' but it is all in fun and the energy of the show remains one of its greatest achievements.


Extras include a paper foldout episode guide with some pictures and credits, while any extras are only on the first DVD and include interview clips with Cher, guest star Frankie Avalon and co-producers Allan Blye & Chris Bearde (in the end credits of each show as 'chrisbearde') plus the two 1970 clips from the previous set including from The Barbara McNair Show that served as a de facto pilot and a test run on Jerry's Place.


Though you could go for broke getting the larger box set, if you just want a solid sampler of the show, this set is it. Hope some unreleased shows from the archives (including the solo shows both did when they divorced before trying to relaunch the show) arrive on DVD soon.



The SyFy Channel DC series, Krypton, didn't last as long as many suspected initially. Ending with its Second Season, the complete version is now available on Blu-ray without commercial interruptions. In the same vein as the CW DC series such as Arrow and The Flash, but not connected to them in any way, Krypton attempts to capture a young audience while catering to the comic crowd. The result was mixed.


The prequel to the Superman mythos, Krypton: The Complete Second & Final Season (2019) has Superman's grandfather Seg-El, attempting to defend the planet of Krypton against General Zod, who wants to rebuild the planet to his own ideals. The show is generally pretty fun with some interesting production design and characters in the Man of Steel Universe, however, doesn't quite have the same unique cinematic feel as some of the Zack Snyder movies in the series did.


Krypton stars Cameron Cuffe (New Year's Eve), Georgina Campbell (One Night, Black Mirror), Shaun Sipos (Final Destination 2), Colin Salmon (Arrow), Ann Ogbomo (Wonder Woman, Justice League), Aaron Pierre (Britannia, The A Word), Rasmus Hardiker (Your Highness), Wallis Day (The Royals, Will), Hannah Waddingham (Game of Thrones) with Blake Ritson (Da Vinci's Demons, Indian Summers) and Ian McElhinney (Game of Thrones).


Episodes include Light Years From Home, In Zod We Trust, Ghost in the Fire, Zods and Monsters, Will to Power, Mercy, Danger Close, Blood Moo, A Better Yesterday, and The Alpha and the Omega.


Special Features include:


Digital Copy


The Fate of Superman - featurette


Villains: Modes of Persuasion - featurette


I'm a bit shocked to see this series end so soon, but at least it's on a high note.



Veep: The Complete Series (2012 - 2019) has been issued in both Blu-ray and the DVD set we have here, though the first Blu-ray set also included DVDs. Oh how times have changed. Fortunately, we have reviewed almost the entire series on Blu-ray and you can read all that coverage at the following links...


One

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12085/Men+At+Work:+The+Complete+First+Season+(20


Two

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12784/Veep+-+Season+Two+(2013/HBO+Blu-ray+set)


Three

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13418/Veep:+The+Complete+Third+Season+(2013/HBO+


Four

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14173/Veep:+The+Complete+Fourth+Season+(2015/HBO


Five

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14847/Veep:+The+Complete+Fifth+Season+(2016/HBO+


Seven

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15652/Veep:+The+Complete+Seventh+Season+(2019+Fi


In retrospect, we can say two things about the series. One, it was more on than off, but not always consistent and two, its final seasons were definitely affected by the unexpected Trump turn in politics and that is why it has not been remembered as much during the last few awards seasons despite the same hard work from Dreyfus and company. However, that recent turn has affected many an older TV show on politics (think The West Wing, et al) and they all seem older than they actually are. Still, Dreyfus is now a TV legend and this should hardly be her last hit show. Now, this is all brought together here in one convenient set, no matter what format you choose.


Of course, the many extras featured on al the previous seasons repeat here, so no compromises for fans of this set, including in its Blu-ray variant.



And finally, speaking of DC Comics on TV, producer Greg Berlanti has admittedly pulled off the not-so-easy task of bringing the superheroes from the oldest comic book publisher to life with a success that would have made Julius Schwartz proud. The shows are still going on, even if some are about to wrap up, but he is continuing to try out other projects and You: The Complete First Season (2018) involving a book store manager (Penn Badgley) instantly falling for a beautiful customer (Elizabeth Lail) form the first seen of the first episode.


With his voice-over narration, we discover we are seeing things in past-tense and his obsession with her, one that might be more than it should be legally and health-wise, though we also discover she does like him. Will they get together? Should they? Is his manipulation of situation between the two of them fair or honest? Dangerous? Sick?


This is an interesting idea, but maybe a series of films or telefilms would have been a better idea, as I think it might be for an entire TV series that could quickly fall victim to the TV grind of having to produce so many episodes, but here's the first 10 episodes and you can decide for yourself. I'll be curious of where they go from here, even though so much can go wrong. The leads are one of the reasons it even got renewed, so we'll see.


There are no extras.




As for playback performance, Krypton is easily the winner here, presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix. Presented here without network watermarks and commercials, you can finally enjoy the show as it was intended by the filmmakers.


The 1.33 X 1 image full color transfers on both Cher and Cooper can show the age of the materials used, but both have flaws and issues coming from their NTSC analog videotape sources including video noise, video banding, telecine flicker, tape scratching, cross color, faded color and tape damage. Cooper may be a tad more refined, but by sticking too many episodes on each disc, has compression issues and can be a bit watery. The Cher transfers are older as are the reel-to-reel 2-inch videotapes, so you can get some richer color, yet more problems with video white, et al. I'll note that some videotaped shows form the time recently were issued on Blu-ray in upscaled edition with improved sound and picture that had more work on them (especially from the U.K. like Faulty Towers, Monty Python's Flying Circus and several seasons of the older Doctor Who series) and these could all look better, but it remains to see if they'll get such treatment.


The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Cher and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Cooper are also a little weaker and more inconsistent than they should be, with the former needed more detailed remastering work and the latter needing a stronger overall volume boost without adding distortion.


That leaves anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image transfers and lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on Veep and You that do not look as good as they could considering they are HD shoots (and Veep is already on Blu-ray, as you can see above) while You is a little soft in detail since too many episodes are squeezed onto each disc. Each sounds as good as possible in the old lossy codec, but lossless sound benefits Veep and would benefit You if it ever hits Blu-ray, et al.



To order either of the Warner Archive DVDs, Hanging' With Mr. Cooper and You, go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases at:


www.wb.com/warnerarchive



- Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (Krypton)

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/


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