The Commish – The Complete First Season
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: B-
Michael Chiklis is one of the luckiest actors around. An unlikely star in the first place, he kept
sticking in the mind of producers from Steven J. Cannell’s company, and he
eventually wound up the star of the The Commish in 1991. At first, when original network signatory
CBS dropped the project, it looked dead, but hit strapped ABC (still known as
Absolute Budget Control at the time) picked it up and the show went into
production. It helped turn the
network’s fortunes around.
Chiklis is Tony Scali, a rising star on the police force
who has great intensions and a great personality, but that does not stop the
murders and other ugly crimes form happening.
It does not stop the discrimination and social questions from
happening. Then he has a family to
raise, but besides using his personality and social skills to best advantage,
he has the support of a great wife (Theresa Saldana) who helps him long after
he has tried to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. The characters are great together, one of
the unique appeals of the show, and this is because the actors click. The episodes for this debut season are as
follows:
1) Self-titled
pilot episode
2) In The
Best Of Families
3) Do You
See What I See?
4) The
Poisoned Tree
5) Nothing
To Fear But…
6) Behind
The Screen Door
7) The
Hatchet
8) Two
Confessions
9) Commissioner’s
Ball
10) No Greater Gift
11) The Fourth Man
12) Charlie Don’t Surf
13) Skeletons
14) The Wicked Flee
15) True Believers
16) Officer April
17) Sex, Lies & Kerosene
18) Judgement Day
19) Shoot The Breeze
20) Video Vigilante
21) The Puck Stops Here
One thing it is obvious that fans like is how the show
never becomes sappy or melodramatic when dealing with the Scali Family or
Tony’s authentic ability to reach out to people in trouble. The early shows had the added benefit of
David Paymer as Arnie, their eccentric relative staying over at the house for a
while. He was a huge asset for the
show’s launch and helped to build the audience on top of everything the series
had going for it. Maybe the idea of a
more sensitive cop is hokey to many viewers, and this may have gone too far to
consider this as much of a detective show as it is a family one, but the series
has appreciated in value since its original broadcasts as bad reality TV has
taken over and the shows have more substance than many critics first
caught. This set will prove that to
viewers.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 image looks good, sometimes really
good, for its age. The brighter scenes
often look a bit better, so the DVD was likely mastered from late NTSC analog
masters. The show has a good clean look
that is a stop brighter than you would usually get for a TV series even today,
which is to its advantage, but form is limited. The stereo sound is here in Dolby Digital 2.0 but has no Pro
Logic surrounds. Surrounds of any kind
were still very uncommon at the time on TV, but this combination plays better
than it ever looked on TV before, so fans and new viewers will like that. The only extra is a great block of
interviews with Cannell, Chiklis, Saldana, and Stephen Kronish, co-creator of
the show.
A few years ago, Chiklis and Fox took advantage of the
freedom basic cable offers and scored an even bigger hit with The Shield,
but Chiklis will reach a new high point that will permanently cement him in Pop
Culture. That comes from his casting in
the new big-budget version of the marvel Comic classic Fantastic Four,
where he will play Benjamin Grimm, better known as The Thing. His new series also continues and Anchor Bay
will continue to issue The Commish to ever increasing audiences. Now, you can judge for yourself or relive an
old favorite.
- Nicholas Sheffo
