Silk Stalkings – The Complete Second Season

 

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

 

 

Silk Stalkings continued its hit CBS Late Night ways, and in some ways, it could be said that the show single-handedly saved CBS in the wee hours by being the anchoring show for all the new series they were hoping would maybe change late night as we knew it.  Of course, talk shows eventually took over, but it was a brief era that Anchor Bay is now reexploring by issuing The Complete Second Season in this six-DVD set.

 

Once again, the show takes place in Palm Beach, Florida.  Homicide detectives Rita Lance (Mitzi Kapture) and Chris Lorenzo (Rob Estes) investigate murders between rich and sexy people.  Lance is still the narrator at times, but the show never took or intended to take itself seriously.  The show pretty much still followed the playbook it established in the first season and that spells formula.  The 22 shows here are as follows, including notable guest stars, with John Byner and Mitzi McCall surfacing often:

 

 

1)     Social Call

2)     The Wild Card

3)     In Too Deep

4)     Bad Blood

5)     Hot Rocks

6)     Scorpio Lover (with Audrey Landers)

7)     Love-15  (with Caroline Williams)

8)     The Queen Is Dead (with Dick Gautier)

9)     Irreconcilable Differences

10)  Jasmine

11)  Crush (with Jared Martin)

12)  Was It Good For You Too?

13)  Dead Weight (with Erin Gray)

14)  Kid Stuff (with Andrew Stevens)

15)  Night Games  (with Rex Smith)

16)  Meat Market (with Andrea Thompson and Charlie Callais)

17)  Giant Steps (with Tracy Scoggins)

18)  Soul Kiss

19)  Look The Other Way

20)  Star Signs

21)  Voices

22)  Crime Of Love (with Gail O’Grandy)

 

 

Summarizing the shows always makes them sound too similar and familiar, so we will again skip that.  The formula includes situations too often incidental to the drama, so suspense is still flat and never what it should be, which holds back the character development to an ever noticeable extent.  The show was low budget, but looks good, especially since producer/creator Stephen J. Cannell going for vivid colors.  More money seems to have gone into these shows, though.

 

The full frame 1.33 X 1 image has some detail limits, but looks good and color rich for its age.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is not credited as having any surrounds, but this does not decode as nicely in Pro Logic surround as the first set did, but we still recommend you consider experimenting with this aspect of the set if you have a surround system.  Extras include more interviews with Cannell, joined this time by composer Mike Post, who is also interviewed separately.  Be warned that there are spoilers for the next season in this section, which is broken down into five sections.  There is also a DVD-ROM script copy of The Crush episode, a stills gallery and scenes from two shows in other languages for fun.  It should be said that the six DVDs again come in three slendercases and the idea of being able to put in two per case works very nicely.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo