Profit – The Complete Series
Picture: C
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: B-
The boldest show Stephen J. Cannell has produced to date
is Profit, a series about a psychopathic businessman (Adrian Pasdar) who
is involved in incest, manipulation, sleeps in a box, has killed his father and
is otherwise very screwed up. It only
became greenlighted because it was so well written by creator/writers David
Greenwalt and John McNamara, but the show was not a hit. Now a cult item, Anchor Bay has issued the
series that was not on long enough to become as controversial as it should have
back in 1996.
The Fox Network did not even finish broadcasting the shows
that were shot, so they have been collected here in a three DVD set. At first, the show was shocking, especially
the incest angle, but that gets somewhat trivialized by being ignored as the
show goes on and the series essentially becomes Dynasty or even Melrose
Place crossing the line like nothing that broadcast TV ever offered
before. Of course, this was from “The 4th
Network”, but it happened. The series
grind trivializes the edges, then Jim Profit himself becomes the moral center
of the piece in ways that begin to strain belief. Unfortunately, The Silence Of The Lambs (1991) was there
first and made this show possible, but this show is superior to Mary Herron’s American
Psycho (2000, both reviewed elsewhere on this site), which owes much of its
success to this series.
The episodes are:
1)
Pilot telefilm*
2)
Hero
3)
Sykes
4)
Healing*
5)
Cupid
6)
Chinese Box*
7)
Security
8)
Forgiveness
The 1.33 X 1 image is hazier than expected for whatever
reason, but is color consistent and come from clean prints otherwise. Part of the problem might be that the
effects were done on professional NTSC video and any film shooting suffers as a
result from the final master. Should
they redo the visual effects when HD rolls around? Purists will say no and many series from the time are facing the
same dilemma. That is why fans will
want these copies no matter what. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is much better, with Pro Logic surrounds and good
sound design.
Extras include commentary tracks on episodes marked above
with an * afterwards by Pasdar, Greenwalt and McNamara, plus a new featurette
about the show running over an hour, with all new interviews by those on the
commentaries, plus other co-stars and Cannell himself. I give the show credit for taking a unique
look at Capitalism without either fully embracing or totally rejecting it and
its corporate culture, but I wish the show could have continued to be bold and
land up as more than just a darker than usual nighttime soap opera. It is still an impressive show despite its
many problems and the best work of just about all involved.
- Nicholas Sheffo
