Titus – Seasons Three
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: C+
Titus was doing fairly well when the producers decided
to start producing the show in digital High Definition. It turns out this was just the beginning of
permanently cutting down the show, which ended on Season Three never to
be heard from again. The series still
made fun of dysfunctional families and dealt with a semi-alcoholic father
(Stacy Keach) at home and mentally ill mother (Francis Fisher) in a mental
institute. Add a brother and ancillary
characters and the show is a mess without focus, which become junkier by this
time, just trying to do anything for laughs.
These final episodes are as follows, with audio commentary
tracks indicated by an *:
1) Racing
In The Streets
2) Amy’s
Birthday
3) Tommy’s
Not Gay*
4) Shannon’s
Song
5) Grad
School
6) Houseboat
7) The
Trial
8) Grandma
Titus*
9) Errrr
10) Tommy’s Crash
11) Into Thin Air
12) Too Damn Good
13) Bachelor Party
14) Hot Streak
15) The Session
16) Same Courtesy
17) After Mrs. Shafter
18) The Visit
19) Insanity Genetic (two
parts)*
20) The Protector
Why the series and its creators (especially writers)
thought this was working is very odd.
Did they follow demographics too much?
Phyllis Diller played the grandmother and should have made a more
semi-regular character. The occasional
guest star like David Carradine helped, but the show was losing energy as it
went along and the switch to HD may have made it even lazier.
The 1.33 X 1 image was taped in digital HD, versus film
for the first two seasons. I am
surprised there is not much of a difference and though the DVD has definition
limits and this still looks better than it did in its original broadcast, it is
not the 1.78 X 1 aspect ratio. Also, it
is obvious the show was that flatly filmed in the first place, which does not
help the longetivity of any production.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo again has no surround information and the
fidelity is good enough. Extras include
a booklet inside the box that contains the four DVDs in two slender cases, a
hidden intro by Titus on DVD 1 and three interviews on DVD 4. That is less that the previous set, but then
the series was just not as good and ended while it was ahead.
- Nicholas Sheffo
