Over There (Complete TV Series)

 

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

 

 

When the O.J. Simpson trial kicked in, Steven Bochco came up with covering one court trial over an entire TV season, but Murder One failed to catch on despite how well it was made.  Once again, the right idea at the wrong time has again come from Bochco and Chris Gerolmo with the made-for-cable series Over There, a series that was expected to be the FX Network’s next big hit and did not work out.  13 episodes were still produced and the show is actually not bad.

 

It is realistic about the war, pulls few punches, is not politically correct when it comes to Islamo-Fascism and is a rare scripted production about a controversial event currently happening in the world.  The show succeeds with its fine writing, dialogue and acting, except that the scripts have one too many melodramatic moments in dealing with the character’s stress, bold moments of lesbian sex that add new meaning to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, some plot points made to get people to wait for commercials or tune into the next show that are more obvious than they should be and makes no secret of its somewhat Right-of-center approach. 

Still, the show is definitely worth a look despite the overexposure of the current conflict and the Bochco legacy adds another solid credit to its long list.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image was shot in digital High Definition, then stylized to look a bit degraded and have the “Gulf War” look of films like Three Kings and Jarhead.  “Desaturated desert” is the best way to describe it off hand.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is not bad either, with some decent sound design at times.  Extras include three audio commentaries and two featurettes giving us a glimpse of the production and how happy everyone was with their work.  The result years from now will be seen as a unique time capsule of a moment the media just cannot seem to deal with properly.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo