Brilliant But Cancelled – EZ Streets
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: C+
Paul Haggis was given his own TV series to launch by
Universal Television back in 1996 with EZ Streets, a show now being
reexamined with the new Brilliant But Cancelled revivals. Jason Gedrick, Ken Olin, Joe Pantoliano,
Debrah Farentino, Richard Portnow and Carl Lumbly were the impressive cast,
with Rod Steiger even appearing in the pilot, which is one of three shows here
on this single DVD. Only nine were produced.
Now that Haggis is responsible for writing the last two
Best Picture Academy Award winners (Million Dollar Baby, Crash)
and is now penning the next in-progress James Bond film Casino Royale,
there is no doubt why these shows are getting their own disc when the other Brilliant
But Cancelled volume has four different shows. It is good and its style is not unlike Crash, but minus
the Altmanesque aspirations. The show
is well acted, well written and decent, but never took off to the extent that
it was a hit or could have been a classic.
It is still better than much of the hit drama TV we get now, so you
might want to take a look.
The 1.33 X 1 full frame image is not bad, but a little
softer than a recent TV production and older Universal TV on DVD releases. The sound is actually Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
since TV had not gone totally stereo yet.
There are no extras either, so you just get this sample of the show.
- Nicholas Sheffo
