Girlfriends – The First Season
Picture: C Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: C+
A show
like Girlfriends would have seemed
unthinkable as far back as the early 1990s, but an overload of too many
channels has opened the occasional opportunity for something interesting and
different. Though a moderate hit for
many seasons, this debut season (2000 – 2001) about four beautiful young ladies
of color become friends and deal with the wacky world that has as many race
issues as it has sexual ones.
Tracee
Ellis Ross is Joan, a lawyer on the rise who wants more in her personal life,
Golden Brooks is her witty assistant Maya, Persia White is Maya’s free-spirited
roommate Lynn and Jill Marie Jones is man and money crazy Toni. Kelsey Grammer was smart enough to co-produce
this show and although the teleplays are weak and often too pedestrian, some
interesting situations do surface and the ladies have enough chemistry and
talent to overcome those limits. Maybe
the show gets better in later seasons, but The First Season is above average at
best as it winds through its 22 half-hours.
The 1.33
X 1 image is softer than you might think for a recent show, with color range
limits, digititis for what looks like a filmed production and detail issues
that make no sense. The Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo is supposed to feature Pro Logic surround, but they are very weak
and pull other sounds too much towards the center speaker, making the transfers
seem a generation or two down. There are
no extras and some of the music from the original broadcasts has been dropped
for this DVD version.
- Nicholas Sheffo
