Christy – The Complete Series
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: C
There
used to be hit TV shows that dealt with faith and religious issues here and
there, but after the dreaded Touched By
An Angel, a very forced cycle of faith films annoyingly dubbed “family” at
every turn more in the spirit of a catchphrase than about actual family values
attempted to surface left and right.
Many productions were as arrogant as Angel, which is why most were not hits, even when they were not as
offensive and forced like Christy.
Lightly
entertaining at best, Catherine Marshall’s book comes to life with Kelley
Martin as the title doctor in a poor late 19th Century town and
faster than you can say Dr. Quinn, she is there to help. The show is at least professionally done,
co-staring Tyne Daly, but only 19 hour-long shows were made before the show was
axed. You could do worse, but it is held
back by that “family” pretension to the point that the word is in the name of
the production company. The pilot is
telefilm length.
The 1.33
X 1 image is soft and poor typical of shows finished on analog NTSC video as
well as shows made from the early 1980s to late 1990s for U.S. TV in
particular. Location shooting
helps. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is
surprisingly compressed for a recent production and both suggest these copies
are second generation. There are no
extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
