The Dead Zone – The Complete Fifth Season (DVD-Video)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C Episodes: C
Though
not an all-time smash hit, it is hard to believe that the TV series version of
Stephen King’s The Dead Zone has
gone on for five seasons. Anthony
Michael Hall has extended his career, but the material and original edge it had
in the great David Cronenberg film based on the book are necessarily watered
down for the show to go on like this.
Hall is
Johnny, who in an accident that almost killed him gained the power to see the
future and is now involved with a friendly team of investigators at times to
solve problems. It becomes a trashing of
the great book and film, as well as Millennium
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) for people who cannot handle any
darkness, which is one of the reasons (besides Glen Morgan hurting Millennium) that this show has gone on
longer. As a result, the 11 hour-long
shows here are competent corporate product and get boring quickly. The only saving grace is that we have seen
much worse on TV, especially lately.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is soft and likely produced in digital
High Definition. The result is viewing
on the dull side throughout visually in a continuing trend (in genres like
fantasy here) for forgettable, bad and flat visuals that are miserable. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is the highlight of
the set sporting healthy surrounds.
Extras include deleted scenes, two featurettes and four of the episodes
have audio commentary tracks.
For more
on the original film, try this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4421/The+Dead+Zone+-+Special+Collect
- Nicholas Sheffo
