The Amazing Mrs. Prichard (British Mini-Series/Comedy/Politics/Acorn)
Picture: B- Sound: C Extras: C- Episodes: B
Jane
Horrocks (Little Voice, Absolutely Fabulous) is Ros Pritchard, sick
of male-dominated politics and after a series of annoying events interfering
with her life as a mother and manager of a top rate supermarket, runs for the
position of Prime Minister and wins in writer/creator Sally Wainwrights’
amusing, sharp and energetic The Amazing
Mrs. Prichard (2006). The six
hour-long episodes show how this all goes well until her private and family
life starts to intersect in problematic ways.
Fortunately,
it is not an anti-woman, anti-feminist cautionary tale like Katharine Hepburn’s
Woman Of The Year, but an
intelligent comedy drama that is credible enough to enjoy and the kind of
funny, witty mini-series American TV has not been able to produce in
decades. When word gets around about how
good this one is, it will be another triumph of Horrocks and the supporting
cast is a plus.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image looks better than expected, with the HD
shoot having only minor detail issues and motion blur. Video Black is nice and color (despite its
limited range) is good and consistent.
Unfortunately for the sound, the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no
surrounds and dialogue is sometimes problematic no matter what mode you play it
back in. We’ll site the Dolby
compression scheme as the problem. Text
bios are the only extra.
- Nicholas Sheffo
