Melrose Place – The Third Season (DVD-Video)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: C
The last
major hit nighttime soap opera long after the original cycle died was Melrose Place, a hit for seven
overrated seasons. The cast including
Andrew Shue, Josie Bissett, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Grant Show, Doug Savant,
Jack Wagner, Daphne Zuniga, Thomas Calabro, Marcia Cross and Heather Locklear
managed to have enough chemistry to hit a chord for audiences and whatever they
did right, they did in The Third Season.
At first,
the show had problems landing an audience, but the late Aaron Spelling brought
on Locklear to be the villainess and the show took off. To me, this was always Dynasty-lite, with poorer, flatter writing and less-developed
characters, but some took that as “realistic” and it would be the prolific
producers last big hit. This set has all
30 half-hours and fans should know that music has been altered because of
royalty payments, so beware of purchasing it on that level. That it has those changes and this is
essentially for fans only to begin with, it is awkward indeed.
The 1.33
X 1 image is surprisingly soft for a recent production (the 1994 – 1995 season)
despite being filmed, so these are older analog masters and are not so great to
watch. The show was produced for Dolby
Pro Logic surround, but that does not translate well here, playing back better
in simple stereo as encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. The few extras include an “Everything you need to know…” piece on
this season, a “Seven minutes in hell”
piece and Melrose Place according to Jake. That would be the Grant Show character.
- Nicholas Sheffo
