Baldwin Hills – The Complete First Season (2007/BET DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: C+
A
pleasant, decent comedy/drama surprise is the all-African American cast
drama/comedy Baldwin Hills – The
Complete First Season (2007) which reminded me a bit of the Degrassi franchise in its character
focus, no mater the melodrama. More
naturalistic and less processed than many such series since the 1980s with
bigger-name stars that too often seemed like package deals, the show takes place
in the title location and offers characters that defy socio-economic class as
they covert the whole strata thereof.
The
acting is not bad, scripts and ideas decent and the show is never
condescending. What does hold the show
back is too many indoor location shoots that rob it of too much potential
energy. Yes, it is a little
soap-operaish, but has great potential for growth and it would be nice to se it
expand as it goes on. We’ll see.
The
letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is clean but soft and show this was still a show
with a limited budget at the time. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is simple and only has some location audio limits. Extras include featurettes with two of the
stars on DVD 1, while The Creators featurette, direct cast interviews and
Casting Tapes are on DVD2.
- Nicholas Sheffo
