Buddha of Suburbia (1993/BBC DVD)

 

Picture: D     Sound: C-     Extras: D     Feature: C-

 

 

Well it would seem that someone over at the BBC is watching American television.  With the success of LOST, the time was right to release that old TV miniseries that they had filed away for the past fifteen years and just happened to star a very young looking Naveen Andrews, whom you may know better as Sayid.  The miniseries Buddha of Suburbia (1993) consists of four hour-long episodes divided onto two discs.

 

Buddha of Suburbia is one of those “Gee it's tough growing up” stories about a young man, Karim (played by Naveen Andrews), whose mother is British and father is Indian, growing up in an English suburb.  The story is complicated by his father's infidelity and subsequent departure, Karim's budding and rather rampant sexuality, and the underlying racial tensions in 70s and 80s British society.  With all this going on, along with a few side-plots as well, it's surprising how slowly the plot moves.  The miniseries was adapted from a novel by the same name and it still moves at novel pace.

 

What makes it watchable though, is the quality of the acting.  Naveen Andrews shines here portraying a character with great depth, as does most of the rest of the cast.  The plot is also very engaging through at least the first of four hour-long episodes.  To make it past the second takes either extreme investment in the characters, a deep reservoir of patience, or sheer force of will.  In any case, this is not something that you want to watch all the way through in one sitting.

 

The picture quality has that very distinct look of a BBC production from the 80s or 90s.  Shot on lower quality film, the color varies throughout but at best is still a tad under-saturated.  At worst, there is extra video noise and the picture is a tad wobbly which is due either to poor camerawork or a poor transfer from film to video.

 

Because it was filmed originally to be shown on television, the picture is in 1.33 x 1 full screen format.  The sound, like the video, is just fuzzy enough to be noticed, even when you're not looking or listening for it.  There are only two special features on the discs.  There is a music video of the theme song by David Bowie who also provided much of the incidental music throughout the episodes, and there is an audio commentary by the director and the author of the novel who worked together to adapt the screenplay.  As the book is based, in part, on the author's actual experiences growing up, the audio commentary is focused mainly on the events that inspired the plot, and background about the places and time period where the story takes place.  Although honestly, I can't imagine who would be dedicated enough to sit through a four hour long audio commentary over a miniseries that they have already seen.

 

This release is a fine example of quality acting and plot and character development.  For those who enjoyed the novel, I'm sure that seeing it adapted and portrayed so well will be a very satisfying experience.  The real question is though, is it worth the time?

 

 

-   Matthew Carrick