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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Police > Gangsters > Booker – Collector’s Edition (1989 – 1990) + Wiseguy – The Complete First Season (1987 – 1988/Mill Creek DVDs)

Booker – Collector’s Edition (1989 – 1990) + Wiseguy – The Complete First Season (1987 – 1988/Mill Creek DVDs)

 

Picture: C+/C     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Episodes: C-

 

 

Two of the worst shows of the late 1980s that spilled into the 1990s are coming onto DVD.  The one that was bad and self-amused being so only ran a season, while the other is being reissued on DVD and was a mild hit that is lucky it ran as long as it did.

 

A spin-off from 21 Jump Street (reviewed elsewhere on this site), Booker took Richard Grieco’s offer from that show and spun him off in what was thought to be a good bet and belief that he would be the next big star.  Of course, the next big star did come from Street, but it was Johnny Depp. This Collector’s Edition set is 2 episodes short of the 22-episode season for whatever reason, but shows us more than enough of just how bad the show really was.

 

Smug, tired, self-amused and putting way too much money and emphasis on Grieco, the show is one of the worst spin-offs ever made and was just another processed hack job from Stephen J. Cannell.  Grieco can play the male bimbo role very well, but it far outpaces any resemblance to anyone playing any kind of police officer.  If Street had writing issues, you can imagine the scripts here are very, very weak and are more interested in being hip than being about something.  The comedy is dumb and the show reminds us why the 1980s didn’t work.

 

On the other hand, Wiseguy actually had some writing ambition, but the storylines were from the other bad side of Cannell production, people talking at each other in what was supposed to be “realistic” acting and situations, but they just landed up being clichés done without any camp moments.  Ken Wahl played an undercover cop who had infiltrated what was the last of the old wave of organized crime, usually involving Italians.

 

Still silly in its own right, Wahl became a star, but off-screen circumstances ruined his health and career.  However, he was an interesting enough actor and the newness of that is the top reason the show lasted four seasons.  Of the 22 episodes here, they are divided into two story acts like a soap opera.  It is not as melodramatic as I expected, but flatter than I remembered.  I never cared if he got caught because I never believed any of this in the first place.  It is a curio now because of anything in the gangster genre and because of the Sopranos phenomenon, but it was never that good and even some interested guest stars and cats members cannot overcome the dull writing.  However, it is at least a cult item, but don’t think the four seasons happened because it was some big hit.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image on Booker looks fairly good, but nothing to write home about, while Wiseguy looks to offer a series of older transfers that may recycle the previous DVD sets.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on both are also aged, but are as good as expected for old shows of their kind; good, but not great.  There are no extras on either set.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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