Criminal Minds – Season Four (2008 – 2009) + Harper’s Island – The DVD Edition (2009/CBS DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+/B- Extras: C Episodes: C
At CBS,
fuddy duddy TV has been replaced by old-before-your-time boring TV and two
recent shows offer very different examples of the same thing. It is amazing to me that Criminal Minds is even still on the air, let alone in its Fourth Season, but here it is and it is
the epitome of the unspoken wave of TV dramas that are about official people
(police, medical, military) at work, that all the work is work and that these
are the only people in the country who count.
There are also connections to past military involvement, always
connected to naïve optimism as if the military (and by association, these individuals
and government) can do no wrong.
What is
odder is that it has Joe Mantegna as one of its leads; a great actor usually
associated with cutting edge acting and material. He gives this more credibility than it
deserves. Shemar Moore shows he can do
more than just be a TV host with real energy and ambition throughout, fighting
a losing battle against the script.
Thomas Gibson, Matthew Gray Gubler, A.J. Cook and Paget Brewster are
also good, but even some of their chemistry cannot save the show. I can see them cast as elite investigators,
but the mysteries are far from challenging and by this season, it is certainly
a fans-only affair.
As a
intentionally single-season mystery thriller show, Harper’s Island is part of a currently tired cycle of stories where
people enjoying life go to a place where mass murder took place and therefore,
they too must die! Why? Is this stupid or what?
Either
way, this dumbness is stretched for what in the old days would amount to half a
season (13 of what passes for hours today) and maybe even have been dubbed a
Mini-Series, but that would be too prestigious a term to use for this
show. There is a serial killer on the
loose in this one (surprise?) and from the opening, it comes across like The Last Of Sheila-lite with less
mystery and more of a general drama feel to the show that kills much of its
potential suspense.
That is
still no excuse for this not to work better.
The lack of mystery and suspense is being filled in by tired horror film
clichés. Add the lack of character
development and this becomes as predictable as it does unintentionally silly,
yet the actors (all unknowns) give it their all. Sadly, that cannot make up for inept writing,
editing or directing. They were smart to
keep it this short, because any longer and this would be a total disaster. Oh, and it want to be Lost too, but that show is already played out, so that’s another
reason to skip this unless you are very
curious to see what is like.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Minds is
an all HD shoot at this point with a lack of detail, motion blur and
substandard color throughout. The
split-screen usage is lame and editing problematic. Island
has the same kind of presentation, but combines HD and 35mm filming. The result is about as soft, with motion blur
and slightly better color. Both offer
Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes, but Island
has a much better soundfield than Minds,
which seems too limited for a modern production.
Both
offer deleted scenes as extras, while Minds
include profiles, gag reel and behind the scenes of 11 of the episodes, while Island offers four making-of
featurettes, CBS on-air promos, Harper’s
Globe webisodes and audio commentaries on select shows.
- Nicholas Sheffo
