GRΣΣK – Chapter
Four (ABC/Disney DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C- Episodes: C+
Why must
I continually torture myself with such obnoxious teen angst and dribble? Greek:
Chapter Four hits DVD like a fraternity pledge paddle on Kevin Bacon’s ass
(“Please sir may I have another?!”), with an odd mix of pain and necessity all
in one. I started to see the downfall of
Greek after Season Two (not that Season
One was all too great) and the series has transformed into a horrible,
horrible guilty pleasure. Perhaps
pleasure is not the right word…maybe curse is better, feeling more like
unending hazing than a solid television series.
It should
be noted that this is NOT Season Four of
the series, but rather just the fourth DVD volume. Season
Four of the series is set to premiere sometime in 2010 and supposedly is
the last season.
The
entire cast, plus a few new faces (including guest star Jesse McCartney),
return for Greek: Chapter Four. The series has developed (all too quickly)
into the same old same old. It is filled
with love triangles (or should I say love Deltas…ZING), rivalries and an all
too fictional look at sorority/fraternity life.
The 12 episodes are like a bad ‘pop-culture’ soap opera; on some odd
level being entertaining, but concurrently nauseating. Greek is
like pushing and pulling on a loose tooth, it hurts but you just can’t
stop. The cast is young and attractive,
but need to work on their acting chops. Though the acting is better than the
stories themselves.
I may
miss the series when it is gone, but for now I will lament in watching the
series all too much.
The
technical features of this DVD release are not all too impressive and remains
just like the plethora of other TV series quickly pushed to home video. The picture is a 1.78 X 1 Widescreen that has
nice colors and adequate levels of clarity/crispness, but could be better. Though I am not clambering to own this on
Blu-ray I think the series would lend itself quite nicely to the format if done
properly. The sound is a simple Dolby
Digital 5.1 Surround that gets the job done, though the dialogue driven series
minimally uses the surrounds unless a party is occurring or a song kicks in.
Extra
features include a ton of nonsense such as Bloopers that are not funny; a At
World’s End Featurette that has the cast and creators take the viewer behind
the scenes of the filming of the last Chapter
Four episode; “How Do You Sleep?” music video by Jesse McCartney…yawn; and
finally Audio Commentaries that made me more tight-chested than
entertained. All in all and aggravating
set of extras on a series I have seen all too much of.
Like a
Trojan Horse Greek keeps slipping
back into my life under the radar; perhaps I will be better prepared next time.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
