DVD Boxed Sets

final episode, Eric Delko (Adam Rodriguez) has disappeared with his devious father. Both Horatio’s son Kyle (Evan Ellingson) and Eric get thrown into jail,a new coroner named Dr. Tara Price (Megalyn Echikunwoke) turns out to have an addiction to Oxycodone pain killer pills, Eric and Calleigh Duquesne have a blooming relationship with each other, Yelina Salas (Sofia Milos) returns undercover, Horatio’s mortal enemy Ron Saris (Kim Coates) turns out to be married to Horatio’s ex Julia Winston (Elizabeth Berkley), Natalia Boa Vista (Eva La Rue) was lucky enough this season to not have so much of the drama focused on her, and Ryan Wolfe (Jonathan Togo) was forced to betray his team within the entire season’s swirl and hinting of the Russian Mob’s constant tabs on the team’s every move. The crimes have become more intriguing from a con man who tricked married women into sexual relations for their money, a man who cannot remember how he could have killed an entire family, and explore the world of extreme plastic surgery. Season Seven has proved itself to be one of the best seasons yet to watch and I would definitely recommend it over the tedious CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Season Nine. Don’t miss a second of this hard-hitting drama with non-stop action in each episode. Episodes I recommend are: Episode 1 “Resurrection” in where Horatio has been supposedly shot, Episode 10 “The DeLuca Motel” where a shooter targets the place where Eric is staying at, Episode 20 “Wolfe In Sheep’s Clothing” where Ryan is forced to betray the team by altering evidence in a case, Episode 24 “Dissolved” where Julia spins out of control and Dr. Price is fired, and Episode 25 “Seeing Red” where Eric finds out about his father’s involvement in a current case and disappears to help him out.

The new anamorphic transfer on the new MGM/UA Silence of the Lambs DVD is much improved from the Criterion DVD edition, and also noticeable better than the Image DVD version. The picture looks sharp and clean; colors achieve a right balance between being bright in some scenes and subdued in others; black levels are accurately reproduced, a crucial aspect since many scenes take place in the dark. The new Dolby Digital 5.1 track is not state of the art, but definitely a great improvement from the 2.0 mix on earlier DVDs. The much sought-after Criterion DVD edition is, in my opinion, terribly overrated. Its pinkish picture quality is poor, its Dolby Surround sound is [bad], its text material about serial killers can be easily looked up on the Internet, its collection of deleted scenes have unwatchable video quality. Its only worthwhile material is the outstanding audio commentary, but that is not something you want to pay through your nose for now that the DVD is out of print.

The Criterion DVD has seven deleted scenes in poor video quality. The MGM disc has 22, including all from the Criterion disc, albeit some are in truncated form. And they all look and sound much better. Some of the deleted scenes that are not on the Criterion disc are quite startling. One of them is a dramatic shot of Lector, close to tears, speaking to the camera about Buffalo Bill’s sickness and, via special effects, the prison wall MOVING towards him. Another deleted scene is Lector’s offscreen murder of the ambulance driver — we see a long shot of the ambulance swerving off the road, ending with a closeup of Lector in the driver seat wiping blood from his face, laughing. The MGM disc also has 2 documentaries not on the Criterion disc — a superficial 10-minute featurette made in ‘91, and an engaging 1-hour retrospective made for this DVD. Hopkins is the only one interviewed in both. The 1-hour feature has a well-rounded coverage about the making of the film, including production design, costuming, special effects (those moths were “dressed up” since real ones couldn’t be obtained), sound design, and of course the various themes of the story. It’s too bad Howard Shore’s superlative, Oscar-deprived music score is barely mentioned in either documentary. The 1-hour feature also does not overlook the fact that the film was once accused of being gay-bashing. And actor Ted Levine gives a thoughtfully-put analysis of his character, concluding that Jame Gumb is not really gay, but only has fantasies about being that. There are also a theatrical trailer and ten TV spots, one of them reveals something I hadn’t noticed before — the skull figure on the moth is actually made up of figures of naked women. Look closely on the skull figure on the cover of the DVD case.

Compared to season 7 and 8, this one fell flat. They built up the character of Lucas North in one direction in Season 7 and 8, and then in Season 9 they jerked him around in a completely different direction.

Perhaps this might have worked if there was some foreshadowing in Season 7 and 8 for what was coming in Season 9, but there was not. I’m pretty sure that’s because in Season 7 and 8, the writers had no idea that this drastic turnaround would be happening in Season 9. In fact, it seemed blatantly obvious that the writers of Season 9 made up cr@p without regarding what had been built up in the previous seasons. Because of this, this season lacked credibility. To me it felt very much like the whole thing was done for shock value.

I am okay with shock value, for surprising the audience with the unexpected, but there is a limit! What happened in this season was ridiculous and didn’t even begin to add up when you considered season 7 and 8.

The performances by the cast were stellar and there were some entertaining and exciting moments, but for me the whole thing was spoiled by the ridiculous plot developments. I realize that we all have to suspend our disbelief to a certain extent with these TV shows, but there should be some degree of believability in how the characters behave and their reasons for doing so. There wasn’t enough of that in this season, unfortunately.

Season 4 of the Golden Girls is here now, and if you have any doubts as to its pedigree, just look at the sales figures.

Seriously! Other classic 80s TV series like Dynasty, Dallas, and Twin Peaks have all mysteriously stopped coming – due to poor sales. The Golden Girls is one TV run that we may well see released as a whole. Which is very, very good news.

Anyway, back to the review at hand. Season 4 of the Golden Girls does two quite important things: it removes almost all of the pop culture references that littered Season 3, making its appeal even more universal, and it continues to build on the strong roots of multidimensionality laid down for each character in Season 3.

For example, the 2-parter ‘Sophia’s Wedding’ shows that Estelle Getty isn’t simply playing Sophia for wisecracks – there’s some very funny humanity in there, too. ‘Scared Straight’ has probably Rue McClanahan’s funniest scene so far (dealing with the acceptance of her gay brother’s coming out) and shows more of the versatility of the actress who so often gets predictable, if likeable, one-liners about her sexual past. Dorothy and Rose have similar depth added to them, “Two Rode Together” shows a manic and unreasonable side to the normally intractable Dorothy and ‘The Impotence of Being Ernest’ brings out the bitch in Rose Nylund.

Situations run a gamut here, too, from homeless shelters to hospitals to questionable retirement homes to an hilarious little-old-lady beauty parlour run by recurring guest star Lloyd Bochner (Cecil Colby from ‘Dynasty’, fact fans).

Writing is as together and as solid as ever, and, as a collaborative effort, “Golden Girls – The Complete Fourth Season” deserves top marks for sheer entertainment value.

It seems that unless a show has some sort of talent competition or stupid people doing stupid things it cannot stay on the air anymore. This country is turning into a vast wasteland. This was a great thought provoking show, it’s too bad the TV execs at the CW don’t see it. Well that’s another hour that I will not be watching TV, you lose CW, Well at least NBC didn’t cancel Parenthood (yet), so I will turn the set on @ 10 PM.

Anyway, at least now I have the DVD to remind me that good TV exists for a little while anyway, and I can watch Life Unexpected anytime I want to, while the rest of you watch Snookie do stupid things. I’m happy about that.

As always, Warner Brothers did a nice job with this release, it has a slipcase and an “Amaray” style case that holds the six discs. There is a booklet that provides a synopsis, original airdate and the writer and director of each episode. The audio and video are top notch, as with all Warner Brothers TV on DVD seems to be. As far as I can determine, music has not been replaced, and there is no mention of it anywhere on the packaging, so I assume everything is the same as it was broadcasted.

I think had the show been able to continue, it would have gotten more interesting, but considering the last season was not a full season by CW standards, it was wrapped up nicely. Good TV is hard to come by, maybe in syndication this show will find the audience it deserved. If not, pick up the DVD, you can’t go wrong with this one.

Now, I’m waiting for WB to release the final season of Everwood, which IS coming out on August 2nd – and includes and alternate ending! That is going to be good.

Veridian Dynamics is a large corporatation that invents, tests and markets everything from deadly pumpkins to beef that tastes like despair. Ted works there as a manager. He’s a good and sane man in a heartless–and often insane–corporate environment. The comedy in this series comes from seeing just how insane work at Veridian can be and the hoops Ted jumps through to keep the insanity in check.

Each episode begins with a commercial for Veridian Dynamics, parodies of commercials put out by real world corporations. These commercials are so biting–and funny–one wonders who would dare advertise on a show like this. Portia De Rodsi steals the show as Ted’s boss, Veronica, who embodies all that is beautiful, perfect, devious and heartless at Veridian. Veronica is the kind of woman who likes having Ted’s young daughter around, because her presense makes it easier for Veronica to fire people.

The show never lets you get too comfortable, and that’s a good thing. It is brilliant, hysterically funny and original, so much so that it’s a wonder it hasn’t been taken off the air . . . yet. On TV or DVD, catch it while you can.

Like T. Adlam, I have all the same feelings, except I deliberately purchased the DVD thinking the last and final closing episode was on there. I watched the whole series all over again from the beginning to the end (1,2,3) to remember anything I forgot, to be prepared for this great ending…
Gag me with a Tyranasaurus Rex, it was like being on my second honeymoon and having my husband say, “I’m done, you can finish it up from here”. (!!@?#)

They should at least have one two hour long “movie”, but if all they are going to do is put Jessi and Kyle together I’m not excited at all. Amanda and Kyle were the perfect innocent couple, aside from his ignorance on how to stack his priorities in personal and family relationships. And “mom” on the other hand, instead of teaching him this matter, is all wound up in ‘gay rights’.
As a psychologist #1, she is NOT ALLOWED by law to interject suggestions on how she thinks people should run their lives morally, that is a legal taboo. She is only allowed to build on the person’s own moral structure (Christian, Jew etc.), allowing them to make up their own mind. It is wrong and misleading to portray her profession the way it was.

#2, she should be teaching moral and relationship/responsibility priorities. This is something all people should learn while they are young, instead of always choosing based on their current feelings with no commitment of any sort. You don’t get married one day and run off and sleep with your secretary the next, and come back home again. He experienced this the wrong way enough times that if MOM really WAS a psych, she should have jumped in right away and let him know “Houston, we have a problem”. If your going to inject the power of suggestion into the children watching the show, in that respect it was horrible.

Other than Mom’s professional inability to do her job, her one sided brainwashing and the show having a cliff and jagged rock ending, I really loved the show.

I am so glad to see Little House on the Prairie on DVD, this was a classic show, that touched a lot of hearts. I remember very well watching this as a kid, our whole family would gather around to watch Little House.
Its funny, as a kids we hated Mrs Olseon but now, I watch this DVD and she is hillarious. (”Oh for heavensakes Nells”) Katherine Mcgregor was a gifted actress and really made the show. Little House is funny, sad, uplifting, and dramatic. I think when a show can have all these emotions its definitly a classic.
I don’t know why everyone is upset about the starting not being on every episode, I like how the shows start right away. The sound and quality are great and it is wonderful to have this TV classic(something were seriously missing today in 2003) back on DVD.
I highly reccomend buying this and having some quality programming in your home.

There is no question in my mind the “The West Wing” was one of the greatest drama series on television ever. And if you’ve been holding out on buying the DVDs until this box set was released then I would suggest you part with some cash immediately. The issue for a lot of people reading these reviews, however, is going to be whether or not they are going to want to replace individual box sets with this release. I’m not going to suggest to you what the best move is, although in the next few days you’re going to see my box sets on sale, but this is really a decision on whether or not you want a beautifully packaged set. That is what this is. The ‘leather’ folder the disks come in is perfect in terms of design for this series. The two ‘books’ that the set contains are glossy, and the pictures are beautiful. It is also a welcome change to see seasons 1 to 4 discs one -sided as opposed to the previous release. The individual folders that the disks here come in are sturdy enough and again well designed. However, I can’t spot any additional extras on the discs. The foreward by Aaron Sorkin also isn’t new – it’s taken from the first Scriptbook that was released. So if you are a Wingnut, chances are you’ve seen everything here before and as I said it really comes down to the packaging and the fact that you were going to buy Season 7 anyway so why not splurge on this. I’m giving it 4 stars as opposed to 5 because I can’t quite forgive the makers for Season 5 and also because it would have been nice of them to include something extra for the Wingnuts here considering it is us who are really going to be purchasing this set.

I remember watching this TV show with joy when i was a kid and upon seeing the release of this best of boxset purchased the product, not sure if my childhood enjoyment perhaps had changed in the years between viewings. Well i can gladly say that this show still remains the benchmark for murder/mystery type shows everywhere. I highly recommend the strange legends and bizarre murders best of sections which contain some of the best creepy and intriguing material. Robert Stack lends the show his trademark stoicism and presents the stories with style and dignity. Perhaps one of the best things about Unsolved Mysteries is that when compared to other similar style shows, the re enactments stand head and shoulders above the rest. In most cases the actors are believable and the costumes and music well placed and authentic. I highly recommend this show for lovers of mystery and the paranormal everywhere. You never know, this show may even change your opinions on some famous mysteries like it did for me on the episode which argued that Billy the Kid did not die at the hands of Pat Garrett. This boxset is the best way to purchase as it compiles the greatest episodes together all for one fantastic price (considering the 25 discs on offer). Sit back and enjoy weeks of enjoyment. Why don’t they make shows like this anymore?