DVD review-related stories
Posted Oct 26th 2009 12:29PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: TV on DVD, Battlestar Galactica, Reality-Free
Leoben, that tricky toaster, was right: All of this
has happened before, and all of it is happening again.
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan retells major events from the first two years of the celebrated sci-fi series through the eyes of the Cylons. It weaves together recycled scenes from the series with new footage to reveal a first-hand account of the Cylon agenda, or "plan."
The result is a film that feels incomplete, episodic and disjointed. It plays less like a movie and largely like a disk full of high quality bonus material. Most of what happens here feels irrelevant to the series -- almost like it was tacked on to the
BSG mythos to satisfy completists and hardcore fans. Still, it's worth watching to see Dean Stockwell carry the film with a fearless performance as the scheming and duplicitous Brother Cavil. The veteran character actor takes center stage in
The Plan, and your enjoyment of the film will rest largely on how much you like, or dislike, Cavil and his major role in the series.
Continue reading DVD Review: Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 10:00AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: TV on DVD, The Office, Reality-Free
When I received my copy of
The Office season five DVD in the mail, the first thing I noticed was that there may or may not be a Golden Ticket enclosed that would win me a trip to Hollywood. I tore into the packaging, and saw that I had not, in fact, won. So, this DVD set sucks. THE END.
...Okay, I've been informed that I won't get paid unless I tell you about what's actually on the DVDs. So, let's get to that.
The short version of the story is, the folks who make
The Office DVDs do so with fans in mind. They are not creating merely a collection of episodes: They chock the DVDs full of enough extras and other goodies to make buying the DVDs preferable to say, buying a season pass on iTunes or just not erasing the season's episodes off of your DVR.
Continue reading The Office: season five DVD review
Posted Jul 19th 2009 11:04AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Battlestar Galactica, Reality-Free
One of the best parts of this job is the advance copies we get of television DVD sets. In short: Holy frak! The
final set of Battlestar Galactica episodes is awesome.
Minor spoilers follow...
There are those who liked the ending and those that didn't. I didn't like the lack of explanation of Kara's return from the dead and found the finale generally anti-climactic. But the series set a high standard and, overall, it's a minor complaint. In most ways, the series is perfect and far better than most of us deserve.
I'll give them this: the people who make the show know their audience ... that audience being nerds. Nerds like information. Hence, the DVD set is full of extras and special features. These include deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and extended versions of episodes, including the three-part finale, "Daybreak." And every episode (let me repeat that::
every episode) has podcast commentary by Ronald Moore.
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5 - DVD review
Posted Sep 15th 2008 11:02AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: TV on DVD, The Office, Reality-Free
Any DVD set that has
The Office on it is going to be good. That's just a fact. So obviously,
The Office: Season 4 DVD set already has a lot going for it. So what I was mainly interested in when I received it was how they dealt with their shortcomings: namely the fact that due to the writer's strike, this set only has 14 episodes.
While
The Office fared much better than other shows with its truncated season, I still expect a DVD set without a full season's worth of episodes to have enough bonus features to help make up for it. While the features on this set are pretty standard (deletes scenes, blooper reels, commentaries, etc.) for the most part, the quality makes you forget that the set is light about ten episodes.
Continue reading The Office: season 4 - DVD review
Posted Aug 2nd 2008 10:01AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Sometimes television shows come along that completely change the industry.
Spaced is one of those shows. Broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 from 1999 to 2001, it used geeky pop culture references, non sequitur scene injections, flashbacks and other common television practices nowadays way back when it wasn't cool to do so. In that respect, it's a combination of
The Big Bang Theory and
Arrested Development long before either existed.
When co-creators and co-stars Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson (now Jessica Hynes) created the main characters Tim and Daisy, they created characters that every nerdy person could relate to.
The show does cater to a very specific audience and it's the sort of audience that tends to be the most loyal, even obsessively so. Nobody is particularly super-handsome and the characters are very niche. Also, the show doesn't really talk down to the audience and makes the viewer feel like part of the conversation. This is unlike, say,
Arrested Development which tends to be a bit pretentious (sorry to all you
Arrested Development fans).
Continue reading Spaced: The Complete Series - DVD Review
Posted Oct 4th 2007 3:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd
Now that the second season of
The Sarah Silverman Program has begun (
see Brad T.'s review of last night's season premiere), anyone who wants to go back and review the first season can now do so on DVD.
Comedy Central usually puts together decent DVD packages for its shows, and this one is no exception. Well, it's decent if you're a fan of Silverman's goofy and self-absorbed songs, because this package features them quite a bit.
Continue reading The Sarah Silverman Program season one - DVD review
Posted Oct 4th 2007 10:24AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Star Trek: The Next Generation
If you're even mildly a fan of
Star Trek: The Next Generation, you've no doubt heard of the recent release of the 20th anniversary edition of the
complete series DVD set, complete with new bonus features. First you probably said to yourself, "holy crap, that was 20 years ago?! Get outta my yard!" You also likely groaned when you read the price tag of 400 smackeroos, which even for die-hard trekkies is a big pill to swallow.
I was lucky enough to recently get a look at what this new DVD set. Is it really better to have the entire series in an all-in-one case? Are the bonus features worth the price itself? Well, I'll tell you my thoughts, at least. (See
here for a gallery of packaging images.)
Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation - 20th Anniversary Complete Series - DVD review
Posted Sep 2nd 2007 3:02PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: OpEd, Family Guy, Animation, Web, Adult Swim, Children, Aqua Teen Hunger Force
As I said when Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters was released in April, the film is essentially review proof, which is why I loved it and a lot of critics hated it. I was drawn to the series since it first appeared in 2000, because it fed my love for the absurd and nonsensical. Quite honestly, if the feature film had been a critical favorite I might have considered that a failure in many ways. Aqua Teen Hunger Force gained popularity precisely because it was a weird little show buried in the late night schedule of Cartoon Network, a diamond in the rough fans had to discover on their own. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, and the aptly titled Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters for DVD are for those who are already in on the joke . . . or really high.
Continue reading Animation news: a look at the Aqua Teen Movie DVD, G.I. Joe flick gets a writer, and more
Posted Aug 20th 2007 10:00AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd
Yes, I know it's been a couple of months since the second season of
Extras came out on DVD. But since
I reviewed Season One earlier this year, I figured it would only be fair to look over Season Two, even if it's only for anal completist reasons (Of course, our UK Bureau -- otherwise known as "Martin Conaghan" -- reviewed the series when it aired on the BBC; his reviews start 1/4 of the way down
this page).
From everything I heard and read, the second season of the Ricky Gervais / Stephen Merchant comedy was better than the first season. Of course, given the high standards set by Gervais and Merchant, that was saying a lot. After watching Season Two, I have to say that I agree with those assessments, but not for the reason that you think.
Continue reading Extras: The Complete Second Season - DVD review
Posted Jun 19th 2007 12:21PM by Meredith O'Brien
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd
It won Emmys for the best dramatic series, best dramatic actor and best dramatic actress. Right out of the box. In season one.
Nearly 15 years ago.
So how does the first season of the controversial Picket Fences stand up to time, in its new DVD collection? After watching the pilot episode, seeing all those shoulder pads, hearing the heavy-handed background music during some of the scenes and watching "tough" police interrogations in the form of raised voices, my initial thought was, "Picket Fences didn't age well."
Then I watched more episodes. And changed my mind.
Continue reading Picket Fences Season One -- DVD Review
Posted Jun 4th 2007 11:04AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd
When I was asked to review the DVD of the series
Kidnapped, I eagerly jumped at the chance. After all, I've been a fan of the show since before it even aired:
I visited the set,
I went to the premiere,
I reviewed the pilot, I was among the throngs at TVS and elsewhere
that reported that the show was cancelled, and now I get to review the "thanks for everything, fans!" DVD. I feel like I witnessed the show's birth and death, and now I'm attending its funeral.
Despite the show's quality, it never had a chance; saddled with a bad time slot (Wednesdays at 10), NBC showed four episodes, then told the producers to stop at 13, shuttled the show to the Saturday death slot, then canned it after one Saturday airing.
Continue reading DVD Review: Kidnapped: The Complete Series
Posted Jan 7th 2007 11:31AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, HBO, TV on DVD, OpEd, BBC
As I may have mentioned here once or twice, I was a huge fan of the British version of
The Office. No matter what the US version accomplishes or how good it gets, I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the vision Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant had of the average dead-boring workplace and the relationships that are developed there.
So when I was sent a preview copy of the first season of the pair's follow-up effort,
Extras (out Tuesday), I was intrigued but wary: after such a successful debut, the sophomore effort more often than not disappoints. Also, all the reviews of the show I had read during its BBC and HBO runs (I have neither channel) were of the mixed-to-positive variety. So... is it worth buying, renting, or neither? I'll let you know after the jump.
Continue reading DVD Review: Extras: The Complete First Season
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