THE BOYS IN THE BAND -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 10/25/08

While growing up, I'd always known THE BOYS IN THE BAND (1970) as "that gay movie" because it was pretty much the first of its kind. Now that I've seen it, it's not the gay version of ROOTS as I'd long suspected, nor is it a farcical companion piece to LA CAGE AUX FOLLES. Based on the groundbreaking Off-Broadway play by Mart Crowley (who also wrote the screenplay) and starring the original cast, it's full of wonderfully witty dialogue along with some equally lowbrow humor, but what it eventually becomes is an emotional drama about people who joke about their own inner turmoil until the laughter turns to bitter tears and scathing recriminations.

The story begins with Michael giving a surprise birthday party in his apartment for his friend Harold, when suddenly his former college roommate, Alan, shows up. Which wouldn't be a problem, except Michael, Harold, and everyone else at the party are gay, while Alan is (seemingly) arrow-straight and unprepared for the sight of a bunch of guys drinking Pink Ladies and chorus dancing to "Love is Like a Heat Wave." Although the story is lighthearted and filled with breezy humor and wisecracks at first, we get the feeling we're in for some heavy drama sooner or later. Alan's presence at the party is the proverbial other shoe that begs to be dropped at some point, but even this is hardly the main event we think it will be--before the night is over, shoes will be dropping all over the place.

THE BOYS IN THE BAND is one of those filmed plays that often betrays its theatrical origins--but in a good way--while remaining almost self-consciously cinematic in order to balance things out. Director William Friedkin deftly keeps the camera moving and the characters in motion with various bits of business, and the acting, dialogue, and editing all crackle. Several of the lines are quoteworthy--when Michael's weekend lover Donald enters in his party attire and asks, "Am I stunning?", Michael responds, "You're absolutely stunning. You look like sh**, but I'm absolutely stunned."

Birthday boy Harold's belated appearance is worth waiting for--he's a real pip, and Friedkin lets us know it by giving him an entrance worthy of Karloff's monster in FRANKENSTEIN. Impeccably dressed and coolly detached, this self-described "32-year-old ugly pockmarked Jew fairy" saunters world-wearily into the midst of the film's first major blow-up and levels the whole thing like a cross between Bette Davis and Oscar Wilde. His acerbic attitude and dry, sarcastic witticisms usher in the film's next phase of frank dialogue and brittle interplay. As for Michael, he seems to morph into Joan Crawford the longer he's around Harold and starts in on him with relentlessly cutting putdowns, which the unflappable Harold disinterestedly waves off with bland retorts like "You hateful sow."

When a sudden rainstorm buffets the terrace and forces the party inside, putting everyone into close quarters including the shell-shocked Alan, it's here that Michael's alcohol-fueled cruel streak really comes to the fore and nobody is spared. He initiates a party game designed to humiliate the participants for his own sour amusement, but, in unintended ways, it forces the characters to confront problems that need to be worked out--not just gay problems, but universal ones as well. Even the cartoonishly-flamboyant Emory gets his fleeting moment to be a real person instead of a caricature. Ultimately, Michael himself turns out to have the biggest issues, and Harold's just the guy to make him face them.

By this time, we don't need kinetic visuals to keep us interested, so Friedkin gets more stagy during this sequence to focus attention on the dialogue. Still, he handles it all with exquisite dexterity. The final act is riveting, with the kind of raw emotion played to the hilt that you rarely see outside of something like Liz and Dick going at each other in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

As Michael, Kenneth Nelson runs the gamut of emotions in a brilliant and moving performance. Leonard Frey is so decadently cool as Harold, he could almost be a Bond villian. Laurence Luckinbill and Keith Prentice have some great moments together as Hank and Larry, a couple with painfully differing views on monogamy. Alan, whose homophobia may be a denial of his true nature, is played by Peter White with just the right enigmatic touch. 

The one really flaming queen in the bunch, Cliff Gorman's Emory--described by Alan as "a butterfly in heat"--is the most stereotypically camp character, but in a story in which almost everyone is gay, the omission of someone like Emory might seem unrealistic in itself. The rest of the ensemble is equally good, including Frederick Combs as Donald, Reuben Greene as Bernard, and Robert La Tourneaux as Cowboy, Emory's dumb-blonde birthday gift to Harold.

The film has been restored under Friedkin's supervision and remixed in stereo sound. In a way, the look reminded me of a really high-class Joe Sarno movie but without the sex. After watching it I couldn't wait to indulge in the bonus features, which include a commentary track with Friedkin and Crowley being interviewed, and three featurettes. The titles, "The Boys in the Band: The Play", "The Boys in the Band: The Movie", and "The Boys in the Band: Today", are self-explanatory, and feature retrospective comments by Friedkin, Crowley, and some of the surviving castmembers.

As far as the fine art of transferring plays to the screen goes, THE BOYS IN THE BAND is a tour-de-force for the young Friedkin and a robustly entertaining experience for the viewer. It's funny, emotionally searing, and cathartic. And it's a lot more than just "that gay movie", because anyone can recognize some of these characters' fears and insecurities in themselves. But the fact that they are gay gives it all a unique perspective that adds to its resonance.

THE BOYS IN THE BAND -- DVD Review by Porfle

BONANZA: THE OFFICIAL FIRST SEASON, VOL. 1 & 2 -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 9/3/09

 

One of my top five favorite TV westerns of all time, "Bonanza" certainly needs no introduction even for those who have never watched a single episode. If you fall into that category, then the release of BONANZA: THE OFFICIAL FIRST SEASON, VOLUMES 1 & 2 is the perfect introduction to the wild and wooly world of The Cartwrights--Ben, Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe--as they lord it over the rest of the world from the lofty majesty of their massive forest-bedecked Nevada ranch, the Ponderosa. And if you're already a fan, then you'll want to slap your brand on these little dogies before sundown.

Ben Cartwright, played by silver-haired, dulcet-voiced Canadian actor Lorne Greene, is one of those TV characters to whom marriage is the kiss of death for his hapless brides. As we join the Cartwright clan, Ben's already gone through three wives and sired a son by each. Soulful, taciturn Adam (Pernell Roberts), whose mother was a member of New England aristocracy, is the "cool" one who lets his gun do the talking while casting dark, sultry glances at any beauteous ladies within glancing distance.

Hoss (Dan Blocker), the gentle giant who's slow to anger but quick to finish off an entire hog before anyone else has even made it to the table, comes from sturdy Swedish stock. The youngest Cartwright is impetuous, girl-crazy action boy Little Joe (Michael Landon), a New Orleans-born hellion who's always leaping into trouble. Even their Chinese cook Hop Sing (Victor Sen Yung) is pee-oh'd.

These guys live in the coolest ranchhouse ever (which Adam designed and built) on the biggest spread in the northern hemisphere, and in these early episodes they're bitterly at odds with the devious Virginia City silver tycoons who covet their vast tracts of forest land with which to shore up their mine tunnels. In later seasons, Ben and his brood chill out considerably and become friendly, socializing members of the community who prefer reasoned diplomacy to gunplay. But when we first see them, they're coarse, boisterous wild men bristling with guns and running roughshod over the countryside. Just try cutting across the Ponderosa to get to where you're going a little faster--before you know it, you'll be staring down the barrels of four guns while the Cartwrights terrorize you like Hell's Angels on horseback.

In the VOLUME 1 pilot episode, "A Rose for Lotta" (9/12/1959), this very thing happens to none other than guest star Yvonne DeCarlo (Lily from "The Munsters"), a leggy actress who's been hired by those silver tycoons (including George MacCready and Willis Bouchey) to lure one of the Cartwrights into town so that he can be held hostage. The very sight of her speeding carriage throwing up Ponderosa dust in the distance sets our heroes' blood boiling and their bloodlust blazing, and they give chase with guns waving.

After roughing up her mousey driver (Ned Glass), tying him up, and tossing him in the back of Hop Sing's buckboard, Ben graciously instructs a willing Little Joe to escort the lady into town. The young Cartwright is set upon by ruffians but escapes, gleefully managing to create fiery havoc in the Chinese part of town. Meanwhile, Ben, Adam, and Hoss confront their wealthy foes in a local saloon, where Adam has a cool, melodramatic shootout with black-garbed gun-for-hire Langford Pool (a creepy Christopher Dark) complete with closeups of their twitchy eyes and sweating foreheads.

Even at home, these guys are off the hook. The episode begins with Adam and Little Joe talking trash about each other's moms, with Adam referring to Little Joe's dueling epee as "that New Orleans monkey pick you got handed down to you by your French Quarter mother", to which Joe responds with murder in his eyes, "I've never been able to see myself being kin to anything whelped out of a thin-nosed, blueblooded Boston yankee!"

A bareknuckled debate on the subject ensues right there in the livingroom (with Landon and Roberts doing most of their own stunts) before Hoss breaks it up by beating them both senseless with a few swipes of his ham fists. When Ben arrives on the scene with a blustery "Fire and brimstone!" we find that Lorne Greene's early interpretation of his character is decidedly larger-than-life. Roaring and bellowing with manic laughter at his sons' antics as though he's playing to the back row, Greene really pours it on here and sells this pilot with all he's got. To those used to the more sedate later episodes of the show, it's a pretty amazing sequence.

Before long, though, the Cartwrights begin to settle down and interact with their environment on a less hostile basis. (After all, it's hard to come up with interesting stories if you throw all of the guest stars off your land at gunpoint.) As Ben tells Adam: "Son, we can't ignore the rest of the world. We're the only stabilizing influence in the country." So he and the boys start using their influence to develop the town, help the poor, settle mining disputes, and try to keep the Indians and the settlers from killing each other.

The latter is forcefully depicted in "The Paiute War", in which a peaceful tribe is wrongfully blamed for some killings and the army is called in, resulting in a needless slaughter which horrifies the cavalry officer in charge. Definitely not your usual Cowboys vs. Indians stuff. Inadequate safety measures in a silver mine are a concern in "The Philip Diedesheimer Story", which sees Adam trapped in a cave-in while the mine's heartless owner (R.G. Armstrong) is more concerned with the bottom line than the lives of his workers.

The Cartwright curse rears its head again (and not for the last time) in "The Newcomers" when Hoss falls in love with a beautiful woman (Inger Stevens) who turns out to be dying of an incurable disease. In "Enter Mark Twain" the Cartwrights meet the soon-to-be-famous writer (Howard Duff), whose inflammatory political articles in the local newspaper spark a blazing gun battle in the streets of Virginia City. The scene in which the Cartwrights disarm a gunman and deliver him to the office of the crooked politician who hired him is cool as hell--they file imperiously out of the room like they own the place as Hoss empties the man's gun and flings it onto a desk without even looking.

Aside from the occasional comedy episode, these stories are thoughtful morality plays that mix hardbitten Western action with intense human drama. "The Truckee Strip" (which marks the first appearance of Joseph Messerli's famous end-credits watercolor paintings) is a Romeo-and-Juliet tale in which Little Joe falls in love with the daughter (Adrienne Hayes) of a rancher with whom Ben has had a long, bitter feud over a patch of land. Little Joe's growing disgust with the endless fighting and collateral damage leads him to pull a gun on his father at one point, which in turn prompts Ben to question his own unwavering convictions. Here, as well as in many subsequent episodes, it's interesting to see these characters grow and develop beyond their original one-dimensional qualities.

The show is consistently well-written and directed, with some early scripts by future "Star Trek" story editor Gene L. Coon and Christian Nyby (THE THING) directing several of them. The first television Western filmed in color, it's visually sumptuous and makes good use of sweeping outdoor locations. The sets and costumes have an authentic feel even though there's a storybook quality to them as well. Each episode is enhanced by a robust score by the prolific David Rose.



The first episode of VOLUME 2, "The Outcast", guest-starring a young Jack Lord and Susan Oliver, begins the tradition of announcing each episode's title with a musical fanfare. This set also continues the show's attention to racial issues with "The Fear Merchants", expanding Hop Sing's character beyond the usual stereotype as he and his people are menaced by violent bigotry in Virginia City. When a man (Frank Ferguson) accidentally shoots his daughter during an argument, a Chinese boy is accused of the deed and the Cartwrights are deputized to protect him from a lynch mob stirred up by a hatemongering mayoral candidate (Gene Evans).

This bunch contains some of my favorite episodes from the public domain DVDs I've bought over the years, only now in near-pristine condition. "Blood on the Land" features Everett Sloan as a ruthless old sheep farmer who stakes a claim on Ponderosa land and is willing to go to war with the Cartwrights to keep it. One of my favorites,"Desert Justice", boasts a great performance by Claude Akins as a hardcore U.S. Marshall bent on bringing one of the Cartwrights' ranch hands in for murder, even if it means killing anyone who gets in his way.

"The Stranger" marks the Cartwrights' growing acceptance by the citizens of Virginia City, as Ben is proposed as the new governor of the state of Nevada until a lawman from New Orleans (Lloyd Nolan) shows up with a warrant for his arrest on a murder charge. An especially exciting episode, "San Francisco Holiday", finds the Cartwrights and Hop Sing in the titular city where some of their ranch hands are shanghaied. Ed Wood regular Tor Johnson guest stars.

One of the series' best comedy episodes is "The Gunmen", in which Hoss and Little Joe (who are so much fun together that they'll be teamed many times) are mistaken for lookalike outlaws, the notorious Slade brothers, and must convince the terrified denizens of a small Texas town that they've got the wrong guys. The opening scene in which Landon and Blocker, as the Slades, gun down an entire saloon full of men in cold blood, is pretty startling.

The impressive roster of guest stars in volume one includes Ida Lupino, James Coburn, Ruth Roman, Barry Sullivan, R.G. Armstrong, Harry Carey Jr., John Beal, Mala Powers, Buddy Ebsen, Fay Spain, Alan Hale Jr., Anthony Caruso, Michael Forest, Jack Warden, Jane Greer, Alexander Scourby, Don Megowan, Hal Smith, Whitney Blake, Arthur Hunnicutt, Bill Quinn, Mort Mills, Barbara Luna, Raymond Bailey, Jose Gonzales-Gonzales, and Ralph Moody. Peter Coe of HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE MUMMY'S CURSE makes a surprising appearance as an Indian.

Volume two's more familiar faces include Vic Morrow, Gene Evans, Christopher Dark (as yet another sleazy hired gun), Patricia Medina, Joan Staley, Sebastian Cabot, Hazel Court, Bert Freed, Ellen Corby, John Anderson, Philip Ahn, Frank Ferguson, Helen Westcott, Cameron Mitchell, Henry Hull, Paul Picerni, Stafford Repp, Gloria Talbott, Grant Williams, Richard Devon, Nestor Paiva, Kathleen Crowley, James Hong, Richard Deacon, Merry Anders, Don Dubbins, Rhys Williams, Gregory Walcott, and Morgan Woodward.

Both volumes are in original 4.3 full-screen with English mono sound. Each set contains four discs with four episodes per disc. Volume one bonus features include extensive photo galleries for most episodes, some episodic promos, original NBC logo, bumpers, and RCA spots for the pilot, Joe Messerli's original sketches for the closing credits paintings, and creator-producer David Dortort's 2002 personal recollections of Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, and the creation of that iconic flaming Ponderosa map through which the stars ride in the opening titles. There's also a wonderfully cornball half-hour 1953 "Fireside Theater" segment with Bruce Bennett called "Man of the Comstock", written by Dortort, which was sort of a forerunner to "Bonanza." Lastly, we get to see a bizarre alternate ending to the pilot in which the Cartwrights ride off singing the "Bonanza" theme song! (And not too well, either.)

Volume two contains more photo galleries and episodic promos, original NBC logo, bumpers, and RCA spots for "The Avenger", and David Dortort's reminiscences about Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Victor Sen Yung, and how the Ponderosa got its name.

BONANZA: THE OFFICIAL FIRST SEASON, VOLUMES 1 & 2 are available seperately or together. For fans of the classic television Western, this rock-solid, robust series is great entertainment and is rightfully remembered as one of the finest shows of all time.

BONANZA: THE OFFICIAL FIRST SEASON, VOL. 1 & 2 -- DVD Review by Porfle

FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES--THE FINAL SEASON -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 9/17/09

 

Perfect for Halloween viewing, FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES--THE FINAL SEASON is another outstanding collection of stories that delve headlong into darkest fantasy and full-blown Gothic horror, from one of the finest series of its kind ever made for television.

Richly evocative of the 80s-90s era in horror, yet steeped in the moody aura of the classic fright films of the past, each episode from the 1989-1990 season is like an atmospheric mini-movie replete with hideous monsters, evil spirits, malevolent magic, and everyday people taking a walk on the dark side.

As usual, beautiful redhead Micki Foster (Robey) is still trying to track down the cursed items that were sold from the curiosity shop she's inherited from her evil Uncle Lewis (R.G. Armstrong), who died after his deal with Old Scratch fell through. She's aided by her uncle's former antique dealer, Jack Marshak (Chris Wiggins), whose knowledge of arcane lore and the dark arts is invaluable. Micki's cousin Ryan (John D. LeMay) is half-owner of the shop, but his character is done away with during the season premiere and replaced by Steven Monarque as Johnny Ventura, a wide-eyed novice in the world of the supernatural.

The cursed antiques, which can be anything from a coin to a child's toy to a haunted television set, wield an evil influence over their owners and are usually used for deadly revenge or personal gain. Either way, they tend to kill people in extremely horrible ways, which is bad for our heroes, but great for us horror fans.

The season gets off to blood-curdling start with a two-parter called "The Prophecies." Jack finds himself in a small French village whose convent is the home of a revered nun, Sister Adele (Marie-France Lambert). Her childhood vision of the Holy Mother has made the village a mecca for people seeking to be healed of their afflictions. But this haven of holiness finds itself under attack from fallen angel Asteroth (Fritz Weaver in full Fritz Weaver mode), who, armed with a cursed copy of the Satanic Bible, is determined to fulfill a series of prophecies that will enable Lucifer to walk the earth.

The story loses steam during the second part as Weaver's one-note character begins to grate on the nerves, but the first half of this tale contains some of the scariest stuff ever done for television. When Jack is awakened at 3:33 a.m. by groaning, distorted church bells, the effect is chilling. Then we see Sister Adele attacked by a possessed nun while in prayer, a scene that should unsettle anyone who was ever scared by THE EXORCIST. Soon after, a sequence in which a ward full of mental patients attack the convent's staff and slaughter them in unholy ways is pure bedlam, and very strong stuff. Topping it all off is the bizarre and unexpected fate of Ryan, which is one of the strangest main character departures ever.

"Night Prey" is an old-fashioned wing-flapping, cross-shunning vampire tale which ends with some nice messy disintegrations. In "The Charnel Pit", Micki is sucked into the past via an old painting and falls into the hands of none other than the Marquis de Sade. "The Tree of Life" is the story of a modern sect of Druid priestesses who grow new recruits in their own fertility clinic and then sacrifice the parents to a tree god.

A cursed wheelchair enables a paralyzed girl to get revenge on the boys who tried to rape her in "Crippled Inside", which boasts one of the most amazing stunts I've ever seen--a stuntwoman goes down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair, backwards! Other episodes deal with a headless biker, a television that serves as a conduit for angry ghosts, an evil jack-in-the-box, and a man who uses a cursed leash to (as the episode summary puts it) "merge his dog and his wife into one super-devoted companion." Cool!

As Micki, Robey does her usual great job of being a big-haired babe while bringing depth and conviction to her role. Chris Wiggins as the ever wise and stalwart Jack grounds the show with his dignified presence and experience, no matter how far-out the plots may get. New castmember Steven Monarque's character of Johnny Ventura, first introduced in season two, gives the viewer a fresh, unjaded perspective through which to witness all the weirdness that Micki and Jack have become accustomed to.

Production values are high and the feature-level direction and writing are consistently good. The show doesn't skimp on the horror factor, either--there are lots of awesome old-school makeup effects such as the impressive full-body costume and cable-controlled head for the main creature in "Demon Hunter", and the horrific acid-dissolving victim (like something out of Cronenberg's THE FLY) in "Crippled Inside." In "Stick it in Your Ear", guest star Wayne Best's repulsively organic hearing aid, which allows him to read minds, causes him to break out in some wonderfully disgusting and squishy air-bladder makeup. The show's use of CGI is still hinky-looking as ever, but for the most part the effects are first-rate.

This five-disc set from CBS/Paramount contains all 19 third-season episodes, most with the original network promos. The 1.33:1 picture and Dolby Digital English mono sound are good although the show's cinematography always tended toward the murky side. (A heavy-handed racial episode, "Hate On Your Dial", is shot largely in beautiful black-and-white and is probably the best the show has ever looked.) The episodes often have that melancholy, autumnal atmosphere that is somehow common to many Canadian horror productions of the era, which contributes in large measure to the show's effective mood.

I was very impressed by this series' first season, and FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES--THE FINAL SEASON continues in the same high quality vein to the very end. Horror fans in search of the real deal can't go wrong with these satisfying, finely-wrought tales of terror.


Read our review of "Friday the 13th: The First Season"

 

FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES--THE FINAL SEASON -- DVD Review by Porfle

FRIDAY THE 13TH - THE SERIES: THE FIRST SEASON -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/5/12

 

Here's the original prologue that used to begin each episode of "Friday the 13th - The Series":  "Lewis Vendredi made a deal with the devil to sell cursed antiques. But he broke the pact, and it cost him his soul. Now, his niece Micki, and her cousin Ryan have inherited the store... and with it, the curse. Now they must get everything back and the real terror begins."

For some reason this prologue is omitted from the 6-disc DVD set FRIDAY THE 13TH - THE SERIES: THE FIRST SEASON, but I figured it would be a good way to start my synopsis.  In the first episode, veteran character actor R.G. Armstrong plays Uncle Lewis, whose sudden relocation to Hell leaves Micki and Ryan as proprietors of his antique store, Curious Goods.  Lewis' former partner, a sage old sorceror named Jack, shows up and warns the two that all the cursed items that have been sold from the store will cause untold death and destruction if they don't track them all down and lock them in the vault downstairs. 

After witnessing some supernatural shenanigans firsthand, it doesn't take long for our heroes to get over their initial "yeah, right" attitude and dedicate themselves to this monumental task.

The main characters are likable and fun.  First, there's Robey ("Louise" when she's at home) as Micki, the fiery redhead who's lots of fun to look at.  Micki sacrifices her upcoming marriage to some Mr. Perfect-type to become a cursed antique tracker-downer, because she knows people will die if she doesn't.  Then there's her cousin Ryan (John D. LeMay), who comes off as a bit of a doofus at first--in fact, I thought he was going to be the bumbling comedy-relief until his character began to develop considerably as the season went on. 

Not unlike Mulder and Scully, or Steed and Mrs. Peel, Micki and Ryan have a lighthearted relationship that can also have its serious and dramatic moments.  At times, their characters are given a surprising amount of depth and often suffer sizeable personal tragedies.  Rounding things off is Chris Wiggins as their mentor, Jack, whose wisdom and knowledge of the black arts are indispensible. 

The thing that makes this unlikely trio of do-gooders so endearing is that they aren't professionals--they risk their lives in every episode out of concern for others.  (All together now:  "Awwwww...")

To me, the series has that distinctive look of 80s low-budget Canadian cinema, like RABID or one of the SCANNERS movies.  I've heard complaints about the picture quality, and indeed much of the photography is somewhat muted and murky.  But this is true mainly of the earlier episodes, and as the season progresses so does the look of the series (although the video FX are consistently fake-looking).  The same can also be said for the stories themselves, which start out a little on the hokey side and then keep getting better and better. 

For example, episode 4, "Cup of Time", is delightfully cheesy.  Familiar B-movie babe Hilary Shepherd plays a rock star whose youthful appearance depends on a teacup that emits leafy tendrils which suck the lifeforce from anyone who drinks from it.  We see decadent punk rocker-types standing in line for one of her concerts, but when we hear her sing it's so typically 80s spandex-glitter-pop awful you'll wonder why these fans aren't lobbing molotov cocktails at her. 

Another "more cheese, please" episode is "Shadow Boxer", in which a pair of evil boxing gloves helps a down-and-out palooka by enabling his bobbin' and weavin' shadow to run around beating people to death.

Things really start getting good when David Cronenberg steps in to direct "Faith Healer", starring SCANNERS alumnus Robert Silverman as a man with a horrible disease looking for someone with the power to cure it.  That someone, unfortunately, gets his power from a cursed glove that must be recharged by, you guessed it, sucking the lifeforce from some hapless victim.  Along the way Cronenberg gets to indulge his fondness for "body horror" with some grisly makeup effects.

"Scarecrow" is a nifty Halloween-tinged episode that plays like a creepy low-budget movie, with a wonderfully sinister, eye-rolling performance by Patricia Phillips as a woman who eliminates her smalltown enemies with the help of a scythe-wielding scarecrow.  In one scene, the scarecrow lops off some poor old lady's head and we actually see it bobbling on the floor, her face still contorted in terror.  Pretty cool for a TV show!  Like many other episodes, "Scarecrow" is like a mini version of the cheap 80s horror flicks that many of us remember so fondly.

"Vanity's Mirror" is a delightful anti-Carrie story about a really vile high school geek-girl who uses her cursed item, an antique gold compact that makes any female irresistible to men, to lure various tormentors to horrible, gory deaths.  Eventually, she steals her beautiful sister's boyfriend from her and orders him to beat and then string up the hapless lass before whisking her away to the prom!  Awesome.

I could go on about how good various episodes are, but for me, the two-part "Quilt of Hathor" is the highlight.  Amidst a stark, snowy setting, we meet an ultra-strict religious community known as the Penetites who eschew technology and live much like they did back in the old Salem witchhunt days.  Scott Paulin (THE RIGHT STUFF) plays their leader, Reverend Josiah, who is, by law, required to take a wife.  But his prospective brides keep dying off thanks to a homely woman who has the hots for him and possesses a quilt which allows her to kill people by dreaming their violent deaths. 

Micki and Ryan go undercover with the Penetites and try to recover the quilt, but in the process Ryan falls in love with Reverend Josiah's daughter and ends up in a death duel with the jealous geek-boy to whom she's betrothed.  The set-up for this fight looks just like something out of the wackier side of STAR TREK--I almost expected to hear someone say "One thousand quatloos on the newcomer!"  During this richly atmospheric double-episode, several people suffer an unpleasant demise before the suspenseful finale.

Besides those already mentioned, some other interesting guest stars pop up here and there.  The first episode features the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake's Sarah Polley as a little girl.  In "Cup of Time" we also get to see what Lisa Jakub (Randy Quaid's daughter in INDEPENDENCE DAY) looked like as a wee tyke.  One of the victims of anti-Carrie in "Vanity's Mirror" is an older Zack Ward, who was A CHRISTMAS STORY's memorable bully Scut Farkus.  Ray Walston plays a renowned comic book artist in "Tales of the Undead." 

Other notable guest stars include Carrie Snodgress, Cliff Gorman, Gary Frank, Val Avery, David Proval, and Michael Constantine (as Ryan's estranged father in the emotional episode "Pipe Dream.")  Oh, and R.G. Armstrong's "Uncle Lewis" character may have died in the first episode, but that's hardly the last we see of his evil, cackling mug.

Back in the 80s when FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES was new, I never watched it because of its association with the Jason movies, which I've always regarded as junk.  But thanks to this season one DVD collection, I've discovered it to be a highly worthwhile horror series that's loads of fun to watch.


Read our review of "Friday the 13th: The Final Season"

FRIDAY THE 13TH - THE SERIES: THE FIRST SEASON -- DVD Review by Porfle

ONE STEP BEYOND: THE OFFICIAL FIRST SEASON -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 9/15/09

 

 

Two wonderfully strange television series premiered in 1959. One was Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone", an anthology that placed normal people into fantastic circumstances that usually involved some kind of ironic twist. The other, which arrived ten months earlier, was also an anthology, and its characters also found themselves in weird situations that were often tinged with irony. 

 

But unlike "Twilight Zone", which was brimming with fanciful situations, imaginary creatures, and science-fiction elements, "One Step Beyond" drew its inspiration from actual accounts of the supernatural which were claimed by the host, John Newland, to be true. 

 

Eschewing the pure fantasy elements of Serling's show, one of the strengths of "One Step Beyond" was the feeling it instilled in the viewer that they were watching something that not only could happen, but could happen to them. Newland constantly reminds us of this in his framing narrations throughout the 22 episodes found in the 3-DVD set, ONE STEP BEYOND: THE OFFICIAL FIRST SEASON. His dignified, rational demeanor lends additional credence to the incredible stories of supernatural phenomena which he relates with such calm conviction and wry confidence. 

 

These tales run the gamut from ghost stories to psychic phenomena and all manner of unexplained occurrences in between. Some, such as "Twelve Hours to Live", stretch their premises a bit thin and don't offer much in the way of surprise or suspense. We know that when Will Jansen (Paul Richards) is trapped in his wrecked car on a deserted construction site and begins crying for help that his wife Carol (Jean Allison) will somehow sense his peril and come to the rescue. The trouble is, it takes her half an hour to do so and the situation gets tiresome pretty quick. 

 

"Echo", with Ross Martin as a man just acquitted of his wife's murder who foresees his own death in a mirror, not only doesn't go anywhere but it doesn't really make much sense, either. Another story whose twist is telegraphed long in advance and then takes forever to arrive is "The Aerialist", with Mike Connors ("Mannix") as a trapeze artist driven suicidal with guilt after he drops his father during the family's act. Still, the young Connors is interesting in the role, and the fact that his faithless wife is portrayed by schlock-film goddess Yvette Vickers is a definite plus. 

 

 

Any quibbles I might have are minor in comparison to the wealth of entertainment value contained in this set. The premiere episode, "The Bride Possessed", gets things off to a chilling start with the great Skip Homeier as a newlywed whose bayou-born wife (Virginia Leith, a fine actress best known as "Jan in a pan" from THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE) suddenly starts speaking in an unfamiliar voice and acting like an entirely different person. Skip soon discovers that she's been possessed by the ghost of a woman whose unsolved murder was ruled a suicide. 

 

"Emergency Only" is of interest since it features Marlon Brando's sister Jocelyn as a psychic who warns a skeptical man of the impending disaster that he'll encounter should he board a particular train. In "Epilogue", recovering alcoholic Charles Aidman awakens to find his estranged wife Julie Adams (CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON) frantically beckoning him to the site of a mine cave-in which has trapped their young son--and in which she herself was buried beneath tons of rock. 

 

"Premonition" is the strange tale of a budding ballet dancer (soulful child actress Beverly Washburn) who adamantly refuses to enter a room after foreseeing her own death beneath a falling chandelier.

Something about this show--whether it was John Newland's assured direction (he helmed all 22 first season episodes and many more), the well-written scripts, or the scintillating subject matter--seemed to inspire several of the guest stars to deliver outstanding performances. 

 

In "The Devil's Laughter", familiar character actor Alfred Ryder is fascinating to watch as a condemned man who must be released after numerous attempts to hang him result in inexplicable failure. (Lester Mathews of WEREWOLF OF LONDON co-stars.) Genre sweetheart Luana Anders is marvelously effective in "The Burning Girl", in which she plays a firestarter whose fits of fear and anxiety prove dangerously combustible. "Get Smart" star Edward Platt plays her father. 

 

"The Vision", about a group of WWI soldiers court-martialed for throwing down their weapons after witnessing a heavenly apparition, boasts a strong ensemble cast including Pernell Roberts (sans toupee'), Bruce Gordon, H.M. Wynant, and Richard Devon. Maria Palmer is heartrending as a lonely wife who finally finds a little romance and affection from a man who isn't there (via a Ouija board) in "The Secret." And Patrick Macnee, not yet one of "The Avengers", is a man whose new wife (Barbara Lord) is having terrible nightmares about their upcoming honeymoon cruise on the grand new luxury liner Titanic in "Night of April 14th." 

 

The best episodes combine moving human drama with situations that are truly unsettling and sometimes downright creepy. One of my favorites is "The Dead Part of the House", featuring another fine ensemble cast. Philip Abbott is a grieving widower moving into a large old house with his sister Joanne Linville (the Romulan commander in the Star Trek episode "The Enterprise Incident") and his young daughter whom he has woefully neglected in his grief. Played by charming child actress Mimi Gibson, the little girl soon discovers that one of the upstairs bedrooms is still occupied by three previous tenants who become her playmates. The only thing wrong with this is--they're dead. Philip Ahn of "Kung Fu" also stars as their wise servant, Song. 

 

 

More eerie encounters with the restless dead include "The Haunted U-Boat", with Werner Klemperer ("Hogan's Heroes") as an unwilling passenger on a German sub that's bedeviled by an unknown entity pounding on the hull to be let in. "Image of Death" is the story of a husband who murders his wife with the help of his lover, only to find that a strange stain on the wall is beginning to resemble the screaming countenance of his dead wife. And "The Navigator" is a seafaring ghost story with Don Dubbins and Robert Ellenstein as a First Mate and Captain whose vessel is steered off-course by a stowaway (Olan Soule) whose body later turns up among the wreckage of a ship that lies along their altered course. 

 

Some of the other notable faces that turn up during the course of the season are Walter Burke (getting to play something besides a leprechaun for a change), Cloris Leachman, Ben Cooper, Sandy Kenyon, Ann Codee (THE MUMMY'S CURSE), Douglas Kennedy, William Schallert, a dark-haired Patrick O'Neal, Reginald Owen, Skip Young, BLADE RUNNER screenwriter Hampton Fancher, Wesley Lau, Doris Dowling, Percy Helton, Sandra Knight, Warren Stevens, Barry Atwater, Jon Lormer, and Robert Webber. 

 

The image quality is very good (in beautiful black-and-white) except for some occasional rough patches. Aspect ratio is 4.3 full-screen with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Extras include an extended version of pilot episode "The Bride Possessed", a TV promo, the original Alcoa Aluminum opening, and the cheesy 1990s version of the main titles sequence seen on the Sci-Fi Channel. There's also a brief audio interview with writer Don Mankiewicz, whose account of scripting the episode "Epilogue" casts some doubt on the veracity of these stories--according to him, the producers had temporary dibs on a standing mine tunnel set, and needed him to whip up a story to go along with it! 

 

Rather than wielding a sledgehammer of shock and sensation, ONE STEP BEYOND: THE OFFICIAL FIRST SEASON is filled with the kind of spine-tingling campfire tales that get under your skin and make it crawl. So the next time you're in a spooky mood, this is just the thing for some late-night viewing with the lights off.

ONE STEP BEYOND: THE OFFICIAL FIRST SEASON -- DVD Review by Porfle

CRIMINAL MINDS: THE FOURTH SEASON -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 8/29/09

 

The faces on the DVD cover won't mean much to first-time viewers, but it doesn't take long for us to get to know each member of this FBI profiling team (or "behavior analysis unit" as they're called) very well.

CRIMINAL MINDS: THE FOURTH SEASON hits the ground running with one of the most riveting and lightning-paced hours of television that I've ever seen. "Mayhem" is the conclusion of last season's cliffhanger, and it begins with unit chief Aaron 'Hotch' Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) and a female associate about to get into their vehicle when it explodes. Both survive, but since they've been investigating terrorists who explode one bomb and then set off a second one to kill any police and paramedics who arrive on the scene soon after, no one will move in to render aid to the dying female agent. When Hotch finally does get her to the nearest emergency room, he finds that he may have unwittingly played right into the terrorists' scheme to blow up the hospital.

This episode nicely fulfills the show's potential and demonstrates how exciting and suspenseful it can be, with sharp direction, camerawork, and editing and solid performances. Hotch, deftly played by Gibson, quickly emerges as my favorite character--he's stiff, serious, dry, almost humorless. He doesn't wisecrack. But he's intensely professional, with an innate compassion that drives him to hunt down killers. This devotion to his job has cost him his marriage, and in his most affecting moments Hotch can be seen in his office, wistfully viewing video of his young son on his computer.

"Masterpiece", directed by Paul Michael Glaser ("Starsky and Hutch") is another outstanding episode, this time showcasing Joe Mantegna's "David Rossi" character. Rossi is a veteran profiler who has become a celebrity via his best-selling books and lectures on the subject. Here, he goes one on one in the interrogation room with a narcissistic mastermind, played by Jason Alexander, who has kidnapped a daycare worker and four children and placed them in a death trap that will kill them all in a few hours. Not only does this give both Mantegna and Alexander a chance to show their stuff, but it also demonstrates how good the writing on this show can be, with a surprise turnaround in the final minutes that is stunning.

Although there's a resemblance here to CSI and similar shows, CRIMINAL MINDS concentrates less on forensics and more on the BAU's explorations into the inner workings of the perpetrators minds. Often this forces them to confront their own darkest thoughts and fears. In "The Instincts" and its follow-up "Memoriam", the team's geeky resident genius Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) encounters a child abduction case in his hometown that dredges up suppressed memories of bloody murder from his own childhood that may even involve his own father. Jane Lynch (A MIGHTY WIND, BEST IN SHOW) is great as Reid's schizophrenic mother, who stops taking her meds so that she can achieve a brief window of mental clarity that will help her recall forgotten details of the past.

Each of the other cast members gets the spotlight in various episodes, and they're all up to the task. Shemar Moore's ex-cop Derek Morgan is the show's action guy but there's a lot of substance to his character as well. In "Brothers In Arms", Morgan takes it personally when a serial shooter starts gunning down cops in the performance of their duty. A.J. Cook is Jennifer "J.J." Jareau, the team's liason with the public and other agencies, who gives birth early in the season and gains a different perspective on her job. In the excellent bio-terror thriller "Amplification", a deranged scientist unleashes a deadly new strain of anthrax on the public and J.J. struggles with the urge to break secrecy protocol and warn her husband to flee the city with their child.

Bringing some light into the dark mood of the series is Kirsten Vangsness as Penelope Garcia, happily basking in her computer world as she serves as the nerve center for the team. In episodes such as "House on Fire", the tale of a mass-murdering arsonist, and "To Hell...and Back", the gut-wrenching season finale, Garcia is forced to venture out into the field with the rest of the team and is horrified by what she sees.

When this show gets cranked up to full-blast, it goes like gangbusters. "Catching Out", directed by actor Charles Haid, contains a climactic fight sequence atop a moving freight train. "Normal" guest-stars Mitch Pileggi of "The X-Files" as a harried family man whose mounting frustrations transform him into a highway killer known as "The Road Warrior." This episode features a breathtaking crash stunt early on and ends with a high-speed chase.

In addition to the show's kinetic qualities, much of the drama is psychological in nature and we're frequently subjected to some pretty bizarre images and ideas. Jason Alexander returns to direct "Transformation", in which young men on spring break are being raped and murdered by an assailant whose gender is mysteriously undetermined. "Cold Comfort" deals with necrophilia complete with live embalmings, and features a great guest cast including Cybill Shepherd, Michael Biehn, Lolita Davidovitch, and Vondie Curtis Hall.

I particularly enjoyed seeing none other than Wil Wheaton (ST:TNG's "Ensign Crusher") as a total loon who owns a secluded motel and lures couples to their doom in deviously-designed death traps. This episode begins with one of the show's most awesome stunts--an 18-wheeler jack-knifing into a parked car. "Omnivore", guest-starring C. Thomas Howell, has one of the series' most evil serial killers who, among other atrocities, massacres the passengers of a city bus.

Of course, the series has its occasional clunker--for example, "Demonology", a turgid tale of a priest who performs lethal exorcisms, is tiresome and overwrought. It does, however, feature a welcome guest appearance by Bruce Davison (sporting some great hair) and offers series regular Paget Brewster a chance to shine as agent Emily Prentiss.

The DVD set contains seven discs in four slim-line cases with a cardboard sleeve. The 16 x 9 image and English 5.1 and stereo sound are good. Both the episodes and bonus features are closed-captioned. Extras include eleven brief behind-the-scenes featurettes called "Working the Scene", deleted scenes, profiles of each character, and a gag reel.

CRIMINAL MINDS is an interesting blend of modern and more traditional TV storytelling techniques. It's got all the flash and pizzazz that's expected of today's shows, but much of the melodrama and pathos beneath the veneer are pure old-school. As far as the subject matter goes, however, the show doesn't pull any punches and is often about as shocking and horrific as a show like this can get. With a top-notch cast, fine production values, and intriguing stories, CRIMINAL MINDS: THE FOURTH SEASON is well worth spending some quality time with.
 

CRIMINAL MINDS: THE FOURTH SEASON -- DVD review by porfle

HOTEL: THE FIRST SEASON -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 7/8/09

 

If you watched TV during the 80s, you pretty much knew what to expect when you saw Aaron Spelling's name in the credits. And with shows like "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" having paid off so handsomely for the superstar producer, it's not surprising that he would take the same multi-guest star, multi-subplot formula and shove it into the setting of a bustling five-star hotel. As the taxicabs full of guests start pulling up out front, you almost expect Tattoo to ask, "Who's going to be staying with us next, Boss?"

Loosely based on Arthur Hailey's 1965 novel, "Hotel" premiered in 1983 and ran for 115 episodes. CBS/Paramount's new 6-disc set HOTEL: THE FIRST SEASON gives us the initial 22 episodes including the feature-length pilot, which sets the old formula in motion with all the usual elements: an ostentatious setting, in this case San Francisco's luxurious Saint Gregory Hotel; a regular cast of employees to interact with the guests; and a revolving-door parade of familiar up-and-comers, has-beens, character actors, and TV show drones to populate the various subplots which play themselves out with varying levels of interest. Through it all, the composers hired to slather music over all this schmaltz work the hell out of Henry Mancini's unctuous theme.

Much of the action occurs within the spacious lobby set, which is as delightfully gaudy and tacky as the show itself. James Brolin, as handsome hotel manager Peter McDermott, is the focal point for most of the dramatic events and is responsible for maintaining order and keeping everybody happy. Much better later in life as an older character actor, the young Brolin is rather unremarkable yet capable, and is a likable and comforting presence.

The same can be said of Connie Sellecca as his go-getter assistant Christine Francis. Nathan Cook is Billy Griffin, the hotel's security man who has a special understanding of the criminal mind since he's an ex-con himself. The beautiful Shari Belafonte is receptionist Julie Gillette, and the pleasantly bland Shea Farrell is Mark Danning, the hotel's guest relations director or something. Michael Spound and Heidi Bohay play Dave and Megan Kendall, a bellhop and desk clerk who are married but can never seem to find time in their busy day to spend together. This boring and mostly useless couple supplies the show with some of its more lame attempts at intentional humor, although the dramatic scenes are where the real laughs come from.

One of the highlights of the pilot episode is the casting of Hollywood legend Bette Davis as Mrs. Trent, the widow of the novel's hotel owner Warren Trent. Looking quite frail by this time, Bette still manages to give a strong, skilled performance. Sudden illness, however, would lead to her being replaced by another seasoned actress, Anne Baxter, as Mrs. Trent's half-sister Victoria Cabot. In Davis' absence, Baxter does her best to supply the Old Hollywood gloss that Spelling is aiming for with this series.

Indeed, much of what goes on in the St. Gregory would make fine fodder for the standard "women's pictures" that Hollywood used to churn out back in the 50s and 60s. Standing in for Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman in the premiere episode are Pernell Roberts and Shirley Jones as a recently divorced man and a woman toying with the notion of leaving her unfaithful husband. They meet-cute in the hotel bar and have one of those tender, tentative, and seemingly doomed September romances replete with hokey dialogue, tender gazes, walks in the park, and waves of maudlin music. Ross Hunter would be proud.

As you might guess, plenty of choice dialogue goes on elsewhere in the hotel. After Christine complains of a guest making amorous suggestions, Peter assures her: "Listen, I've had my share of female guests hitting on me...along with the males. Goes with the territory." In another scene, Anne Baxter shares champagne with old flame Stewart Granger along with the following exchange:

"I'd say our memories held up...rather well."
"If not our hearts."
"To recollections?"
"To expectations."

If it sounds as though I didn't enjoy watching "Hotel" very much, let me stress that I find Aaron Spelling's attempts to transfer the splendor of Old Hollywood into the super-cheesy world of 70s and 80s television to be perversely entertaining. And speaking of cheese, you haven't lived until you've seen the episode with Heather Locklear as a career beauty pageant contestant constantly being prodded by her mother, Connie Stevens, who feeds vicariously off her success. During a rehearsal session, we find that Heather's "talent" is--get this--a jolly fitness dance, complete with leg warmers.

But that's not all, because during her dance, we notice that she begins to change into a different person in the wide shots. That's right, in classic FLASHDANCE style, a stand-in does the actual dancing, boogeying her steel buns off while Heather shimmies her shoulders slightly or waves her arms to and fro in the closeups. They don't even try to hide the fact that there's a different person with totally different hair (not to mention totally different face!) in the wide shots. And to top it off, "Hollywood Squares" host Peter Marshall plays a lecherous contest judge with whom Heather must have sex in order to assure his vote. X gets the square! It's just too good to be true.

The lengthy guest roster for the first episode alone is enough to take a pop culture fan's breath away. Check it out: Morgan Fairchild, Lloyd Bochner, Jack Gilford, Shirley Jones, Pernell Roberts, Stephanie Faracy, Lainie Kazan, Bill Macy, Erin Moran, Alejandro Rey, notoriously awful former child star Lee Montgomery, and, last but not least, Mel Tormé. That's just one episode! Morgan Fairchild plays a hooker hired to devirginize a young high school boy and is then gang-raped by some of his classmates, giving her a chance to emote her head off while Brolin tries to persuade her to press charges. During a scene in which they're walking around discussing the matter, it suddenly occurred to me: "Oh my god...it's a montage!" Sure enough, the two are strolling on the beach, taking in Fisherman's Wharf, doing fun stuff, having a gay laugh or two...I almost expected them to start squirting hot dog mustard at each other.

A little "Love Boat"-style comedy relief comes in the form of Lainie Kazan as a wife who so horribly henpecks husband Bill Macy that he runs away and becomes a banjo player in a ragtime band. But as far as laughs are concerned, this can't come close to Erin Moran as an aspiring singer who gets her big break performing in the lounge with Mel Torme'. When he makes the momentous introduction and invites her to join him onstage after his awesome set, with the audience primed with anticipation, what timeless lyrical standard does she launch into? "Delta Dawn." I am not making that up.

The wide-open format even takes us into thriller territory as Connie Sellecca's Christine finds herself being terrorized by Richard Hatch as a crazed stalker with access to her suite. Robert "Mike Brady" Reed pops up as an enraged father whose daughter claims that a hotel-provided babysitter (Leigh McCloskey) has molested her. In the same episode, Dack Rambo and Michelle Phillips fulfill the show's daily minimum romance requirement as strangers who hit it off and have sex--after which she discovers that he's a priest. Oops! A comedy segment that's actually kind of funny has Dick Van Patten as a mild-mannered guest whom bellhop Dave mistakes for a famous hotel critic, thus ensuring that the delighted dweeb receives the royal treatment during every minute of his stay.

The guest line-ups for the rest of the episodes are smaller than in the premiere movie, but seeing who's going show up next is still one of the most fun things about "Hotel." Some of the likely and unlikely faces appearing in this set include Robert Vaughn (in drag, no less!), Shelley Winters, Lew Ayres, Sally Kellerman, Robert Stack, José Ferrer, Howard Duff, Jean Simmons, Elinor Donahue, Carol Lynley, Robert Hooks, Leigh Taylor-Young, Peggy Cass, Craig Stevens, Donald O'Connor, Eleanor Parker, Ron Ely, Hermione Gingold, Tom Smothers, Nanette Fabray, Vera Miles, Arte Johnson, George Lazenby, McLean Stevenson, Kay Lenz, Danielle Brisebois, Christoper Norris, Markie Post, Bradford Dillman, and Melissa Sue Anderson.

The list continues with Army Archerd (playing himself, as usual), Liberace (also as himself, God help us), Jane Wyatt, Lynn Redgrave, Patty McCormack, Paul Burke, Roy Thinnes, Steve Forrest, Hope Lange, Adrienne Barbeau, Margaret O'Brien, Donna Pescow, Vic Tayback, pint-sized femme fatale Charlene Tilton, John McIntyre, Jeanette Nolan, Tori Spelling (big surprise), Scott Baio, Diane Canova, Dina Merrill, Rebecca Balding, Cathy Lee Crosby, Bo Hopkins, WKRP's Jan Smithers, Eva Gabor, Louis Jourdan, and Englebert Humperdinck as singing sensation "Danny Maxwell." As you can see, this set is jam-packed with familiar faces for those of us interested in such things.

The set has no bonus features. Picture quality is generally good although the openings are a bit speckly as are a few other occasional spots. Not enough to bother me any, but nitpickier viewers may be annoyed.

While there are some storylines here and there that manage to generate actual dramatic interest (the one in which Jan Smithers shows up with a little boy and tells Peter that he's the father is an attention-getter), much of the melodrama on this show can't be taken seriously--it's such old-fashioned, over-the-top soap opera, played in such a deadly earnest manner, that it seems to dare you not to either laugh yourself silly or keel over in a stupor. Yet HOTEL: THE FIRST SEASON, with all its chintzy opulence, is so bald-faced straightforward in its intentions that it rates a luxury suite in the "So Bad It's Good" wing of the TV Land Hotel.
 

HOTEL: THE FIRST SEASON -- DVD review by porfle

JAKE AND THE FATMAN: SEASON TWO -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 4/14/09

 

"Jake and the Fatman" was never one of my favorite series--it came along when I was losing interest in sitting around watching "old people" shows with my mom and dad. But now that I'm older myself, I'm beginning to enjoy hunkering down to watch stuff like this on DVD.

With ten episodes on three discs, JAKE AND THE FATMAN: SEASON TWO begins with a two-parter that explains why veteran district attorney J.L. "Fatman" McCabe and his police detective partner Jake Styles have suddenly moved their operation from Los Angeles to Honolulu, Hawaii. It all has to do with the murder of Jake's former-cop friend, who conveniently wills his awesome beachfront pad to Jake. McCabe zips over to the island (which, incidentally, is his old stomping ground) to help Jake track down the evil hitman who did it, and before you know it Honolulu's District Attorney (James Karen), who's itching to retire, ropes McCabe into taking his place! All that's left is for them to transport the Fatman's young assistant Derek (Alan Campbell) and his beloved bulldog Max across the big water, and before you can say "aloha" the team is complete.

The real story for the move (according to IMDb) is that after "Magnum, P.I." went off the air, CBS still had its Hawaii studio sitting around gathering dust. So they revived "Jake and the Fatman" (which had been cancelled after one season) and relocated the characters to the sandy shores of Honolulu. This proved to be just the shot in the arm that the show needed and it continued for a full five seasons, later returning to L.A. when CBS' lease on the Hawaii studio expired.

The show looks like the usual network drama from its era, with production values that range from good to a bit iffy, but the tropical location is a perfect backdrop for the casual, laidback atmosphere of the series. In fact, once you get used to the leisurely pace and start liking these characters, it's a fun "hang-out" show in which the plots aren't all that important. Even so, the stories are involving enough, and occasionally offer some strong dramatic moments along with the usual hokum. There are times, in fact, when the acting and writing come together in such a way that you may be a bit taken aback by how good a scene is--and this happens often enough to keep the show consistently interesting.

I was especially surprised at how much I liked Joe Penny as Jake. What a good actor he is here--handling the cool action stuff competently (without the usual martial arts or clever quips), while still coming across as a regular guy. A skilled actor, Penny's low-key approach to the role works very well, especially in contrast to his more flamboyant co-star. J.L. "Fatman" McCabe is a classic William Conrad character in the tradition of "Cannon." Conrad's so good I could watch him in anything, and this show gives him a chance to do what he does best, which is to be himself. As his assistant Derek, Alan Campbell adds a little comedy relief due to his love-hate relationship with McCabe but remains a believable character who is helpful in their investigations.

The guest stars range from great to not-so-good, with few of the familiar character actors who so often grace the older classic TV shows. The initial two-parter features old pro James Karen as the outgoing D.A. and Amy Steel of FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 in a cringe-inducingly bad performance. Some of the few recognizable actors in later episodes include Khigh Dhiegh (Wo Fat of "Hawaii Five-O"), Ben Piazza, Alex Cord, Lenore Kasdorf, Ramon Bieri, Frederick Coffin (LONESOME DOVE's Big Swede), and Charlie Brill.

The "I'll Never Smile Again" episode, which is somewhat reminiscent of DEATH WISH, contains two truly remarkable performances, one from David Schramm as a mugging victim who may not be all that innocent, and the other from a young Brigid Conley Walsh (who has since had quite a prolific television career) as his troubled daughter. Both are outstanding and help make this one of the high points of the collection. Another notable episode is "Why Can't You Behave?" (you may have noticed that all the titles are from old blues songs) in which McCabe is forced to choose between protecting his crooked, weaselly son Daniel (Tom Isbell) and upholding the law. The episode also features a nice cameo from bluesman Clarence Clemons.

Michele Scarabelli and Patricia Sill are very good as cops' wives whose husbands are cut down in the line of duty in "They Can't Take That Away From Me." The final episode in the set, "Snowfall", is an exciting yarn about cocaine and counterfeit money which contains a couple of blazing shoot-outs and features a young Michael Madsen.

The DVD set contains no extras. Production values vary, so the image quality isn't always that sharp. Old pros such as Bernard L. Kowalski, Jackie Cooper, and Don Medford are on hand to direct. The musical score is often nicely jazz-tinged, and while I wasn't very impressed the first time I heard Dick DeBenedictis' main theme, it really started to grow on me after a few listens.

I wasn't expecting much from this set, but JAKE AND THE FATMAN: SEASON TWO turned out to be quite a lot of fun to watch. William Conrad at his best, a dynamic Joe Penny, and those gorgeous Hawaiian locations add up to several hours worth of solid entertainment.

 

 

JAKE AND THE FATMAN: SEASON TWO -- DVD review by porfle

CANNON: SEASON 2, VOLUME ONE -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 5/29/09

 

If you're old enough to remember when "Cannon" first hit the airwaves, you'll know that Cannon's big schtick was that he was fat. That's right--in a world of bald detectives, old detectives, nerdy detectives, Hawaiian detectives, eccentric millionaire detectives, and even the occasional sexy detectives, Cannon was The Fat Detective. In fact, Sonny and Cher even did a spoof of the show once called "Detective Fat."

William Conrad's deep, booming voice had gained him fame on the radio as Marshall Matt Dillon in "Gunsmoke", but when the show migrated to television, Conrad was deemed--you guessed it--too fat to play the character. So in 1971, CBS finally made it up to Conrad by concocting a character specifically tailored for him. One whose most distinctive characteristic was the fact that he was--drumroll, please--fat. ("Jake and the Fatman", which just came right out and said it right there in the title, would come later.)

But was the show itself "phat"? This new 3-disc DVD set, CANNON: SEASON TWO, VOLUME ONE, provides ample evidence that it was indeed pretty good. Not great, mind you--the production values are a little iffy at times, and the overall look of the show is somewhat low-rent--but definitely not without its charms. The main one of these, of course, being the big guy himself.

William Conrad was an easygoing, engaging screen presence who could elevate a pedestrian script and make the most of whatever character moments he was given. His "Frank Cannon" is a tough but affable ex-cop who "tends toward the gut" (as John Wayne put it in THE COWBOYS) but doesn't let that stop him from being an action-oriented kind of guy. When the need arises, Cannon uses that extra weight to push bad guys around and can level a mean karate chop with those ham hands of his. He's handy with a gun, too, and rest assured there's lots of gunplay in this series. As a card-carrying private dick, he can also spout some of that hardboiled dialgue when needed, as in one scene in which a blue-haired Patrick O'Neal finds him difficult to bribe:

"What is it with you? Why are you so hard to do business with?"
"Maybe because we don't deal in the same coin."

Another element in the show's excitement factor is Cannon's beautiful Lincoln Continental Mark IV, which I like to call "the Fatmobile." Whenever a fleeing suspect is speeding away, Cannon hops into this awesome land-yacht and participates in that holiest of 70s cop-show cliches, the car chase. CANNON has a car chase in just about every other episode, because they can always be counted upon to liven up even the blandest script. One episode has three carloads of baddies chasing Cannon through the Los Angeles River and features some satisfying fender-bending action along the way. In another, we even see him chasing a backhoe in a pickup truck down a dirt road. This guy'll chase anything.

Plotwise, we find the standard procession of guest characters seeking Cannon's help for various reasons. Some are wrongly accused of murder, while others have more unusual needs for his services. The scripts are mostly pretty involving although light on any kind of real, hard-hitting drama. This was one of my dad's favorite shows, and the networks' goal back then was to offer this kind of familiar, easy-to-take programming to older viewers like him who just wanted to kick back with some boob-tube after work and didn't care for all the preachy "relevant" stuff currently being aimed at the young folks. Heck, I can relate to that.

The Quinn-tessential 70s-era Quinn Martin production, CANNON fulfills that requirement very well with the kind of scripts that could've been passed around amongst any number of TV flatfoots with only a few details changed (and probably were). What makes the show unique is the main character himself. William Conrad is supremely relaxed and confident in the role, and seems to enjoy playing it. (If you ever get to see some of the show's bloopers, they'll attest to his funny, lighthearted attitude during filming.) He likes interacting with his guest stars, whether tickling the ivories in a bar for Sheree North or sparring with Marj Dusay in the kitchen over whether or not to add milk to his omelet recipe. A gourmet with discerning tastes, Cannon is often seen whipping up fine cuisine or dining out with the likes of Jessica Walter.

In one episode, he spends so much time at the police station doggedly pouring over mug shots in search of a suspect that he actually has to skip a few meals. When at last he pinpoints the right picture, Cannon frantically grabs the phone away from a detective and delivers an urgent directive: "I need the numbers of all the delicatessens in the area that deliver!"

One of the show's best qualities is that it doesn't always take place in a grungy urban setting or some overused backlot. Cannon may be a variation of the standard gumshoe character, but he likes to get out and enjoy the wide-open spaces once in a while. In "The Predators" (with guest stars Phyllis Thaxter and fanboy heartthrob Pamela Franklin), we're treated to some breathtaking northern California settings. "Stakeout" finds Cannon soaring through the skies in a glider with Belinda Montgomery, while "Sky Above, Death Below" allows him to shoot a few bad guys on a scenic mountaintop. This goes a long way toward making up for the sometimes low-budget look of the show.

Other guest stars of interest include Michael Tolan, Severn Darden, Leslie Charleson, Richard Hatch, Ken Lynch, Lloyd Bochner, Scott Hylands, Jesse Vint, Robert Webber, Mike Farrell, Frank Maxwell, 50s genre icon Kenneth Tobey, Dana Elcar, Charles Cyphers, James A. Watson, Sandy Kenyon, Tracy Reed, George Maharis, Stefanie Powers, Jeanne Bates, Kathleen Freeman, Clue Gulager, Julie Adams, H.M. Wynant, Lois Nettleton, Bert Freed, William Daniels, Linden Chiles, Alex Rocco, Carl Betz, Andrew Duggan, Olan Soule, Katherine Justice, and even former Monkee, Mickey Dolenz.

John Parker's familiar "Cannon" theme leads us into the first twelve episodes of the second season in this set. The pictorial quality is good considering that the show never looked all that great to begin with. The sole bonus feature is an option to view episodes with the original pre-titles teasers, which are simply brief montages of upcoming scenes. If I remember correctly, these were originally a regular part of the show.

CANNON: SEASON TWO, VOLUME ONE isn't quite on par with the best that classic television has to offer, but it's still an above-average and fun example of the 70s detective show. Just the thing for when you feel like gorging on some tasty junk food for the brain.

CANNON: SEASON 2, VOLUME ONE -- DVD review by porfle

PETTICOAT JUNCTION: THE OFFICIAL SECOND SEASON -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 6/28/09

 

Pretty much all I remember about "Petticoat Junction" from my younger days is that, of the two interrelated rural sitcoms taking place in the tiny hick town of Hooterville, "Green Acres" was the hilarious, surreal, wildly inventive one. "Petticoat Junction", the story of widow Kate Bradley, her three beautiful daughters, and her lazy-but-lovable Uncle Joe, who ran the rustic Shady Rest hotel, was low-key, homespun stuff for the sedate older crowd who didn't mind heapin' helpin's of corn along with their entertainment.

With CBS/Paramount's 5-disc, 36-episode DVD set PETTICOAT JUNCTION: THE OFFICIAL SECOND SEASON, I'm finding out that I don't mind it all that much myself. Talk about laidback--watching this show is almost like actually taking a vacation at the Shady Rest. Where "Green Acres" is frenetic and cartoonlike, this show is about as relaxing and down-to-earth as a barefoot stroll to the old fishin' hole. When the opening titles roll, the urban jungle might as well be on Mars as the Cannonball, an antique train that placidly shuttles Hooterville's scattered inhabitants to and fro, pulls up to the water tank where Kate's daughters Billie Jo, Bobbi Jo, and Betty Jo are taking a swim with their petticoats hanging over the side as Curt Massey's familiar theme song sets the mood.

One of the advantages of a show like this is that its main stars are great comic actors who play this stuff with the skill and timing of seasoned pros. Bea Benederet preceeded June Foray as the go-to female voice artist in the early Warner Brothers cartoons and later supplied the voice of Betty Rubble in "The Flintstones", in addition to playing George Burns and Gracie Allen's next-door neighbor Blanche on radio and television. "The Beverly Hillbillies" creator Paul Henning cast her as Jed Clampett's cousin Pearl Bodine in that show's early seasons, where her comic talents were sharper than ever. So it was only natural that when Henning created "Petticoat Junction" he would envision Bea Benederet in the lead role of Kate Bradley.

Kate's lazy Uncle Joe is played by screen veteran Edgar Buchanan (SHANE, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY), who is a pleasure to watch as his character constantly schemes to avoid work and get rich quick. He claims to be an expert on everything, such as the time he boasts to a visiting commercial director of the acclaim he once received for his "eight milligram" film of a sackrace at the local picnic. In another episode, he buys a flea-bitten buffalo (actually a bull in a buffalo suit) and convinces an English lord that the Shady Rest is a hunting lodge where he can shoot all the buffalos he wants for the right price. Then he arranges for the girls to hustle the buffalo to different stops along the Cannonball's line so that the Englishman (whose gun is loaded with blanks) will think he's bagging his limit. When he starts to smell a rat, he exclaims, "This situation demands an explanation!", to which the ever-crafty Uncle Joe responds, "It sure does. Let's hear it!"

Various supporting characters common to both shows appear regularly, although they're not quite as bizarre here as they are on "Green Acres." They include Frank Cady's genial general store owner Sam Drucker and Hank Patterson as pig farmer Fred Ziffel, who dotes on his beloved pig Arnold. Playing the Bradley girls are original "Billie Jo" and "Bobbie Jo" Jeannine Riley and Pat Woodell (Riley would later be replaced by Gunilla Hutton and Meredith MacRae, while Lori Saunders would soon take Pat Woodell's place) and Paul Henning's daughter Linda Kaye Henning as tomboy Betty Jo. Despite their more limited comedic skills, they're a major asset to the show on a visual level, especially the stunning Woodell. (For some reason, she's absent from certain episodes and is replaced by an obvious stand-in, as in "Smoke Eaters.")

Another great film veteran, the ubiquitous Charles Lane, plays villainous Homer Bedloe, a railroad executive whose main goal in life is to shut down the Cannonball and put Kate out of business. ("I wouldn't trust him within a ten-foot pole," Uncle Joe remarks.) Rufe Davis is the tiny train's delightfully dimwitted conductor, Floyd Smoot, while the slightly-less-stupid engineer, Charley Pratt, is played by none other than the great B-western sidekick, Smiley Burnette. Last but not least, the amazing canine performer Higgins, who would go on to become the immortal BENJI, is introduced in the first episode of the set, "Betty Jo's Dog", a variation on the classic "But it just followed me home!" story. As Uncle Joe puts it in a later episode, "he incinerated himself into our affections."

At times the show skirts the boundaries of "Green Acres"-style surrealism. "A Matter of Communication" has Uncle Joe trying to create his own telephone company using the farmers' barbed wire fences as phone wires, which results in some of the biggest laughs of the season. "The Curse of Chester W. Farnsworth" is a ghost story about a former guest (Doodles Weaver) whose spirit can't rest until he's replaced all the towels he stole from various hotels during his life.

In "Bedloe's Nightmare", Kate Bradley's nemesis actually ends up tied to the front of the speeding Cannonball and terrorized until he agrees to drop his latest dastardly scheme. "For the Birds", which features the age-old sitcom device of a bird unexpectedly building its nest in an inconvenient place (in this case, the Cannonball's smokestack), zips through a lot of exposition in amusing style when the episode suddenly turns into a silent movie for a few minutes, complete with speeded-up film, melodramatic acting, and intertitles.

Marc Lawrence and former Ted Healy replacement-stooge Mousie Garner guest star in "The Hooterville Crime Wave" as escaped killers who take the Bradleys hostage. Other notable guests during this season include Bert Freed, Sig Ruman, Alan Mowbray, Grady Sutton, Dick Wessell, Stanley Adams, Lurene Tuttle, Parley Baer, Percy Helton, Willis Bouchey (THE HORSE SOLDIERS), Milt Frome, Iris Adrian, George "George Jetson" O'Hanlon, and Don Megowan. Semi-regulars include Frank Ferguson (ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN) as Doc Stuart, Virginia Sale as Kate's hatchet-faced rival Selma Plout, and the always creepy William O'Connell as Homer Bedloe's slimy toady, Evans.

These episodes are in gorgeous black-and-white and look just about pristine. The photography is exquisite, and is quite a stark contrast to the garish color episodes that would begin immediately after this season. As a bonus, each episode is introduced by original stars Linda Kaye Henning ("Betty Jo") and Pat Woodell ("Bobbie Jo") as they appear today. The two also take part in a 38-minute interview session in which they reminisce about the making of the show. A brief photo montage follows.

The opening lyric to the show's theme song goes: "Forget about your cares, it is time to relax at the junction." Watching PETTICOAT JUNCTION: THE OFFICIAL SECOND SEASON is like sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of the Shady Rest, listening for the Cannonball's whistle coming around the bend. Not really all that exciting, but a very nice way to pass the time.
 

PETTICOAT JUNCTION: THE OFFICIAL SECOND SEASON -- DVD review by porfle

NCIS: THE SIXTH SEASON -- DVD review by porfle

Originally posted on 8/14/09

 

 

Thanks to the magic of DVD, I've been discovering some pretty awesome TV shows lately that I probably never would've run across otherwise. For one thing, I can no longer handle commercial breaks, especially since they're longer and more frequent than ever before. Also, I hate watching one episode a week--if I like a show, I want to be able to indulge myself in it until the wheels fall off. That's how it was with NCIS: THE SIXTH SEASON, a 6-disc, 25-episode set that I went through faster than Rosie O'Donnell with a box of Ring Dings.

My first impression of this series about a team of agents for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was that it was going to be a dour, melodramatic show, but it's anything but. The stories rarely stop dead in their tracks to include "comedy relief" scenes as the wit and humor are usually well integrated with the serious stuff. Even though the subject matter is always grim, with an abundance of dead bodies in various states of graphic injury or decay, the interplay among the lead characters is almost non-stop lighthearted fun--sometimes even laugh-out-loud funny. Yet the stories still manage to maintain an aura of gravitas and believability that can veer headlong into raw, dead-serious drama at any moment.

Mark Harmon has probably his best role ever as Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, team leader and father figure for the family-like team of agents. He's a tough, no-nonsense, seemingly infallible agent who inspires utmost respect and even awe in his co-workers but, despite his gruff exterior, is always supportive of them. An ex-Marine, his history includes all sorts of shadowy Black Ops-type stuff and other mysterious events that sometimes bob to the surface during a case.

In the episode "Heartland", circumstances lead the team to Gibbs' hometown where they're delighted to actually find out details of his past including getting to meet his semi-estranged father, Jack (Ralph Waite). Stories like this play up Gibbs' human side, as does "Deliverance", an inner-city gang drama in which we find that he may be the father of a teenaged gangbanger who's stealing military assault weapons to sell on the street.

Character interaction is a major element of what makes NCIS tick. Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) is prom-king handsome but acts like a mischievous kid with a narcissistic streak. He loves movies, women, sucking up to his superiors, and himself. DiNozzo also enjoys picking on semi-dorky computer genius Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) and pointing out his geekier qualities at every opportunity.

Both men harbor unrequited romantic fantasies for their strikingly beautiful partner, Officer Ziva David (the strikingly beautiful Cote de Pablo), an Israeli whose war-ravaged upbringing has made her capable of taking care of herself in rough situations. DiNozzo is on hand to help Ziva learn to lighten up and do goofy stuff, like competing in an online air-guitar contest. A funny running gag is her ongoing effort to learn American colloquialisms (she refers to a turf war as a "Smurf war.")

The delightfully cute forensic scientist Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) is a brilliant but extremely eccentric Goth chick who loves her work and can solve any problem as long as she's kept adequately supplied with super-sized containers of "Caf-Pow!" Any visit to Abby's lab is a treat as she giddily spouts more technobabble than half a season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" while rattling off factoids about sexually-active molds or the difference between Satanic pentagrams and the hubcaps on a Buick Skylark. Rounding out the cast is the venerable David McCallum ("The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", THE GREAT ESCAPE) as Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard, the urbane and endlessly erudite medical examiner who's always up to his elbows in cadavers.

Season six gets off to a great start with a mini-story arc about the dispersal of Gibbs' regular team and their replacement with relative novices. At first, this decision seems unnecessarily arbitrary on the part of by-the-book NCIS Director Leon Vance (an intensely effective Rocky Carroll), but it's eventually revealed that Vance suspects one of the three new agents of treason and is hoping that Gibbs will be able to sort out the culprit. Liza Lapira as Special Agent Michelle Lee and Jonathan LaPaglia as Special Agent Brent Langer are very good in this suspenseful storyline which covers several episodes before coming to a nail-biting surprise conclusion.

Computer whiz McGee gets out of the office on a solo assignment for a change in "Caged", only to find himself a hostage during a riot in a women's prison. In "Bounce", an old case in which DiNozzo put an innocent man behind bars for three years comes back to haunt him when the people involved start turning up dead. Since it's his case, Gibbs temporarily puts DiNozzo in charge of the team, leading to all sorts of seriocomic complications.

David McCallum's "Ducky" gets his own episode with "Broken Bird", a story of torture and guilt that starts out promisingly but turns a little too turgid for my tastes. "Knockout", a story that spotlights Rocky Carroll as Director Vance, gets similarly bogged down in melodrama as he returns to his hometown of Chicago on an unauthorized mission involving the death of a childhood boxing hero.

These lapses are rare, however, and the four episodes on disc six begin another story arc which contains some of the most riveting television I've ever seen. It involves a rogue Mossad agent in the U.S. and Ziva's possible romantic connection to him, which may have compromised her loyalty to NCIS. The paranoia is knee-deep and the twists and turns will keep you on the edge of your seat right up until the shocking season finale cliffhanger (I hate those). Rocky Carroll, Michael Weatherly, and especially Cote de Pablo are outstanding in these episodes, with the Ziva character becoming the focal point for a maelstrom of intrigue.

Almost insanely entertaining at times, most of the plots move so fast you practically need to be strapped in. Very rarely does an episode slow down long enough to give the viewer a chance to even think about getting restless or bored. And visually, this series has style to burn with cinematography that is consistently beautiful.

The DVD set consists of six discs in three slimline cases with a cardboard cover. The 16 x 9 image and 5.1 Dolby Digital sound are fine. Closed captioning for the hearing impaired is available. Each disc contains its own bonus feature. These are:

Disc one: Brian Dietzen, who plays Dr. Mallard's assistant Jimmy Palmer, takes us on a fascinating tour of the special effects shop where the show's realistic dead bodies are made in the featurette "Bodies of Work."

Disc two: Pauley Perrette performs an acoustic version of her song "Fear", which is featured in one of the show's episodes.

Disc three: "Starting With a Bang" covers the making of the season's opening story arc.

Disc four: David McCallum and director James Whitmore Jr. do a commentary track for "Broken Bird", while Michael Weatherly supplies a gut-busting stream-of-consciousness narration of his big episode, "Bounce", in which we learn that he was four months' pregnant during filming.

Disc five: Featurette "Horsin' Around" is a look at the filming of episode "South by Southwest" on location around the famous Vasquez Rocks in California. There's also a lighthearted commentary by Pauley Perrette and Sean Murray for the Abby episode entitled "Toxic."

Disc six: "Season Six: Cruisin' Along" and "Six Degrees of Conversation" examine all the elements that make the sixth season so special. The latter features the entire cast in an interview setting.

NCIS: THE SIXTH SEASON is a stellar collection of episodes from a series that seems to be hitting its stride with no signs of slowing down or running out of steam. With an excellent cast, superb writing, and top-notch production values, it's pure, unadulterated escapism of the highest order.

 

NCIS: THE SIXTH SEASON -- DVD review by porfle

CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION: THE NINTH SEASON -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 8/25/09

 

The grandaddy of all those forensic detective shows with all the dead bodies and blood and guts and brains and other gooey stuff, all being searched and sifted and nitpicked for clues in homicides and other violent deaths, is...QUINCY? Okay, that groundbreaking Jack Klugman classic was old school forensic fun, but these days the big cheese in the cops 'n' corpses sweepstakes is CSI. And if CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION: THE NINTH SEASON is any indication, the show seems to be holding up rather well in its old age.

This 6-disc, 24-episode DVD set is non-stop entertainment. Set in Las Vegas, the show follows the exploits of a crack CSI team consisting of both field agents and lab rats, combining their talents to solve a wide variety of mysterious deaths. As always, it's fascinating to see how even the smallest and most seemingly insignificant clues, whether found at the scene of a crime or during an autopsy of the victim, can lead to breaking a case. And when the painstaking lab work yields answers, the field agents go into action.

As most CSI fans know, this is the season in which longtime star William Petersen finally ends his run as beloved chief consultant and father figure Gil Grissom. Petersen, long one of my favorite actors thanks to films such as MANHUNTER and TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A., hangs around for the first half of the season as his character makes the agonizing decision to quit the dead body business and resume his romance with former team member Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox). Grissom's final episode is a tad maudlin at times but these characters have such a long and rich history together that it's still pretty moving.

His departure sets the stage for a new big-name addition to the cast--Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Ray Langston. Fishburne has evolved to the point where he can now play a distinguished, mild-mannered older gentleman with the same authority as Morpheus in THE MATRIX or that skinny city kid in APOCALYPSE NOW. His Dr. Langston joins the team with an eager intellectual fascination coupled with an endearing lack of experience and finesse, and Fishburne makes him an interesting and likable character.

With the emotional loss of Warrick (Gary Dourdan) last season, the first episode concludes his story as the team makes it a priority to track down his killer. His replacement is yet another new castmember, Lauren Lee Smith as the independent and somewhat abrasive Riley Adams. Her character is supposed to shake things up a bit, but it doesn't take long for Riley to settle in and get with the program. Maybe next season she'll be more disruptive--there are signs of a growing procedural conflict with Langston.

Marg Helgenberger's Catherine Willows moves easily into the positon of team leader and makes it her own. George Eads, a favorite of mine ever since he played "Shorty" in the TV remake of MONTE WALSH, is very good as solid, dependable field agent Nick Stokes. Lab rats Hodges (Wallace Langham), Simms (the beautiful Liz Vassey), and Johnson (Archie Kao) provide most of the show's comic interplay while coroner Dr. Robbins (Robert David Hall, STARSHIP TROOPERS) is the resident curmudgeon. Paul Guilfoyle (L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, AIR FORCE ONE) is fine as veteran cop Captain Jim Brass.

The look of the show is a major factor in its appeal. Whereas you'd probably expect real-life CSI investigators to process their data in brightly-lit and nondescript offices and labs, here we find a dark, stylized environment so sleek and modern it could almost pass for a dance club, or maybe even the science deck of a starship. Black and blue (appropriately) dominate, highlighted with glowing warm and cool colors.

An interesting visual element is the way the camera zooms in and gives us close-up views of whatever evidence is being discussed. Often we find ourselves on microscopic tours through a victim's body, or sharing a plastic bag with a discarded cadaver to observe its time-lapse decomposition. With all the egghead techno-blab flying fast and furious, these visual aids are a big help in understanding what the hell the characters are talking about.

The tightly-written scripts are consistently compelling. Gleanne Hedley guest stars in "The Happy Place" as a hypnotist using her abilities for dark purposes. In "Art Imitates Life", Jeffrey Tambor gives one of his wonderfully oddball performances as an eccentric artist who may be involved with a series of bizarre "murder-as-art" crimes. Other episodes deal with such topics as S&M, reality talent programs, murder by toothpaste, skydiving sabotage, religious cults, and rabies.

In "Turn, Turn, Turn", George Eads gets his own episode as Stokes handles numerous cases occuring at the same seedy motel over the course of a year, all involving a troubled young girl (Taylor Swift). "Mascara", a weird tale of Mexican wrestlers and a series of murders involving a particular deadly chokehold, is the 200th episode and is directed by William Friedkin (THE EXORCIST, THE FRENCH CONNECTION), who worked with William Petersen in TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.

The two episodes which introduce Dr. Langston, "19 Down..." and "One to Go", are noteworthy as we get to see Fishburne and Petersen working together to solve Grissom's final case. It involves an imprisoned serial killer (Bill Irwin) who is somehow relaying instructions for murder to an admiring copycat killer on the outside. Matt O'Leary of FRAILTY also appears as a suspect and turns up again in a later episode.

One of the weirdest episodes, "A Space Oddity", is reminiscent of GALAXY QUEST as it focuses on the obsessive fans of a fictitious TREK-like series called "Astro Quest." Hodges and Simms run into each other at a sci-fi convention and discover a common nerd-dom that the lovesick Hodges hopes will blossom into love. The fact that a murder takes place at the convention takes a back seat to his fevered fantasies in which he's the dashing starship captain and Simms is either the beautiful yeoman, the naive alien girl who doesn't know about love (shades of Angelique Pettyjohn in "The Gamesters of Triskelion"), or the exotic belly-dancing animal woman who's right out of "The Cage." The reproductions of various "Star Trek" episodes are fun (though much cheesier than the actual show), and Liz Vassey is gorgeous enough in her different costumes to burn out any space geek's dilythium crystals.

The DVD set is very attractively packaged with the same dark, sleek look of the show. There are six discs with four episodes per disc. 16.9 image and 5.1 Dolby Digital are very good. English and Spanish stereo are also available. Special features include some brief deleted scenes for some episodes, and cast and crew commentaries for "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "A Space Oddity." There are also four featurettes: "Crime Scene Initiation", "Rats in Space", "From Zero to 200 in Nine Seasons", and "Goodbye Grissom." Dr. Langston's first case, "The Grave Shift", is accompanied by a text trivia option.

Not quite as flashy or fast-moving as some of the shows that have bobbed up in its wake, CSI is a rock-solid, effortlessly absorbing whodunnit whose intriguing mysteries and imaginative plot twists will keep you guessing until the final minutes. The only downside to watching this set is that I've had that damn catchy theme song, "Who Are You?" by The Who, stuck in my head for a week and it's driving me nuts.

CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION: THE NINTH SEASON -- DVD review by porfle