Happy Endings The Complete Second Season (2011 2012/Sony DVD Set)/Holy Roller (2009/Image DVD)/Modern
Family The Complete Third Season (2011 2012/Fox Blu-ray set)/Note To Self (2012/Image DVD)/Touched By An Angel The Sixth Season
(1999 2000/CBS DVD)
Picture: B-
(DVDs: C) Sound: C+ (Angel: C) Extras: C-/D/C/C-/D Main Programs: C-/D/C/C-/D
How did
the definition of family become so phony in our narrative discourse? It used to be something that was taken
seriously to a great extent and included a sense of respect that was not
co-dependent on a forced religious angle and/or a celebration of dysfunction as
if that were a good or fun thing. This
all struck me as I watched the following releases.
Surviving
its debut season, Happy Endings The
Complete Second Season is about a group of unrelated characters, but yet
the scripts and interaction of the characters resemble too much the bad TV
family comedies inspired by the overrated Cosby
Show, the goofy surrogate family of Friends
and deconstruction that made Arrested
Development work as well as it did and that this show and Modern Family, which we are also
looking at in its The Complete Third
Season release, possible.
Unfortunately,
everyone is still talking at each other here, saying things people usually do
not say or say it the way they talk. Modern Family has this issue to, but it
can more deconstruct directly the tired 1980s family series Family Guy beat them to the punch over
years ago, so ahead of its time that it was cancelled then revived. Yet, here they are surviving, meaning the
sitcom is more played out than ever and has limited places to go since 1980s
rollback politics do not allow for something mature and smart like All In The Family, despite the fact
that South Park proves something
like that is still viable.
The
result are shows for fans only, but I would like to see how long theyll stick
around. Endings has 21 trying half-hours over 3 DVDs, while Modern (I cannot believe it is so
successful) has 24 half hours over three Blu-rays. As for extras, both have Deleted Scenes (Family also has Alternate Scenes) and
Outtakes/Gag Reel, but Family adds seven featurettes. They did nothing for me either.
So how
about the neo-religious (Neo-Conservative?) angle? On the one hand, you get lightweight dramas
with too much comedy like Holy Roller,
which wants to play straight comedies about preachers, while Note To Self wants to get the Tyler
Perry market with a serviceable boy-meets-girl story that is as formulaic as
anything One Village has sent us. Are they tired, predictable, lame and
bad? Yes, but they have their little
audiences and Note even has Brian McKnight and Clifton Powell on board. It is just too bad there is not much of
anything new here and they both can be condescending.
However,
the condescending champion is Touched By
An Angel The Sixth Season which actually seems even angrier, smugger and
more condescending than its last awful season.
Again, you can only see this when you watch the season in order, but Roma
Downey has less personality than a bottle of Downy fabric softener and Della
Reese competes in all 26 hour-long shows to see if she can outdo her co-stars
obnoxiousness. To say this one is for
fans only is an understatement, but here it is on DVD.
Extras on
Holy and Self include a behind the scenes featurette each, with Holy adding a trailer, text discussion
guide, interview and director audio commentary track, while Self adds Bloopers, Deleted Scenes,
Music Video and Photo Gallery. Angel has
no extras.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 AVC @ 22 MBPS digital High Definition image transfer on Family is the playback champion as
expected since it is the only Blu-ray set here, but the anamorphically enhanced
1.78 X 1 image on Holy, Self and Happy are much softer than new HD shoots should be, while the 1.33
X 1 on Touched is softer than not
because the filmed show was finished on professional analog NTSC videotape,
holding back its playback quality.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is on Family should be the sonic playback winner, but the sound mix is
far too much towards the front speakers and dialogue too much in the center
channel, so the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Holy
and Happy, plus lossy Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo on Self can more than
compete. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo on Angel is down a generation
and is the weakest of the lot.
- Nicholas Sheffo
