A Touch Of Frost – Season Two & Three (two sets)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+/B-     Extras: D     Episodes/Telefilms: B

 

 

When we last looked at Inspector Jack Frost in the first season of A Touch Of Frost (elsewhere on this site), we could see a certain muddiness the show initially ran into.  With the show returning after initial commercial success, it turns out it began to find its way.  In this review, we look at two larger sets of the series, sold separately as Season Two and Season Three.  They both offer four films each, but are spread on three DVDs each this time around. 

 

Season Two offers the following shows:

 

A Minority Of One takes the first step forward as Frost is paired with a black detective who some think got a British equivalent of Affirmative Action, which is twisted by young black men being accused of robbery and maybe murder.  Frost has an informant helping him, but the danger is more compounded than he expected.

 

Widows & Orphans sees robberies and break-ins turn to murder against elderly women, which Frost ignores until the first body turns up.  Now, he will play catch-up, but it may be too late for the next victims.

 

Nothing To Hide has Frost and a demoted new partner taking on a drug overdose case, but it may just be a murder made to look like that.  The attitude against junkies and addicts only hinders things and Frost has to make certain he concentrates on the facts, or the potential killer(s) will get away.

 

Stranger In The House has Frost taking on what looks to be a potential serial rapist, but his baiting ploy is complicated by a family relation to one of the victims.  That turns out to be only the beginning of the obstacles in stopping this nightmare.

 

Season Three offers:

 

Appropriate Adults involves whether a mentally handicapped young man with Down’s Syndrome committed a sexual murder or not.  Everyone but Frost thinks he did it.  This is handled very well.

 

Quarry has an animal activist turn up dead for protesting that famed British institution, the fox hunt.  Was this an eco-terrorist who got what he could have expected for being daring, or is something more sinister and less obvious going on?

 

Dead Male One is the ground zero point for a body that turns up in the river, which leads to the game of soccer and a sick twist on identity theft.  It is a case of revenge, or should Frost follow the money?

 

No Refuge gives us a case with multiple break-ins of the same place, but why?  Frost wants that question answered more so after someone turns up dead, then things get uglier.

 

What essentially happened here was that the writers and producers decided to become more politically conscious and found a less muddled way to walk the tightrope between police procedural and Mystery elements.  David Jason just gets better and better in the role, carrying the show very well, even in its rough spots.  The character is slowly developed throughout and that adds to the realism.  Producer Don Leaver and crew should be thrilled with what they pulled off and certain Britishisms makes for extra items for U.S. viewers to sort out.  Now we can see why it’s a hit!

 

The full frame 1.33 x 1 image continues to be above average with these next two seasons, offering muted colors and finer details on the soft side throughout.  It is again likely this was shot in the PAL analog videotape format and translated to film.  Since PAL has almost the same frame rate as sound films speed (24 frames per second/fps) and American NTSC analog videotape (at 30 fps) does not), this is common practice on British TV.  The shows look a bit better as they go on.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Season Two has no surround information to speak of, but is not bad for its time and even improves slightly as it goes along.  Season Three upgraded to Pro Logic surrounds and they are not bad.  There are no extras in either box, however.

 

I also very much like the cases these new sets come in.  They are molded like the best double cases, yet have the discs on flipping holders.  Unlike the single DVD that becomes the second in cases that usually hold only a single disc, these are transparent and hold a disc on each side in circles that overlap each other, like some kind of science graph.  I really got a kick out of these and hope we see this kind of packaging more often.  It is as welcome as the upswing in the actual shows, giving new reasons to consider recommending A Touch Of Frost.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo