Army Wives: The Complete Seventh Season (2012 – 2013/Disney/ABC DVD Set)/The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Sixth
Season (2012 – 2013 /Warner Bros. Blu-ray w/DVD)/Castle: The Complete Fifth Season (2012 – 2013/Disney/ABC DVD Set)/Doctor Who: The Ice Warriors
(1967/Story No. 39) + The Visitation
(1982/Story No. 120/BBC DVDs)/Nashville:
The Complete First Season (2012 – 2013/Disney/ABC DVD Set)/The League: The Complete Season Four (2012
– 2013/Fox DVD Set)/The Transporter: The
Complete First Season (2012/Umbrella Import Region B/50i Blu-ray Set)
Picture:
C/B & C+/C+/C/C/C+/C+/B- Sound:
C+/B- & C+/C+/C/C+/C+/C+/C-
Extras: C-/B/C/C+/C/C-/C/C-
Episodes: C-/B/C/C+/C/C-/C+/C-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Transporter TV Series Blu-ray may be
marked as a Region B disc and is a 1080/50i HD transfer, so you must have a
Blu-ray player and HDTV (non-U.S. models for the most part) that can handle
that format before ordering an it can be ordered from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment at the website address provided at the end of the review.
Here is a
new batch of TV series arriving on home video to go with new seasons of their
respective shows, including a few you might have missed or not heard of...
Army Wives: The Complete Seventh
Season (2012 –
2013) has somehow made it this far despite not being the biggest drama on
TV. Our reaction to the early seasons
was mixed as the links to these early season will show:
One
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7329/Army+Wives+%E2%80%93+The+Complete+First
Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8646/Army+Wives+%E2%80%93+The+Complete+Second
Three
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9626/Army+Wives+%E2%80%93+The+Complete+Third
I was
especially unhappy with it and am very surprised it has lasted this long, but
it found enough of a loyal audience to go on and since I last saw it a few
years ago, some formidable character development finally occurred. We get all 13 episodes over 3 DVDs and
keeping the seasons short for a show this flat is probably for the best. Either way, anyone who is interested in the
show should start with the debut season, or they will be more lost than usual.
Extras
include Bloopers and Deleted Scenes.
We just
looked at the terrific The Big Bang
Theory: The Complete Sixth Season (2012 – 2013) on DVD and now, we have the
even better Blu-ray set that includes the DVDs we covered at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12340/Anjelah+Johnson:+The+Homecoming+Show+%28
Extras
are the same, but playback on the Blu-rays are better and that allows the
viewer to get even more involved with the shows, characters, situations and
jokes. See more about the technical
performance below.
Castle: The Complete Fifth Season (2012 – 2013) has also made it
further than expected, likely thanks to the appeal of co-stars Stana Katic and
Nathan Fillion (who is probably thrilled he was not in the Lone Ranger
movie after he was in the running a few years ago) as TV is latest
crime-solving duo. However, I still find
their chemistry limited and the teleplays even more in the 24 episodes we get
here over 5 DVDs and them becoming closer usually means the show I son the
downswing (think Moonlighting), but you can see for yourself by starting
with Season One which I reviewed on
DVD years ago at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9056/Castle+%E2%80%93+The+Complete
You could
wing it and join the show here in progress, but there is a lack of suspense at
both ends and the show is too comic for its own good. Comedy is not automatically wit because you
have a good-looking couple together.
Compare for yourself.
Extras include
sample trading cards and card game cards inside the DVD case, while the DVDs
add Bloopers, Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentary tracks on select episodes and
three behind the scenes featurettes including the show celebrating their 100th
episode!
Now for
two sets of episodes of Doctor Who. First we have The Ice Warriors (1967) with Patrick Troughton introducing the
title characters, who became classic villains in the series. Though the show at this point was still aimed
at families and children in particular, it was not without its amusing moments
and dark moments. Other moments do not
make as much sense and some of the logic is more like a dream than a science
fiction tale at times, but the Doctor and companions Jamie and Victoria land on
future earth where a new ice age has arrived.
However,
something is frozen in the ice and when it surfaces, it will bring hell and
terror with it. I was happy with the
writing and casting for the most part here, making this one of the best TV
entries on the entire list. Some sets
and visual effects are dated, of course, but they still have strong context to
the narrative and we also get some very smart moments. There are also scientific inaccuracies and a
few bloopers they could not fix, but I enjoyed the episodes, though 2 & 3
had to be animated since the video was lost.
I am not
a fan of that, but it was more tolerable in this case (and a necessity too, as
stills of those episodes are likely lost forever thanks to the BBC's terrible
archival policies) so it is what it is and being a key a=story arc, nice to
have it on DVD.
Extras
include the lost Episodes 2 & 3 with new animation to go with the
surviving audio, audio commentary tracks on the non-animated shows, different
audio commentary tracks on the newly animated shows (including Michael
Troughton, Patrick Troughton's son on Episode 3), PDF DVD-ROM materials,
subtitle text that tells you all about the show as you watch, Behind the Ice
featurette on the animated shows, 4 minutes-long Photo Gallery, VHS Links from
the 1998 BBC Video release, Blue Peter [the famous BBC children's show of the
time] Design-A-Monster contest for the Who series and Doctor Who Stories – Frazier Hines (Part
Two) 13 minutes featurette.
The Peter
Davidson era of the original run of Doctor
Who is not my favorite and the shows eventually seem regressive like they
are harkening back to children’s-only TV, but despite that being the case more
than it should on The Visitation at
least has some substance (and unintentional howls) when the Doctor and his
current team go to 1666 England and encounter a killer alien that looks more
like a walking refrigerator, nicely decorated model. The Great Plague is going on and many think
Death itself/himself is on the prowl, but it turns out that The Terileptils are
the real culprit and these aliens think they can take over earth by starting
with England at this time point.
Running
four episodes, the show has some good moments and this is one of Davidson’s
best outings as The Doctor, but the show drags on as the series starts to
repeat itself too much and despite some good actors, it just never worked for
me. Fans might like it, if that, but it
is part of the slow post-Tom Baker decline the show eventually fell into.
Extras
include an Isolated Music Track, audio commentary track, Grim Tales – a 45-minutes Behind The Scenes featurette, PDF DVD-ROM
materials, subtitle text that tells you all about the show as you watch, Television Center Of the Universe – Part One
featurette, 5 minutes of Film Trims, Doctor
Forever – The Apocalypse Element featurette, 5 minutes-long Photo Gallery, Scoring The Visitation 16 minutes
featurette, Writing A Final Visitation
15 minutes featurette and Directing Who –
Peter Moffatt, a 26 minutes featurette on how the director became a part of
the series with these episodes.
Nashville: The Complete First
Season (2012 –
2013) wants to be an intriguing look at the world of glamour and Country music
today, but the show has many problems, including bad writing, bad music, the
fact that Country Music is a wreck right now repeating old Rock Music forms in
the worst possible ways, a lack of great artists or memorable works of any
kind, so this is a lame show that wants to make Connie Britton (playing a
'Queen of Country') and Hayden Panettiere bigger names, but the Southern angle
is less authentic than an episode of Mama's Family, Hee Haw or The
Beverly Hillbillies.
For those
who wondered if this was some kind of remake of the classic Robert Altman epic
film of the same name, the show is not anywhere nearly as realistic,
intelligent, gutsy or bold, but ABC (who produces this show) co-produced the
Altman film back in 1975, which is why they have rights to the title. It is also an issue to automatically think
that the now-regressive Country scene has progressive women, because the genre
is lacking in them too often (no one will mistake these gals for the Dixie
Chicks, for instance, politics notwithstanding), so this is essentially a
Disney Channel-like show for adults...
if that. This is gaudy in the
weakest way and is just an excuse for a nighttime soap opera with bad music and
We get
all 21 episodes of the show over 5 DVDs and the more I waited for this one to
pick up, the more I kept nearly falling asleep.
Maybe diehard fans of what is left of the genre might enjoy this one,
but I was very unimpressed. We'll see if
this gets a long-term audience, or will they settle for Duck Dynasty and
other soap operas instead?
Extras
include Bloopers, Deleted Scenes and three behind the scenes featurettes.
The League: The Complete Season
Four (2012 –
2013) is still running well on TV and though I found it to be formulaic, it is
at least consistent. For those
unfamiliar with the sports sitcom, see our coverage of the first two season at
these links:
One
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10402/The+League+%E2%80%93+The+Complete+Seaso
Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11218/According+To+Jim:+Season+Five/Boy+Meets+Worl
If you
are a sports fan, a big fan, you probably think this is one of the funniest
shows around, but is again a short 13-episode season over two DVDs and again,
that is probably the makers quitting while they are ahead as there is only so
many sports jokes annually you can really come up with. Still, the energy level is the same and the
cast has energy, so I can seer the appeal in this case, making it one of the
better shows on the list by default. I
also thought this was a little better than the Second Season.
Extras
include Extended Episodes, Deleted Scenes, a Gag Reel, Witchy Woman podcast and
two behind the scenes featurettes.
Finally
we have a show that has yet to reach the U.S. market, The Transporter: The Complete First Season (2012) which does not
have Jason Statham, but Chris Vance is now cast as Frank Martin and tries to
make the character his own in 12 episodes over three Blu-ray discs. The movie series is obviously played out, so
when that happens, especially when the movies have become tired, we sometimes
get a TV show and one as played out. This
show follows suit, unfortunately. For
starters, especially if you are unfamiliar with the trilogy that was produced
(and handled by two movie studios!), see our coverage to the first three films
on Blu-ray at the following links:
One
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4608/The+Transporter+%282002/Blu-ray%29
Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4769/The+Transporter+2+%28Blu-ray%29
Three
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8342/The+Transporter+3+%282008/Lionsgate+Blu-ray
The
teleplays are lame, cast of actors are bored-looking and they all -play like a
bad 1980s syndicated action show with more smugness than story, though this one
is not very smug. Andrea Osvart is
beautiful and deserves better than this, so hopefully we'll see more of her
elsewhere. Without Statham, this will be
a curiosity at best and some in the states are even surprised this show was
produced. If only the pilot delivered
what the first feature failed to, then this would be a big international
hit. Now, it is just a likely footnote
to a movie series that is thankfully over.
Extras
include separate interviews with the leads and five making of/behind the scenes
featurettes.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Wives, Bang and Castle
are much softer than they should be, even in this format and in the HD age, for
which they were all shot that way, but the same presentations on Bang, League
and even Nashville (to show off the city, they have to watch following
styling-down clichés) are much better on DVD, though the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital
High Definition image on the Bang Blu-rays deliver the best image
presentation of anything on this list as I expected. It is a well-shot show and one of the best HD
shoots of any sitcom to date.
The 1.33
X 1 PAL black and white analog taping on Warriors is as rough as
anything on this list gets and it is the oldest entry here, but it is rough and
soft mixing black and white film with PAL videotape. Like the 1.33 X 1 PAL color analog taping on Visitation,
which has more flaws and softness throughout than I expected, both have detail
issues, aliasing errors and other shortcomings you expect from the older Doctor
Who series. Visitation is still
on the clean(er) side (maybe too much cleaning by the BBC?) looking better than
many taped shows of the period. Still,
it could be a bit sharper.
So that
leaves the 1080/50i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition presentation on the Transporter
episodes that look fairly good for new HD shoots, are the runner-up for best
picture quality of all the releases on this list, yet cannot compete with how
good the three feature films looked on Blu-ray and the CGI digital visual
effects are nothing to write home about.
Styled down and somewhat generic, it is meant to look good on an HDTV
and be commercial, but the makers should not have settled for this and tried
for a little more. Too bad.
As for
sound, Transporter should be the sonic champion being an actions series
sporting DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on all episodes, yet they
are not as dynamic as the three feature films and not as smooth or consistent
as the same mixes on all episode of Big Bang Theory on Blu-ray with its
own DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on all episodes. This is not just because it is studio-bound,
but because it is just clearly and cleanly recorded in a more consistent way
and anything towards the front makes more sense in mixing than what wee get on
the action import.
Wives, Castle, League, Nashville and the DVDs of Bang all have lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes tying for second-place sonically, but they are on the
weak side and too often too much in the center/front channels in ways I do not
like, so the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Visitation is able to
match them sonically, even with .1 LFE effects.
The sound for the old 1982 show is not bad and the default highlight of
the set, though I still do not like the updated theme song, which is a step
backwards like the writing itself.
The
original Doctor Who theme is on Warriors with its the lossy Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono being the weakest sonic performer on the list. Still, it has some fun sound effects as well
and tends to be more creative than most entries on this list.
As noted above, you can order the import version of the Transporter TV series exclusively from
Umbrella at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
- Nicholas Sheffo
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