Hangin'
With Mr. Cooper: The Complete Third Season
(1994 - 1995*)/I
Got You Babe: The Best Of Sonny & Cher, Volume One
(1971 - 1974/Time Life DVD Set)/Krypton:
The Complete Second & Final Season
(2019/DC Comics/Warner Blu-ray Set)/Veep:
The Complete Series
(2012 - 2019/Warner DVD Set)/You:
The Complete First Season
(2018/*both Warner Archive DVD Sets)
Picture:
C/C+/B+/C+/C Sound: C/C/B+/C+/C+ Extras: D/C/C+/B-/D
Episodes: C+/B/B/B-/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Hanging'
With Mr. Cooper
and You
DVD sets are now only available from Warner Bros. through their
Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Now
for a new set of TV releases....
Hangin'
With Mr. Cooper: The Complete Third Season
(1994 - 1995) joins the hit series in its prime as it sails on talent
from the new wave of African American actors that came out of both
the success of All
In The Family
and now-infamous Cosby
Show,
with the title character (Mark Curry) joined by late Nell Carter
(Gimme
A Break),
Raven-Simone (after Cosby)
and Holly Robinson-Peete (early Fox Network hit 21
Jump Street)
in one of the few hit shows or shows of any kind about the life of a
school coach since the first Bill
Cosby Show
and maybe a little bit of Gabe Kaplan in select episodes of Welcome
Back, Kotter.
That makes it a time capsule of sorts too.
However,
the show is mostly safe, predictable sitcom that was regressive
versus All
In The Family
and the like, but for fans, it is at least pleasantly consistent and
that is why it was a hit. These 22 episodes are competent,
professional and their civility now makes them seem dated, though
that's better than much of the poor TV we are now in a glut of.
Still, this is not too memorable and without the cast, this would not
work. Thus, this is for fans only.
There
are no extras.
I
Got You Babe: The Best Of Sonny & Cher, Volume One
(1971 - 1974) is a 5-DVD set that is part of a larger set we hope to
cover later, but it picks up where we left off over a decade ago with
a now out-of-print 3-DVD set of the show we covered at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1355/Sonny+&+Cher+Ultimate+Collection
My
thoughts on the set cover the entire run of the series and still hold
for me in what is the best variety show of its time, give or take The
Carol Burnett Show
(also reviewed in several releases elsewhere on this site) and has
aged better than I think many realize or have given the series credit
for. Except for overlap in a few extras here, this set has totally
different episodes and the guests include Jimmy Durante, Dinah
Shore/Tony Curtis, Carroll O'Connor, Art Carney, Jerry Lewis/The
Supremes (Jean Terrell/Mary Wilson era), Bobby Vinton/Jim Brown, Jim
Nabors, The Righteous Brothers/Joe Namath and two music-centric
bashes that shows how big the show had become.
Focusing
on music from the 1950s and 1960s Rock years, Dick Clark helps lead a
show that features no less than Chuck Berry Edd Byrnes (Kooky from 77
Sunset Strip,
then a bunch of Spaghetti Westerns), Bobby Vinton again, Jerry Lee
Lewis and Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. The second such show
has Wolfman Jack (himself a host of the classic music series Midnight
Special,
also reviewed on this site) taking over the co-hosting with music
guests The Coasters, Neil Sedaka, The Coasters and Herman's Hermits
lead singer Peter Noone. Sonny and Cher more than hold their own
here and their covers of other classic hits range form surprising to
maybe 'no, they didn't' but it is all in fun and the energy of the
show remains one of its greatest achievements.
Extras
include a paper foldout episode guide with some pictures and credits,
while any extras are only on the first DVD and include interview
clips with Cher, guest star Frankie Avalon and co-producers Allan
Blye & Chris Bearde (in the end credits of each show as
'chrisbearde') plus the two 1970 clips from the previous set
including from The
Barbara McNair Show
that served as a de facto pilot and a test run on Jerry's
Place.
Though
you could go for broke getting the larger box set, if you just want a
solid sampler of the show, this set is it. Hope some unreleased
shows from the archives (including the solo shows both did when they
divorced before trying to relaunch the show) arrive on DVD soon.
The
SyFy Channel DC series, Krypton,
didn't last as long as many suspected initially. Ending with its
Second
Season,
the complete version is now available on Blu-ray without commercial
interruptions. In the same vein as the CW DC series such as Arrow
and The Flash, but not connected to them in any way, Krypton
attempts to capture a young audience while catering to the comic
crowd. The result was mixed.
The
prequel to the Superman mythos, Krypton:
The Complete Second & Final Season
(2019)
has Superman's grandfather Seg-El, attempting to defend the planet of
Krypton against General Zod, who wants to rebuild the planet to his
own ideals. The show is generally pretty fun with some interesting
production design and characters in the Man of Steel Universe,
however, doesn't quite have the same unique cinematic feel as some of
the Zack Snyder movies in the series did.
Krypton
stars Cameron Cuffe (New
Year's Eve),
Georgina Campbell (One
Night,
Black
Mirror),
Shaun Sipos (Final
Destination 2),
Colin Salmon (Arrow),
Ann Ogbomo (Wonder
Woman,
Justice
League),
Aaron Pierre (Britannia,
The A
Word),
Rasmus Hardiker (Your
Highness),
Wallis Day (The
Royals,
Will),
Hannah Waddingham (Game
of Thrones)
with Blake Ritson (Da
Vinci's Demons,
Indian
Summers)
and Ian McElhinney (Game
of Thrones).
Episodes
include Light
Years From Home, In Zod We Trust, Ghost in the Fire, Zods and
Monsters, Will to Power, Mercy, Danger Close, Blood Moo, A Better
Yesterday,
and The
Alpha and the Omega.
Special
Features include:
Digital
Copy
The
Fate of Superman
- featurette
Villains:
Modes of Persuasion
- featurette
I'm
a bit shocked to see this series end so soon, but at least it's on a
high note.
Veep:
The Complete Series
(2012 - 2019) has been issued in both Blu-ray and the DVD set we have
here, though the first Blu-ray set also included DVDs. Oh how times
have changed. Fortunately, we have reviewed almost the entire series
on Blu-ray and you can read all that coverage at the following
links...
One
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12085/Men+At+Work:+The+Complete+First+Season+(20
Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12784/Veep+-+Season+Two+(2013/HBO+Blu-ray+set)
Three
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13418/Veep:+The+Complete+Third+Season+(2013/HBO+
Four
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14173/Veep:+The+Complete+Fourth+Season+(2015/HBO
Five
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14847/Veep:+The+Complete+Fifth+Season+(2016/HBO+
Seven
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15652/Veep:+The+Complete+Seventh+Season+(2019+Fi
In
retrospect, we can say two things about the series. One, it was more
on than off, but not always consistent and two, its final seasons
were definitely affected by the unexpected Trump turn in politics and
that is why it has not been remembered as much during the last few
awards seasons despite the same hard work from Dreyfus and company.
However, that recent turn has affected many an older TV show on
politics (think The
West Wing,
et al) and they all seem older than they actually are. Still,
Dreyfus is now a TV legend and this should hardly be her last hit
show. Now, this is all brought together here in one convenient set,
no matter what format you choose.
Of
course, the many extras featured on al the previous seasons repeat
here, so no compromises for fans of this set, including in its
Blu-ray variant.
And
finally, speaking of DC Comics on TV, producer Greg Berlanti has
admittedly pulled off the not-so-easy task of bringing the
superheroes from the oldest comic book publisher to life with a
success that would have made Julius Schwartz proud. The shows are
still going on, even if some are about to wrap up, but he is
continuing to try out other projects and You:
The Complete First Season
(2018) involving a book store manager (Penn Badgley) instantly
falling for a beautiful customer (Elizabeth Lail) form the first seen
of the first episode.
With
his voice-over narration, we discover we are seeing things in
past-tense and his obsession with her, one that might be more than it
should be legally and health-wise, though we also discover she does
like him. Will they get together? Should they? Is his manipulation
of situation between the two of them fair or honest? Dangerous?
Sick?
This
is an interesting idea, but maybe a series of films or telefilms
would have been a better idea, as I think it might be for an entire
TV series that could quickly fall victim to the TV grind of having to
produce so many episodes, but here's the first 10 episodes and you
can decide for yourself. I'll be curious of where they go from here,
even though so much can go wrong. The leads are one of the reasons
it even got renewed, so we'll see.
There
are no extras.
As
for playback performance, Krypton
is easily the winner here, presented in 1080p high definition on
Blu-ray disc with a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix. Presented here without network
watermarks and commercials, you can finally enjoy the show as it was
intended by the filmmakers.
The
1.33 X 1 image full color transfers on both Cher
and Cooper
can show the age of the materials used, but both have flaws and
issues coming from their NTSC analog
videotape sources including video noise, video banding, telecine
flicker, tape scratching, cross color, faded color and tape damage.
Cooper
may be a tad more refined, but by sticking too many episodes on each
disc, has compression issues and can be a bit watery. The Cher
transfers are older as are the reel-to-reel 2-inch videotapes, so you
can get some richer color, yet more problems with video white, et al.
I'll note that some videotaped shows form the time recently were
issued on Blu-ray in upscaled edition with improved sound and picture
that had more work on them (especially from the U.K. like Faulty
Towers,
Monty
Python's Flying Circus
and several seasons of the older Doctor
Who
series) and these could all look better, but it remains to see if
they'll get such treatment.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Cher
and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Cooper
are also a little weaker and more inconsistent than they should be,
with the former needed more detailed remastering work and the latter
needing a stronger overall volume boost without adding distortion.
That
leaves anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image transfers and lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on Veep
and You
that do not look as good as they could considering they are HD shoots
(and Veep
is already on Blu-ray, as you can see above) while You
is a little soft in detail since too many episodes are squeezed onto
each disc. Each sounds as good as possible in the old lossy codec,
but lossless sound benefits Veep
and would benefit You
if it ever hits Blu-ray, et al.
To
order either of the Warner Archive DVDs, Hanging'
With Mr. Cooper
and You,
go to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive releases
at:
www.wb.com/warnerarchive
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James
Lockhart (Krypton)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
