Point Pleasant – The Complete Series

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Episodes: C

 

 

I give Fox credit for trying all kinds of things with genres, but they do not always work.  Take Point Pleasant, their 2005 series that ran only 13 shows, the last five of which were never aired.  It starts out looking like anything from the 90210/Melrose Place cycle, before it turns into Supernatural Horror.  All then networks are racing to have a hit like Smallville, but do not realize what a fluke it is.

 

This new 3 DVD set has all the shows and is released with the hopes it might show a fan base similar to Firefly, especially with the current success of TV on DVD.  It could happen, but this critic was not very impressed with its bad mix of everything we have seen before, bad digital work, bad dialogue, no suspense and no serious character development.  Christina (Elisabeth Harnois) falls off of a boat during a storm and lands up in the title location in New Jersey.  She is taken in by a nice family, but feels out of her element.  Of course, something is wrong, but is she sick and the world well or vice versa?  Too bad the show does not know what to do with their scenario.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image looks pretty good, no matter how it might have been shot.  There is nothing extraordinary about it, except that it does not waste our time gutting out the color throughout.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has good Pro Logic surrounds as the case notes.  The presentation is much better than many such current series, so it is more watchable as a result technically.  Too bad the show was not better.  The only extra is a making-of featurette, but that is all.  At least it tried to be different, but it is no Carrie.  At least it has not been the disaster ABC’s inexcusable Night Stalker revival turned out to be.  Die-hard genre fans are the only ones who should apply.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo