Footballer’s Wive$ – The Complete First & Second Season Sets

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C/C+     Extras: C     Episodes: C+

 

 

With eight episodes each, the new hit British soap opera Footballer’s Wive$ has arrived on DVD in two double DVD sets.  What is interesting about the series is how unstuffy it is.  Ann McManus and Maureen Chadwick are (from an idea by Paul Marquess) behind this series focused around the game of Soccer (called football in England, while football from America is called “American football” there.  However, so little of any of the on field game is played, it almost does not matter.

 

As expected, the story is about the rich men, their kept wives, families and all the scandals and affairs a teleplay can hold.  The cast of still-unknowns are pretty good in what is some of the best trash TV to ever come out of the U.K., even better than many of its U.S. counterparts.  The title immediately makes one think of the newer U.S. hit Desperate Housewives (reviewed elsewhere on this site) and this show can get as catty, but they are still too different to compare.  However, if you like one, you will like the other.  If you like this kind of TV, you will want to get The Complete First Season set at least.  If you get caught up, The Complete Second Season is already available.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is decent from both sets, though not filled with detail or color range, yet is on the slightly muted side on purpose for the kind of atmosphere the creators are trying to maintain.  This sure looks better than it does in its current regular TV broadcasts.  Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo plays through all the episodes, but has no serious surround information, while early episodes of the first set have some audio limits and glitches that affect dialogue in particular.  Each disc comes with a slang translator for those who are not familiar with Britishisms, while some discs have trailers for more interesting titles from Capital Entertainment.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo