The Street – The Complete First Season (Koch Vision/BBC)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: D Episodes: B
Writer
Jimmy McGovern has created a British TV drama with such edge and realism that
it defies soap opera formula to some extent, eschews the kitsch of many British
dramas that a smart show like At Home
With The Braithwaite’s sends up a bit and easily competes with many an
American counterpart that it would be very easy to remake it for the U.S. with
few changes. Though The Street might not stay as intriguing in the following seasons
due to the weekly TV grid and the difficulty in keeping a TV show going on a
high level, The Complete First Season
(2006) is a solid show that shames most of its current U.S. counterparts.
In a
middle-class neighborhood in Northern England, the series focuses on six of the
homes and their families, for better and worse.
With six hour-long shows, each introduces a different situation and how
their lives are in for some sudden changes.
Instead of trying to map a pseudo-Altmanesque mess like too many feature
films of late have, the show takes its time to set up characters with
substance. The cast is very good, with
the better-known names being Timothy Spall, Jane Horrocks, Jim Broadbent and
Sue Johnston, though Lee Ingleby is very good and strong in the thankless role
of an abusive husband who has lost his job and other fatal and near fatal
events only shake things up more.
Nothing
is necessarily telegraphed and some items are somewhat predictable, but this is
the kind of series bound to slowly pick up and gain recognition as it is slowly
seen by more and more people. That is
why you should catch it now to enjoy it and be ahead of the curve before the
next seasons arrive and everyone is talking about it.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is obviously shot in digital High Definition and has
its moments of hazing, detail limits inherent to the format and color
limits. Some of this might come from the
HD-to-DVD tradedown, but others would be there in any format. This is a nicely shot show just the same, but
not the best HD production we’ve seen on DVD performance-wise. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has very healthy
Pro-Logic surrounds and that helps overcome the image limits a bit versus many
other such TV productions where the audio seems too often neglected. There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
