The Invisible Man – Season One (2000/Universal DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: B-
To quote
Sean Connery in The Last Crusade,
‘You left just when you were getting interesting!’ The
Invisible Man was a short lived series from the Sci-Fi Channel that showed
great potential with its stunning visuals and great original concept. The plot of The Invisible Man follows Darien Fawkes played by Vincent Ventresca
as he is given an offer he can’t refuse.
Fawkes is a big time thief who is about to be sent to prison for life;
but by some odd occurrence Fawkes is offered to be part of a secret spy agency
who is about to grant him an amazing power.
With the implantation of special gland in his head known as the
‘Quicksilver Gland’ Fawkes has the ability at will to turn invisible (including
his clothing). The gland works by
secreting an extraordinary substance from his pores that coats every hair, all
his skin, and even his clothes.
The
problem with the gland, however, is that it was sabotaged with its creation and
without administering certain drugs into Fawkes system the ‘Quicksilver’ gland
could potentially drive him insane with rage and pain. The series mainly follows Fawkes and his
partner Hobbes (Paul Ben-Victor) as they get down to business with their secret
agent cases. The cases usually are very
James Bond/Mission Impossible in nature involving the partners being assigned
to government assassinations or mysterious experiments.
There is
a good deal of buddy cop writing in the first season that is humorous to an
extent, but the writers manage to not overdo it and get right back on
topic. This reviewer was not expecting
too much from The Invisible Man, but
once the discs started spinning this reviewer knew the series had a ton to offer. The
Invisible Man is funny, action packed, has detailed storylines and always
manages to peak the viewers’ interest.
The writing of the series has an interesting style to it that manages to
infuse both science fiction and action/mystery that keeps each episode
fresh. Fawkes internal battle is also
center in the series as he learns to use his new power to his advantage, all
while struggling to rid of himself of its curses. On its surface it is seemingly a simple
series, but The Invisible Man has an incredible amount of depth that anyone can
clearly see.
The
technical features on this 5-Disc Sci-Fi set are nice and to the point. The picture is presented as an anamorphic
1.78 X 1 Wide Screen that is crisp and clear with a few color imbalance issues
and at times the light/dark contrast is also skewed. The sound is not as impressive as it should
be in its Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo presentation, but gets the job done though
the voices occasionally sound distant.
The extras are also adequate, but nothing too exciting is offered. The extras include some audio commentaries
that are insightful to an extent, a sit-down interview with creator and
producer Matt Greenberg, and an extra Invisible Man episode from the Second
Season. Overall, the extras were nice to
have but did not thoroughly impress this reviewer.
In the
end, The Invisible Man was a sleeper
HIT for this reviewer. This reviewer did
not even know the series existed and has read that it was only canceled due to
internal network conflicts and budget constraints from the high visual demands
the series depended on. The Invisible Man is a must own for
anyone who avidly watches the Sci-Fi Network or enjoys twisty-turny series like
Battlestar Galactica.
- Michael P Dougherty II
