Early Edition – The First Season (CBS DVD)

 

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

 

 

Early Edition ran for a total of four seasons on CBS between 1996 and 2000 and met with strong objection when it was prematurely cancelled at the end of its season four.  The series was family friendly, but detailed enough that it appealed to the masses; a pair that is not often obtained.

 

This reviewer highly recommends Early Edition: Season One and finds that the series has aged very well.  The depth of the story arches, coupled with a great cast only propelled the series to the next level of television.  If the series came out again today it would be just as popular as ever because it deals with the mysteries of the future and a power that at one point or another everyone wishes they had.  Wouldn’t it be ice to know the lotto numbers?

 

The premise of the series is simple, yet brilliant at the same time.  Gary Hobson (Kyle Chandler) after being thrown out of his house by his wife, seemingly for no reason, takes up residence at a local motel.  Out of nowhere Gary starts to receive the Chicago Sun-Times every morning along with the same orange tabby cat; the odd thing is Gary soon realizes the news paper he is receiving has all of the next day’s news inside.  Gary only shares his mysterious news paper with a few close co-workers, but quickly decides that he will only use the papers powers for good and not profit.  Gary makes it his mission to prevent as many tragic events as he can with the help of the ‘early edition.’

 

After being consumed with his heroic mission, Gary quits his job and focuses only on helping others in the process developing a close relationship with a police detective named, Ezekiel Crumb.  The show is full of suspense, drama and plenty of light hearted comedy.  The show went beyond being an ordinary sitcom by maintaining a coherent storyline in which Gary slowly uncovered certain mysteries of the paper.  By the end of the first season Gary has taken on full responsibility of his new device and in turn stirs up the papers shrouded past in the process.

 

The technical features on this 6-Disc set are not exactly making headlines, but in an overall sense are solid.  The picture is presented in its original 1.33 X 1 full screen aspect ratio and demonstrates solid colors, but lacks in crispness, sharpness, and often times the image is overly soft.  The sound is presented in a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix that comes almost fully from the front and at times has issues of sounding soft and distant.

 

The extras are very weak and only include 23 Episodic Promos (approximately 30 seconds each) that highlight what is to come on each episode.  It is nice that the promos are included, but a waste of time in this reviewer’s opinion.

 

Early Edition took a very long time to get to DVD and now that it has arrived fans will be overjoyed to experience this fun and family friendly series once again.  For as mild mannered as the series is, it manages to have a great concept that the writers follow through with from beginning to end.

 

 

-   Michael P. Dougherty II