Resurrection Blvd. – First
Season
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: D Episodes: B
It was a
very long time coming, but in an even that was way overdue, an all-Latino
television drama finally arrived in 1999 and Resurrection Blvd. is it. It
still took the cable network Showtime to get this greenlighted and produced,
but the result is the kind of solid drama we used to get in the era of the Big
Three networks. We get a strong cast,
solid teleplay writing and energy that all are sorely missing form TV today.
This
first season box offers the first 20 episodes on 5 DVDs. The Pilot is a feature-length telefilm that
sets up the show very well. The rest of
the shows have Spanish titles, not translated to English, are as follows:
Suenos
El Baile
El Regreso De Paco
Negro Y Moreno
Dos Padres
Luchando
Cholitas
Mascaras
Hermanos
Aniversario
Comenzando De Nuevo
Revelaciones
Las Manos De Piedra
No Te Muevas
Lagrimas En El Cielo
La Visita
Un Pacto Con El Diablo
Juntos
Roberto
Santiago (Tony Plana) is the head of a big family household that was partly
built on his success as a boxer. His
older son Carlos (Michael DeLorenzo) is about to follow in the family
tradition, building their name into a legacy.
Yolanda (Ruth Livier) is not very thrilled about any of this, even after
he wins, but then tragedy hits and his younger brother Alex (Nicholas Gonzalez)
decides to leave medical school to do the same thing. Then there are some smart subplots involving
the ladies of the family, which translates into ladies in the Latino community
in general and the unique types of obstacles they face in an especially macho
society. This includes interesting ways
in which free-wheeling sister Victoria (Marisol Nichols) and her life figures
into this and that is just for starters.
Elizabeth Pena also has a strong leading family member role as Thea,
while Cheech Marin and Paul Rodriguez also take up good supporting roles at
their character actor best early on.
This show does for the Latino image what Tim Reid’s classic Frank’s Place dared to do in the 1980s,
offer a solid breakthrough long overdue to some extremely underrated and
talented actors, writers, and directors that was also willing to take on
important social issues. Though the
episodes interconnect, it never turns into a soap opera because it stays
authentic throughout. Cheers to Dennis
Leoni and crew for such a good show. How
this show was not a huge hit is mind-boggling.
The full
frame, filmed image fares well enough, very clean and well-transferred. We have seen only a few full screen TV images
that are better. The Dolby Digital
soundtracks are 2.0 English and separate Spanish with some Pro Logic-type
surrounds. They combine to offer a
better presentation than cable or satellite could offer. In this set, there are sadly no extras, but
they should be mandatory for the next set.
If we are
lucky, Resurrection Blvd. will follow Firefly and Family Guy
as surprise DVD TV hits. It is a trend
that deserves to happen to this and other great TV series that everyone sadly missed
out on the first time around. Brooklyn South is a great example that
anther such drama that deserves better.
We look forward to more of Resurrection Blvd. as it is an address everyone is
overdue to visit, because the more I watched the more I could not stop!
- Nicholas Sheffo
