The Guardian - The First Season (2001 – 2002/CBS DVD) + Not Forgotten (2008/Anchor Bay DVD)
Picture: C+/C
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: B-/Film: C-
Now that Simon Baker seems on his way to the biggest hit
of his career yet with The Mentalist
(reviewed elsewhere on this site), his output is surfacing all over DVD like
Eleventh Hour (also already reviewed on the site) and two more releases that
have something in common; Baker’s character and children. The
Guardian ran for three seasons and was a deserved hit for CBS, in part
because it was the first TV series to use the City of Pittsburgh convincingly.
Once a joke in Hollywood films, the former Steel City
made a comeback of sorts via business, education, science and its medical
system and from the first episode of The First Season, the city is portrayed
with a realism we have never seen before.
This would extend to the use of other cities, but in the case of
Pittsburgh, it has either been part of failed films (Striking Distance), failed TV shows (the recent bomb Three Rivers) or in an in-name-only way
for bad shows that no one could begin to believe took place there (Mr. Belvedere) in a million years.
As Nicholas Fallin, he is a hotshot attorney who works for
the firm of his father (Dabney Coleman on target as usual) and has just been
busted for drug use. As part of his
probation, he has to fulfill 1,500 hours of community service and is ordered to
do this for the local Child Legal Services.
Reluctant at first, he quickly is jolted by the reality outside of his
moneyed world and the creators figured out how to make it a smart, formidable
TV series.
On the other hand, there is the Dror Soref’s Not Forgotten, a 2008 voodoo thriller I
have already forgotten only seconds after watching it. He plays a happy husband in a quiet family
until his 11-year-old daughter is kidnapped in a film that has some ambitious
performances, but a totally stupid screenplay and never once are any of the supernatural
elements convincing, or is there one iota of suspense. Taking place at the U.S./Mexican border, it
is almost insulting and another awful entry into the glutted, tired Horror
genre as it stands. Paz Vega and Claire
Forlani also star.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the older TV
series is actually better looking than the over-stylized, soft, laughable 2.35
X 1 image on what was intended as a feature release. Color is at least good and consistent on Guardian, while it is manipulated and
phony on Forgotten with bad editing
and other bad images throughout and to think this made Blu-ray.
Both releases have Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, but Forgotten also has a lame Dolby Digital
5.1 mix that is so poor in range and soundfield that it has little difference
with the 2.0 mix. Extras on both include
promos (three for the TV show, a trailer for the feature) and Forgotten also has a behind the scenes
featurette and feature length audio commentary by Soref and Co-Writer/Associate
Producer Tomis Romero. The latter are of
a “snoozer” quality
- Nicholas Sheffo
