Haunted
(2002/CBS/Phase 4 DVD Set)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: C
In what
could have been an interesting pre-LOST
hit for Matthew Fox, Haunted (2002)
was a failed CBS TV series where he plays Seattle Police Officer Frank Taylor,
ever-upset and ruined by kidnapping of his son.
A divorced private investigator two years after, he is shot fighting a
deadly suspect and barely survives.
However, he suddenly finds part of himself in the limbo between life and
death, which starts to affect his life and change everything around him.
Fox is
good here and the show starts out well enough, but the weekly grind starts to
kick in earlier than usual, the ability to be as involved as we should be
deteriorates early and that throws off the trajectory of the series early. Some of the writing is god, other writing
awkward and too much on the weak and uneven side. Still, it is an interesting study of a series
that was ambitious, only to make too many of the wrong turns in its overall
story arc. The show may develop a cult
following, lead actor or not, but of all the shows that wanted to be The X Files, it is far from the worse
and any Horror fan interested who has not seen the series should see it for
their own reference.
The 1.33
X 1 image has some shadow detail issues and dated effects in places look bad,
but the transfers across the 11 shows (over two DVDs) are consistent. Director of Photography Gordon Lonsdale shot
pretty much the whole series and previously lensed Providence,
Northern Exposure and Bones, so he knowns what he is doing
and his work is one of the reasons the show holds up as well as it does. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is fairly good
for a TV show of its time with well-recorded dialogue and much by Mark Snow of Hart To Hart and (of course) The X Files. The combination is not bad at best and more
watchable than not. The only extra is a
trailer for the show, though you get previews for other Phase 4 Films product
before the menu.
- Nicholas Sheffo
