DVD Reviews August 2014
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reviews by Sharon L. Shervington
As television networks, premium channels, and international content providers gear up for the fall season, several favorites from seasons past are coming out on DVD.
Among the best are HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, which is set mainly in Atlantic City during Prohibition. Series 5 will bow in the fall.
Also from HBO is True Detective, a nifty reinvention of the standard serial-killer detective tropes. Here, Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey make an unlikely pair of detectives who become friends as they search for a twisted and possibly politically connected killer on the bayou. The chemistry between the pair is excellent, and the sinister aura surrounding the killings is spot on. The next season will have a completely different cast. (Eight episodes, about eight hours.)
Boardwalk Empire has a steady following, but those who may not be familiar with the period drama can catch up with the first three seasons as well as Season 4, which comes out later this month. It is the story of gangster Nucky Thompson’s tribulations and triumphs during the bad old days of prohibition. (Each season is 12 episodes.)
From BBC America, don’t miss Death in Paradise, set on a fictionalized island in the French Caribbean. It uses the complementary talents of a local detective, very free-spirited, and her uptight British counterpart who won’t even take off his jacket at the beach after a long hot day of crime-solving. Season one is available now and season two comes out later this month. The gorgeous locales and exceptionally diverse international cast are very fine, as is with the plotting. (Eight episodes, about eight hours)
Also from BBC America is Season 2 of Orphan Black. The highly original story line concerns a single mother who discovers and becomes friends with her many clones. She also discovers that she and her DNA have been patented, putting her at the center of a ruthless worldwide war to profit from her identity and existence. (Each season is 10 episodes, about 45 minutes each.)
Two very popular recent shows are The Killing and The Bridge, both of which were based on well-received European shows of the same name. In both cases the American versions were available to U.S. audiences before the originals.
The Killing is still very hard to find in the U.S. But Bron (The Bridge) is luckily available now in the U.S on DVD from the MHz Network. It is so good that even if you have seen the American version you do not want to miss this. It opens with the discovery of a body in the middle of the Oresund Bridge; it is posed so perfectly on the border that half is in Sweden and half in Denmark. This procedural, which involves dueling jurisdictions, politics, and the messy private lives of the lead detectives, has riveted viewers around the world. In the American version, the body is found on a bridge between Mexico and the U.S. (Ten episodes; about ten hours)
MHz Network continues to intrigue with its quality offerings. Its period drama Nicolas Le Floch is a delightful romp around 18th-century Paris and environs as the noble police commissioner Le Floch revels in life and death in a beautifully staged and costumed six-part series that also showcases subtle acting and bold humor. (6 episodes, two hours each)
Season 4 of Spiral has story arcs involving terrorism and immigration as well as false imprisonment and especially brutal murders. But again, as in previous seasons, it is the four leads—Pierre, Laure, Jacqueline, and Roban—whose personal conundrums and troubled relationships keep viewers coming back. This season Pierre gets caught up in the violence surrounding his partner’s clients, while Laure, in a happy, committed relationship, is thrown when an old love returns to the department. Team members Tintin and Gilot round out an excellent ensemble cast.
PBS Direct proves once again that its documentary expertise is second to none. The two-hour Freedom Summer focuses on the teamwork and organization that led to scores of students going to Mississippi in the summer of 1964. Viewers are bound to ask questions and make connections between Freedom Summer and Locked Up in America, which includes two feature-length documentaries about the broken prison system. It is a system that reflects the nation’s history of discrimination as well as looking at the cruel trend toward solitary confinement and the way four residents of a housing project are cycled in and out of the system.
In the six-hour Rx for Survival: a Global Health Challenge, Brad Pitt narrates six individual parts that cover everything from the rise of superbugs to the return of polio and tuberculosis. But overall, this is a hopeful work (also from PBS Direct) that highlights the many global projects that are addressing these scourges that have for the most part been wiped out in the developed world.
