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"LIE TO ME: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON" DVD Review by Kevin Carr MOVIE: *** (out of 5 stars) DVD EXPERIENCE: **** (out of 5 stars) Not Rated Studio: 20th Century Fox Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Tim Roth stars as Cal Lightman in the second season of the unique procedural drama “Lie to Me.” After establishing himself as an expert in deception analysis, he faces some new challenges, proving that just because you can tell someone is lying doesn’t mean you know the full truth. In this season, he goes up against terrorists, the sex industry and corrupt politicians. At the same time, he struggles to maintain a healthy relationship with his attitude-prone daughter and his lawyer ex-wife.
WHAT I LIKED
Like “The Mentalist,” the catch for a series like “Lie to Me” is its unique approach. There’s tons of detective shows and procedurals out there on television, but this is the only one that uses the human lie detector approach. So the premise still intrigues me, and the writing has toned down the “explain as we go” moments, which got mighty annoying in the previous season.
I do like how they are developing some of the characters other than Lightman, in particular Dr. Foster (Kelli Williams). There’s also an effort to further develop the characters of Torres and Loker, to a lesser degree. Torres gets her own story, which features her sister in trouble, and fortunately that isn’t overblown and out-of-character for the series.
I continue to enjoy Lightman’s cavalier attitude, and he steps in enough bear traps throughout this season that he’s not untouchable. Finally, the ending of the season is pretty solid, giving a big change to the characters but not changing things too much or going too far.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
There are some core problems I have with this series, and most of them are character related. First, I cannot stand Lightman’s daughter, who gets more screen time and conflicts in this season. She’s a real pain, which I suppose is realistic for a teenage daughter. However, as television teens on procedurals, I’ll take the daughter of Richard Castle over this little snot any day.
I also have never really gotten into Ben (Mekhi Phifer). I wasn’t a fan of the actor on “e.r.,” and while he’s better in this series, he just seems out of place... too hard core for a low-key FBI agent.
Finally, and this is a fine (and somewhat creepy) point... As much as this show tries to be scientifically correct with full research into deception detection, they often fail at other research points. For example, there’s a side-story to an episode about adult film actors and HIV, and the writers just make stuff up about how the business works. I don’t mind a little bit of preaching, but making a straw man argument against the industry is just lazy.
DVD FEATURES
There are several basic features to this DVD set, including a gag reel as well as deleted and extended scenes for most of the episodes. The most interesting elements to this season’s special features, as it was with season one, is the spotlight on the real inspiration, deception expert Dr. Paul Ekman. The 22-minute featurette “Dr. Ekman/Dr. Lightman – Lie Detection Tutorial” gives Ekman and his team to evaluate the truth behind the actors and crew. “Eli Loker: An Honest Man” is a short featurette that examines the theory of Radical Honesty and what Ekman thinks of it.
Probably the most interesting element of this DVD set is “Dr. Ekman’s Blogs,” which are written by Ekman and evaluate the reality of the techniques on an episode-by-episode basis.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Procedural fans and people who like Tim Roth and his antics.
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"DOLLHOUSE: THE COMPLETE SEASON 2" Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr MOVIE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars) BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars) Not Rated Studio: 20th Century Fox Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Joss Whedon ushers in a second and final season of “Dollhouse,” a show about people that can be bought and sold for any purpose, so completely that they are imprinted with new personalities as needed for the role. Echo (Eliza Dushku) is seeing her original personality bleed though to her blank state, and she starts facing bigger problems than rich guys ordering high-priced hookers. There’s the dangerous original agent, Alpha, gunning for her. Also, a dark force behind the scenes is taking the imprinting technology farther and threatening to cause an apocalypse.
WHAT I LIKED
This season of “Dollhouse” has caught a stride faster than the first season did. It definitely helps having an outside force. The Alpha story is particularly interesting, not just because the fantastic Alan Tudyk plays the pivotal role, but also because it shows more depth in what the actives are. On this same note, the outside force fiddling with the imprinting technology actually starts to take the series where it could fully go, from a science fiction angle.
Finally, of course the eye candy factor in this show is great. Eliza Dushku looks great in her variety of outfits, as does Dichan Lachman (although she is a bit too thin for my tastes). There’s also some great development of the Amy Acker character, which offers her a chance to get into some sexy outfits. I may not be a fan of Joss Whedon, but he knows how to utilize hot actresses.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
The biggest problems with “Dollhouse” is in its core conception. Whether it can be blamed on short-sightedness by Whedon and his team or meddling by Fox executives, the prostitute angle got in the way from the beginning. Were the Dollhouse a construct of the government or military, it would have made more sense and worked better in the spy story of the week. Without the albatross of the hooker backstory, this series could have been as exciting and interesting as “Alias.” Sadly, it spends too much time restructuring itself and never quite gets enough traction.
I also can’t stand the character of Topher, who is very much an element of Whedon’s work. I will say, though, that when Enver Gjokaj gets a chance to do a Topher impression, it was probably the highlight of the series.
BLU-RAY FEATURES
The Blu-ray comes with deleted scenes and outtakes from the seasons, as well as commentaries on select episodes. There’s also a featurette “Defining Moments: A Retrospective with Joss Whedon,” in which the show’s creator looks back on the better moments of the show. There’s also a dinnertime roundtable (or rather, a square table) discussion about the series with Whedon and the cast called “Looking Back” after the show’s cancellation.
The best part of the Blu-ray is the inclusion of a mini comic book “Dollhouse: Epitaphs,” which offers the introduction to the alternate future and sure to be expanded in further graphic novel form, per Whedon’s formula. This is a neat little addition, and it would have been fantastic were it not a bit of a rip-off of Stephen King’s book “Cell.”
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Hard-core Whedon fans.
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"FLASHFORWARD: THE COMPLETE SERIES" DVD Review by Kevin Carr MOVIE: **** (out of 5 stars) DVD EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars) Not Rated Studio: ABC Studios Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
On October 6, 2009, the entire world suffered a mysterious black-out. Every person lost consciousness for less than three minutes, then woke up with a vision of their future on April 29, 2010. This global black-out caused massive destruction and the death of 20 million people through accidents and crashes. The FBI assigns a task force to study the black-out and its ramifications. In the process, we see the man lives of the people touched by this phenomenon – from the people who think they caused it to the authorities working on the case and even the people who didn’t see a glimpse of the future. The full season realizes some answers to what caused the blackout and hints at greater things to happen in years to come.
WHAT I LIKED
“FlashForward” was one of those shows meant to replace “Lost” in the minds of many TV viewers. Did it accomplish this? Of course not, considering it was canceled at the end of the first season. However, it was probably the closest we’ve gotten to a worthy replacement. (Yeah, I know there’s those out there who love “The Event,” but that show is simply awful.)
The best part of “FlashForward” is that there is a real mystery there. Most of the main characters are in the same boat as the audience is... not knowing anything about what happened. And even those who know some secrets don’t know all of them.
For the most part, I like the macro character developments. There are only a few characters that I really don’t enjoy watching, but at least they are secondary or have smaller roles. I’ve always enjoyed these long-form novels-for-television, and “FlashForward” gives a nice beginning for what could have been a great series.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
While “FlashForward” was a decent replacement for “Lost,” it didn’t have the same overall appeal for me. There were some characters I just didn’t like, including anything involved with the suicidal doctor (including his two love interests, American and Japanese). I also could not stand the characterization of kids in the series, in particular the poorly written child with autism. At least these folks were balanced with some pretty good characters.
As the series wrapped up and made sure it was open-ended enough for a possible return, we get left with a decent cliffhanger. Sadly, the show was canceled, and we’ll never see how it turned out.
DVD FEATURES
This DVD is beefier than the first half of the season, which was released about a year ago. The features from the first release – “Creating a Catastrophe: The Effects of a Global Blackout” and “FlashForward: a Look Ahead” – are preserved in this set.
Additional features include an audio commentary, deleted scenes, bloopers and several new featurettes. “Architects of Destiny” examine the development of the series from pilot to finale. “Meet Yuko” profiles Japanese star Yuko Takeuchi in a guest role (a role which I did not like, personally, but now see why it was featured so heavily in the show). “FlashForward On Set” gives some stories from the cast and crew. “Interviews from the Mosaic Collective” show some embedded interviews played in the background of the series, which are shockingly poorly acted. Finally, “Kangaroo?” asks the question of why a kangaroo makes an appearance throughout. It’s not quite the polar bear from “Lost,” though.
Sadly, there’s no additional features in this set that gives any real answers, which would have been nice since the show isn’t continuing.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Fans of ensemble character dramas with a fantastical element to the story.
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"CASTLE: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON" DVD Review by Kevin Carr MOVIE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars) BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars) Not Rated Studio: ABC Studios Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Mystery novelist Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) has a great relationship with the mayor of New York City. As a result, he has arranged to shadow the NYPD homicide division to help them solve murders. Heading the homicide squad is Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic), who constantly spars with Castle but secretly likes him... maybe a little too much.
WHAT I LIKED
This season of “Castle” hit a stride, much better than they had in season one. Like CBS’s “The Mentalist,” “Castle” shook off the dust of too much formula and predictability to enhance the characters in the show. It’s a fine line to walk with sexual tension between main characters, but Castle and Beckett work fine here. It helps that the show lets them flirt a bit but not make things too serious. After all, once that tension breaks, the show’s over... or in serious jeopardy (as we learned from “Cheers,” “Moonlighting” and “Scrubs”).
The key to this show is Nathan Fillion as Castle. Many people love him from “Firefly,” but here’s where he shines brighter. His tongue-in-cheek humor really works in this format, and the character comes across as just plain fun.
The murder-of-the-week is the focus, but the ongoing elements of the characters make things click. We’ve got the interaction between Castle and his family, as well as Beckett trying to resolve the jealousy and humiliation issues with Castle’s latest book, “Heat Wave.” It’s a fun show to watch, and even though it’s about murder, it’s enjoyably light-hearted.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
The only time this show falters is when it goes too far out of its own concept. Too much of a romance between Castle and Beckett threatens to get too serious. This is also the case when the shows focus too much on the murder of Beckett’s mother. It’s such a tragic story that it pulls away from Beckett’s humorous nature.
The only show that really was a problem was when it gave Detective Esposito (Jon Huertas) his own focus in a story. I have no problem with Esposito as a character, but it’s a comic-relief supporting role. He gets way too serious in this episode, and things get real for him. The whole episode felt like a test run for an Esposito spin-off, which would have been awful.
DVD FEATURES
The DVD set comes with the standard deleted scenes, bloopers and outtakes. There are three featurettes, including “On Set with Seamus & Jon” in which the actors who play Detectives Ryan and Esposito take viewers on a set tour, “On Location with Nathan” in which Fillion introduces the audience to the different crew members and “Manhattan’s Most Unusual Murders” which focuses on the different and creative deaths of the series.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
People who want a twist on the standard police procedural.
