DVD REVIEW: OLIVER’S BOX SET ORGY OF DEATH #2

Hey Orgy fans your old pal Oliver here ready to climb back in the sack with a few choice DVD box set offerings, this time five titles by CBS and Paramount Home Video? So why do I call this type of multiple review an "Orgy of Death" you ask? Because by the time I get done reviewing so many DVDs at once, I’m exhausted, almost feel like dying and I need a cigarette. A pack of cigarettes actually. And when you’ve been married and been with only the same woman as long as I have, you need to get your jollies wherever you can find ’em. Plus it’s cheaper than online porn. This isn’t my own column per se, but more like a sort of semi-regular deal I got going with the man. So with all that said, let’s turn down the lights, throw on some soft music (Onyx, NWA, Cypress Hill) and get down to business:

BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Paramount Home Video
MSRP: $27.99
RATED: Unrated (oooh, naked Tina Yothers!)
RUNNING TIME: 530 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Michael J. Fox Parkinsons PSA
• The Making of Family Ties
• Michael J. Fox: The Best Gig in the World
• The Year of the Beard

The Pitch

At last! We see how today’s Republicans were groomed: in sickeningly saccharin TV families during the Reaganomics era.

The Humans

Michael Gross, Meredith Baxter-Birney, Michael J. Fox, Justine Bateman, Tina Yothers

The Nutshell

Former hippies and current liberal Democrats Steven and Elyse Keaton (Grossman, Baxter-Birney) are the basic nuclear family who are trying to raise their three kids in Columbus, Ohio, only to discover that their political and social beliefs have not been translated to their children. Their oldest son, Alex P. Keaton (Fox) is an unabashed conservative Republican who worships trickle down-economics and everything Reagan; and their oldest daughter, dimwitted Mallory (Bateman) is equally devoted to consumerism and shopping. Ideological differences mix with meat-and-potatoes sitcom family values storylines to make for a successful sitcom with a seven year-run during the 1980s.

The Lowdown

Family Ties is a sitcom that I watched during its seven-year run and haven’t seen an episode since it ended and haven’t really missed. It was boilerplate 1980s sitcom, but with a standout character that alone transcended the cookie cutter sitcom character role assigned to him in the form of Alex Keaton. Via Fox’s portrayal, Alex is the one character that immediately comes to mind from this show in terms of memorable characters not only from the ‘80s, but in the entire history of sitcoms. Steven and Elyse? Run-of-the-mill sitcom mom and dad: earnest, loving, but fairly bland. Youngest daughter Jennifer (Yothers) was so nondescript as to be nigh unto forgettable, and only Mallory is the other character that is immediately memorable via her airheaded portrayal by Justine Bateman. Nevertheless, even Mallory would be trumped in the same role by the eminently more enjoyable – and far less doudy – Kelly Bundy several years later in Married With Children.

But Alex P. Keaton – as a Reagan-loving, GOP diehard before he’s even old enough to vote – qualifies as one of the iconic sitcom characters of at least the last thirty years. Most of the laughs I remembered from this show were through his shenanigans, as well as some of Mallory’s. Fox was absolutely perfectly cast for the role of Alex and he used it as a springboard for several of his great film roles of the ‘80s, particularly the Back To The Future series. Some of the other laughs came from the neighbor, Skippy (Mark Price), but essentially, this was the Alex P. Keaton show and deservedly so.

Family Ties wasn’t very serialized and you could pretty much jump into any episode or season and get the gist of the show fairly quickly. Season 2 dealt with a number of issues, like dealing with Alex’s Type-A neuroses about various things, like losing out on being valedictorian to his girlfriend (“The Graduate”), or being an overbearing coach to Jennifer’s softball team (“Batter Up”) or having an important college interview being ruined by Mallory, who’s hysterical at the most inopportune moment (“Go Tigers”). The show also centered on teen issues, like Alex taking pills to stay up during midterms in “Speed Trap,” or Mallory dealing with the issue of sex in “Ready or Not” or Alex defying Elyse when he turns 18 and goes out drinking in a nightclub, only to have Elyse confront him in “Birthday Boy”. Probably the most memorable episode was when a post-Bosom Buddies, pre-megastar Tom Hanks returned as Uncle Ned and revealed that he had a serious drinking problem in “Say Uncle.”

Nothing really against Family Ties in retrospect. It was a fairly entertaining sitcom on its own merits that, while force-feeding you the hated family values / life lessons, managed to do it in generally entertaining fashion. It was definitely several notches above other contemporary sitcoms of the time such as Who’s The Boss?, Mr. Belvedere, and the absolutely dreadful Growing Pains.

The Package

There are a couple of features on this offering. The first being the 20-minute The Making of Family Ties, which is fairly self explanatory. Michael J. Fox: the Best Gig in the World is an 8-minute exercise on Fox and the cast ruminating about how Alex Keaton really took off and how Fox considered his job playing him the best thing going. Finally, the Year of the Beard is a three-minute piece on Michael Gross’ growing a beard for the second season. Riveting, I know. There’s also a Michael J. Fox PSA on Parkinsons. This is a much better show than I had at first remembered and this is a worthy set to pick up, but I’d grab it used if you can.

BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Paramount Home Video
MSRP: $29.99
RATED: Unrated (oooh, naked unseen Chris Rock!)
RUNNING TIME: 420 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Everybody Hates the Cast and the Crew Again
• Everybody Hates a Day in the Life of Tyler James Williams
• Everybody Hates Mr. Omar’s Women
• Everybody Hates Vincent’s School Tour
• Everybody Hates Stand-Ins
• Everybody Hates Caruso-isms
• Everybody Hates Mrs. Morello’s Racism
• Everybody Hates Wardrobe
• Gag Reel

The Pitch

Hello? Read the title?

The Humans

Tyler James Williams, Tequan Richmond, Tichina Arnold, Terry Crews, Vincent Martella, Imani Hakim, Chris Rock (narrator).

The Nutshell

Everybody Hates Chris is a parody of Chris Rock’s life growing up in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn in the ’80s narrated by Rock himself and starring Williams as a young Rock. It concerns the adventures of Rock as a young boy and all of the life lessons he learned growing up poor in New York. The show is punctuated by modern references by Rock to situations he experienced as a teenager. Williams as Rock is actually the most normal character in an otherwise crazy world filled with colorful portrayals of his friends, family and neighbors, and flights of fancy such as fantasy allusions, dream sequences and other reality-altering asides are prevalent in each episode.

The Lowdown

Everybody Hates Chris could best be described as Wonder Years meets Scrubs in that it takes place entirely in the past and is told from the POV of a young boy as told through a grown man’s eyes, yet set in a world that’s frequently off-kilter reality-wise. It’s very watchable even if you’re not a big Rock fan, and the show immediately deserves major props for foregoing the dreaded laugh track and featuring some pretty sharp and often humorous writing. EHC is a rarity in that it pokes fun at Black culture without being facetious about it, especially considering that in mid-1980s New York, the Black community wasn’t exactly experiencing a Renaissance as crime and drugs were overwhelming the streets. Rock, who is one of the most wonderfully foul-mouthed comedians working today tones it way down and actually brings a heartfelt atmosphere to the show, when it’s not trying to skewer his people, but in a good way.

Williams is likeable as Rock and he anchors the show to some sense of reality when his family and friends, particularly his mother, Rochelle(Arnold), are frequently portrayed as exaggerated caricatures. Arnold is also good, displaying a lot of the comic flair that frequently had to take a back seat to Martin Lawrence in the Martin sitcom of the ’90s. Terry Crews, who often plays large and imposing characters (Crews is a former NFL player), is also likeable as Rock’s stingy, fussbudgety and often nutty father. The show is also punctuated by recurring characters of various levels of silliness and frequent guest stars including Whoopi Goldberg, Jackee Harry, and "Huggy Bear" Antonio Fargas.

Usually exploring one theme a show, every episode is pre-labeled "Everybody Hates…" and whatever the theme of the episode happens to be. In "Everybody Hates Rejection," Rock explores what it was like to ask a self-centered neighborhood girl that he had a crush on out on a date and being stood up. "Everybody Hates Superstition" dealt with a lucky streak Chris got when he borrowed Julius’ lucky socks", and "Everybody Hates Hall Monitors" finds Chris in the unenviable position of getting no respect as a school hall monitor. "Everybody Hates the Class President has Chris running for the office and having to make a choice of whether or not to keep his friend Greg on the ticket when polls aren’t going his way. "Everybody Hates DJs" has Chris enjoying success as a DJ and then in trouble when he scratches Rochelle’s prized James Brown album. And the season finale, "Everybody Hates the Last Day" involves Chris playing an ill-advised prank on Caruso, the school bully.

The Package

In the way of special features, there are a series of eight featurettes: Everybody Hates the Cast and the Crew Again, Everybody Hates a Day in the Life of Tyler James Williams, Everybody Hates Mr. Omar’s Women, Everybody Hates Vincent’s School Tour, Everybody Hates Stand-Ins, Everybody Hates Caruso-isms, Everybody Hates Mrs. Morello’s Racism, and Everybody Hates Wardrobe which all deal with the various aspects about the production of the show and total about 45 minutes. A gag reel rounds out the offerings.

BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Paramount Home Video
MSRP: $26.99
RATED: Unrated (oooh, naked hot quartet of sistahs!…God if only…)
RUNNING TIME: 471 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• We All Fall Down: A Closer Look at "Trick or Truth?"
• Getting the Girls Together

The Pitch

It’s Sex and the City…with black people.

The Humans

Tracee Ellis Ross, Golden Brooks, Persia White, Khalil Kain,
Jill Marie Jones, Keesha Sharp, Jason Pace.

The Nutshell

Four friends who happen to be black women (a rarity on TV I know) see each other through the good times and the bad – even when some of those bad times involve each other.

The Lowdown

Now of course, Orgy of Death is merely a euphemism for reviewing several titles at once, but if one were going to get literal with said euphemism when it came to the stars of a current TV show, you’d be hard pressed to find a collective of suitably hot candidates better than this show. Girlfriends is a rarity of black shows that originated on either the former UPN or the former WB that managed to last beyond a season or two, and in fact is still going, now in its eighth season. And you know, I came up with the Sex and the City pitch line before I had actually seen the show and Girlfriends surprised me that in many ways it is a lot like Sex. At first I thought it was just another sitcom, and of course it is, but in fact it’s quite a bit deeper than that. It’s a serialized narrative of these four women’s lives set to a sitcom environment.

What also surprised me is that, despite the estrogen overload, the show is quite watchable. It has several drawbacks of course, mostly in that a lot of the times the laughs it goes for fall flatter than a 10-year-old’s chest (not that I’d ever notice such things…). But it doesn’t go for the normal amount of laughs you might otherwise expect in a sitcom of this sort. Shows like Friends or the very similarly-themed Living Single usually had a higher laugh quotient than Girlfriends, but Girlfriends does manage to try to sprinkle them in while usually going for more serious types of stories.

The heart of the show is the interactions among the four stars and how their characters’ relationships vary unlike thinner characters on other shows might. Things aren’t always peachy keen between the ladies, and the real draw of the show is how they manage to work through them. And at the risk of sounding like a metrosexual or worse, the show is straight coming from a black woman’s perspective, and that’s not usually something you see on TV these days. It’s very surprising considering the executive producer is Kelsey Grammer. You know: Frasier, the whitest, most effete white man in TV history.

Tracee Ellis Ross portrays Joan, a successful lawyer and the somewhat wishy-washy member of the group. Her friends, especially Toni took advantage of her kind and giving nature until she finally started to stand up for herself. Some of the issues she dealt with in Season 2 were growing a backbone and dealing with the breakup of her relationship and a serious strain on her friendship with Toni. Golden Brooks plays Maya, who is Joan’s secretary in Season 2 and acid-tongued spitfire of the group. She’s the only one who’s married as of Season 2 and she tries to balance her friendship with the other girls and her marriage to her husband Darnell (Khalil Kain) after an affair she had almost ended it.

Jill Marie Jones is Toni, Joan’s best friend of twenty years and the most materialistic and self-centered of the four. In Season 2 she has to deal with pushing the boundaries of her friendship with Joan past the breaking point and taking responsibility for the mistakes that had lead to the rift with Joan, the loss of her job and her boyfriend (she cheated on him) and going into debt. Finally, Persia White is Lynn, the most irresponsible one of the four. She had preyed on Joan’s giving nature for years, mooching off of her until Joan finally threw her out. Forced to take some responsibility for her life also, she starts a relationship with a Jamaican and gets an odd job, the first of several through the series’ run.

Girlfriends is continuing its eight-year run on the CW and is a pretty good watch.

The Package

There are three special features. We All Fall Down: A Closer Look at "Trick or Truth?" which is a 15-minute look at the episode where reconciliation between Joan and Toni is punctuated by a guest appearance by Donnie McClurkin. Creating the Show is a 17-minute feature on how creator Mara Brock Akil came about getting the show off the ground and what she was looking to portray in these four women’s lives. Finally, Getting the Girls Together runs 19 minutes and details how the four stars were cast.

BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Paramount Home Video
MSRP: $41.99
RATED: Unrated (oooh, naked former Dream Warrior!)
RUNNING TIME: 941 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Cast and crew commentaries on select episodes
• Drawing on Dreams
• Directing with David Arquette
• Acting is My Racquet
• The Story of Medium – Season 3
• The Making of Medium – Season 3
• Gag reel

The Pitch

Patricia Arquette sees dead people (okay whadda ya want from me, I’ve been working on this friggin’ thing for a week and I’m tired…)

The Humans

Patricia Arquette, Miguel Sandoval, Sofia Vassilieva, Maria Lark, David Cubitt, Jake Weber.

The Nutshell

Allison DuBois (Arquette) was cursed / gifted with the ability to receive messages from the dead via her dreams which aids her in her quest as an Assistant D.A. to fight for justice. A lot of times the dreams she has make little to no sense until a pivotal moment in the episode when all the jumbled info comes together. Allison has gotten the trust of her boss, Phoenix D.A. Davalos (Sandoval) and Det. Lee Scanlon (Cubitt) and they’ve learned to trust her instincts although they almost always have to take things on faith. When Allison isn’t seeing things no one else can and helping the authorities solve crimes, she’s a devoted wife and mother of three. All of her three daughters have appeared to inherit her gift and they sometimes help her out with cases when her dreams aren’t making any sense.

The Lowdown

I have completely slept on Medium until now as I thought that one chick with big cans who can talk to dead people – that being Ghost Whisperer and Jennifer Love Hewitt – was enough for TV. I didn’t also watch Tru Calling during the five or six minutes it was on TV either. It just wasn’t my bag I thought and I actually had no faith that Medium would be on for more than a few episodes. But I should have known that this show might have potential because it was created by Glenn Gordon Caron, and as the creator of one of my all-time favorite shows, Moonlighting, Caron isn’t in the habit of churning out dreck. Medium is a surprisingly good show and it benefits from a likeable performance from Patricia Arquette and the frequently off-kilter storyline guidance of Caron and his crew.

I wouldn’t have thought that they could take Medium in the directions that they frequently do, but it’s more than Arquette getting weird dreams and acting on them. Medium takes the concept and runs with it, often turning to innovative angles on what could quickly become a one-note premise. For instance, in the opening two-part episode, "Four Dreams", Allison is trying to help solve a series of unusual home invasion murders of wealthy people where nothing is taken, and a seemingly unrelated auto accident where a mother and her son are killed. When her daughter, Bridgette starts seeing the events in her dreams in terms of a cartoon with killer monkeys called "The Monkeyheads", Allison has to sort out what it all means. The fact that her former high school boyfriend (real life husband Thomas Jane) shows up on her doorstep as a ghost and decides to stick around for awhile, that doesn’t help matters.

Other episodes of Season 3 include "Be Kind, Please Rewind" where Allison keeps re-living the same day over and over (in her dreams at least) until she can successfully figure out why a federal judge, who collided with her in an auto accident that severed her legs in one iteration of the day, holds up a restaurant Inside Man-style and then doesn’t take any of the money. "Blood Relations" finds Allison trying to stop the ghost of a serial killer (Mark A. Sheppard) from the 1800s who possesses people in order to kill again. He tries to take over his descendant, whose only method of resisting him is to stay constantly medicated by alcohol. "Better Off Dead" has Allison trying to help solve the murder of two ghosts. But she’s surprised when one of them doesn’t want her help. "Second Opinion" finds Allison dreaming 20 years into the future where her daughter dies of leukemia and then becoming obsessed about protecting her no matter what. In "1-900-LUCKY", which was directed by brother David Arquette, Allison investigates a woman’s murdered husband, while her brother gets a job as a telephone psychic and tries to help a woman who turns out to be the same one Allison is investigating. And "Everything Comes to a Head" has Allison’s secret revealed to the world as she’s working the case of the "Recapitator" serial killer and finds her unable to go to Scanlon or Devalos for help.

One of the things that the show benefits from most is Caron and company’s often unusual cases and offbeat method of telling them. When Moonlighting was hitting on all cylinders, that was also one of its strongest attributes and it’s nice to see that Caron hasn’t lost his touch in that area. Medium is a show that is definitely worth checking out.

The Package

The show looks good in widescreen and if you listen to the opening credits, you might be surprised to hear that the theme for the show sounds somewhat like the Re-Animator theme. There’s a nice selection of features, including cast and crew commentaries on several episodes. Then there’s an array of behind-the-scenes featurettes including Drawing on Dreams, which is a seven-minute piece on the animation used for the episode "Four Dreams". Directing with David Arquette is a quickie profile of how brother David came to sit in the big chair for the episode. Acting is My Racquet covers co-star Miguel Sandoval’s recent indoctrination into tennis and ping pong. And The Story of Medium – Season 3 and The Making of Medium – Season 3 are a two-pronged behind-the-scenes look at the storylines of Season 3 and the production of Season three that total about 45 minutes together. A gag reel and deleted scenes for several episodes round out the offerings.

BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Paramount Home Video
MSRP: $39.99
RATED: Not rated (oooh, naked former Moonlighting cock blocker!)
RUNNING TIME: 1054 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Cast and crew commentaries on select episodes
• Cast Roundtable (Parts 1 & 2)
• Ducky’s World
• Behind the Set: The Production Design of NCIS
• Dressed To Kill: Dressing the Sets of NCIS
• Prop Master
• Picture Perfect: The Looks of NCIS
• Season of Secrets

The Pitch

Mark Harmon thought he was getting his own CSI franchise and didn’t read the fine print…

The Humans

Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette, David McCallum, Sean Murray, Brian Dietzen, Cote de Pablo, Lauren Holly.

The Nutshell

The NCIS, Navy Criminal Investigative Service, is the primary law enforcement agency for the US Navy and Marine Corps. It’s composed of special agents who investigate crimes involving both of those branches of the armed forces. NCIS follows a team of Major Case Response Team (MCRT) headed by Special Agent Leroy Gibbs (Harmon). His team consists of Agent Tony DiNozzo (Weatherly), Dr. “Ducky” Mallard (McCallum), forensic expert Abby Sciuto (Perrette), and his boss, Director Jenny Sheppard (Holly). Together they solve crimes ranging from terrorism, murder, treason, etc. and manage to squeeze in a bit of humor and sexual tension along the way.

The Lowdown

Recently, I gave a glowing review to JAG – Season 4 (here), whereby I extolled the virtues of the show being a Donald Bellisario joint and that I’ve always been a fan of his shows, going back to Magnum and Airwolf. Yet for some reason, I’ve kind of slept on NCIS, which is a spinoff of JAG. I gave it a go to watch the follow up to the surprise death of character Kate Todd, who was portrayed by Sasha Alexander, who left the show after Season 2; but for some reason, I just didn’t stick with it. And it’s surprising to me because NCIS is a pretty solid show, in the tradition of a long line of Bellisario shows, now currently in its fifth season. One problem it may also have though is that with three CSIs, Criminal Minds, Without A Trace and Cold Case, the show is possibly getting lost in the shuffle of CBS crime shows.

NCIS revolves around the investigations done by Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs and his team, who go around the globe solving crimes related to various branches of the military. Like JAG, the show is about 50/50 in terms of being serialized and having stand alone episodes. Frequently storylines from earlier in the season or even previous seasons pop back up to affect current goings-on. The show has a somewhat harder tone than JAG and compared with Harmon Rabb, Gibbs is a somewhat more edgier character, keeping much of his past shrouded in mystery, even from his teammates. And he doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve as Rabb does and usually has two modes: full throttle or laid back.

Season 4 finds Gibbs retired in Mexico after retiring from NCIS following an injury and coma from a terrorist bomb and a disagreement with NCIS policy regarding the bombing in the Season 3 finale. He returns to help Ziva clear her name following her frame-up in a bombing conducted by a rogue Mossad agent who was her former partner ("Shalom"). Gibbs is planning to return to Mexico in episode #2, "Escaped", until he seeks temporary reinstatement to track down an escaped fugitive he helped capture. He then decides to come back permanently. Other episodes include "Dead and Unburied", where the team investigates a Marine who is found dead in a vacant house and learn that he had been buried and then exhumed and was due to be deployed to Iraq but never made it. "Once a Hero" centered around an investigation of a homeless ex-Marine who dies in a hotel with some evidence that potentially incriminates him in a crime. For personal reasons, Gibbs is determine to prove his innocence. In "Smoked", the team investigates a mummified body found in a Marine base incinerator who turns out to have been a serial killer. And the season finale, "Angel of Death" finds the team subjected to mandatory polygraph tests which reveal some secrets that were probably best left undiscovered.

NCIS is another good Bellisario show and I’d recommend getting into it if you liked his other shows of the past. The cast is solid and the writing and stories entertaining.

The Package

This is one loaded set, let me tell you. A lot of times you’re lucky to get a quickie behind-the-scenes piece on a box set or even a few deleted scenes, but here you get a nice spread of features. First of all, he show looks good as NCIS is shot in widescreen and the sound is also fine. For special features, you’ve got cast and crew commentaries on six episodes: "Twisted Sister" by Sean Murray and Terrence O’Hara, "Dead Man Walking" by Sean Murray and Cote de Pablo, "Skeletons" by Brian Dietzen and David McCallum, "Grace period" by Michael Weatherly, "Cover Story" by Michael Weatherly and Pauley Perrette, and "Angel of Death" by Donald Belisario. Then there’s a two part Dinner For Five type of setting called Cast Roundtable (Parts 1 & 2) where the cast sits down to dinner and answers questions submitted by fans. This runs about 36 minutes total and is pretty interesting, especially if you like the setup of Favreau’s aforementioned show.

Ducky’s World is a five-minute tour of the Autopsy Room on set by actor David McCallum, who plays Ducky. Behind the Set: The Production Design of NCIS is a 10-minute behind-the scenes look at the production design of the show. Dressed To Kill: Dressing the Sets of NCIS is a similar piece running six minutes. Likewise, Prop Master is a seven-minute look at the props for the show hosted by prop master George Tuers. Rounding out the special features are Picture Perfect: The Looks of NCIS, a 10-minute look at the visuals with cinematographer William Webb; and Season of Secrets is a quickie two-minute featurette hosted by the man himself, Donald Bellisario about some of the storylines involving secrets in Season 4 were developed. Plenty of good stuff here for a Bellisario joint fan.

Well there you have it, sports fans. Five titles, one review. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a massage and a shower. Peace.