TV on DVD & Blu-ray

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bcsparker · #26 Post by **bcsparker** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 2:00 am

I deleted that line. Maybe it's the little Miike inside of me. Sorry for picking on the Holy "S" and "F", but I just never saw the appeal.

godardslave · #27 Post by **godardslave** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 2:08 am

bcsparker wrote:Mainly because I'm not a real TV fan. No Seinfeld or Friends for me. No Cold Case, Apprentice, Survivor, J.A.G, SVU, NCIS, CI, CSI, or any other crap that has been shovelled out for America's consumption. Don't mean to offend any fans. Wait, actually I do. It's formulaic shit. The comedies aren't funny and the suspense shows are boring. It's bloody, fluffy chum laid out for people to feed on. Look at the way al the cop shows are filmed. It is clearly meant to glorify the violence. Now I'm no prude when it comes to this (I'm a MIIKE fan, for Chrissakes) but this is just the way I see it. Every time CSI goes to one of it's green-tinted flashbacks and you hear squishy sounds and something penetrating flesh, I swear I can hear America salivating.

I couldn't agree more. Theres actually a serious point in here about how TV shows such as CSI reflect/glorify/feed the obsession in American society for violence. It scares me how popular these truly awful, amoral, formulaic TV shows are.

Andre Jurieu · #28 Post by **Andre Jurieu** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 2:29 am

bcsparker wrote:I deleted that line. Maybe it's the little Miike inside of me. Sorry for picking on the Holy "S" and "F", but I just never saw the appeal.

Ok, while I'll defend Seinfeld since its basic premise is to display how desensitized, self-centered, and superficial we've all become, in no way is "F" holy.

bcsparker wrote:I'm just waiting for the day when they show a rape from the cervix's point of view.

Wait a sec ... isn't that shot in a Miike film? Please explain why this shot in a Miike film is different from CSI (etc.), cause I'll bet a lot of the people who watch Miike films nowadays just love that bloody payoff in a similar fashion as the viewers of CSI (etc.) and probably do so in a much more obvious fashion.

bcsparker wrote:Look at the way al the cop shows are filmed. It is clearly meant to glorify the violence.

I'll grant you that for all the CSI shows and SVU (I tire of both quickly), but the original Law & Order series doesn't really do this. It never really shows the murder, since it usually happens off-screen or its results are discovered after the fact, and the rest of the narrative is devoted to the investigation and the underlying legal issue.

Just as an aside, I find it fascinating that ben and devlinnn are such Curb Your Enthusiasm fanatics, but they can't seem to agree on a Gwen Stefani pop song. These are strange times we live in folks.

kschell · #29 Post by **kschell** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 11:14 am

There are a few series that I've watched ONLY on DVD, having missed them on TV entirely.

* Arrested Development -- Forget Curb, this is the great TV comedy of the decade!!!! And.... it's widescreen!

* Monk -- A clever little show that completely slipped by me. I'd never heard of it, but my sister got it for me for Xmas.

* The Office -- A brilliant BBC series. Only two seasons and a special were filmed, but they are painfully funny. You laugh... AND wince.

* Ab Fab - Season 4 was kinda disappointing, but they hit their stride again in season 5.

ben d banana · #30 Post by **ben d banana** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:27 pm

you nailed it again andre (and don't think i don't notice your subject headers).

as for this stefani thing, at least me and devlinn both apparently agree on the punishment for the talk talk cover (even if half of my gripe is i hate talk talk).

when jason bateman was doing the early rounds for arrested development, on kimmel he claimed they aspired to the levels of curb and the office. for my money they haven't reached those heights yet (the restraints of being an american network show don't exactly allow it, although, as a neil hamburger fan i do enjoy a good bleep), but it is definitely the best network show since freaks & geeks, and certainly the most absurd since seinfeld.

Andre Jurieu · #31 Post by **Andre Jurieu** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:53 pm

I'll back up the recommendations for The Office and Arrested Development, both of which I own on DVD... and because George-Michael thinks breakfast is the most important thing.

oldsheperd · #32 Post by **oldsheperd** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 2:04 pm

Yes, Ben D! Someone else knows Neil Hamburger.

"Sir, are you here on business or pleasure?"
"I came to see my dying father."
"Oh then it's pleasure."
"YOu suck get off stage!"

#33 Post by **cdnchris** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 3:49 pm

I own a few shows on DVD. Arrested Development, The Office, Seinfeld, Simpsons, Blackadder, Family Guy and The Sopranos, which are the only shows really worth watching in my opinion, or at least the only ones worth watching repeatedly (I've gone through Arrested 3 times now and it gets funnier each time and I now have a new quote to spew off to annoy people -- "Steve Holt!"). And one day I would like to get the old Twilight Zone. And if they put out Tales From the Crypt in season format, I'm so there.

I like CSI (the original) because I'm a sucker for murder mysteries, and they're usually pretty well written for the most part (plus I like William Petersen), though lately it has been going real hardcore for shock. I forgave it at first but lately the cases (and general writing) have taken a dive to fit in more gore. But I'll never buy them because I'll never rewatch them. Once you know who did it who gives a shit. The other CSI's are garbage, though, and it probably has to do with the fact Petersen isn't in them. Once he leaves I'll probably stop watching it.

But TV in general is mind-numbingly bad for the most part. I think throughout the history of television there's only been a handful of good shows (and most of them are British imports.) I thought TV on DVD was a great idea at first, only because I could get Simpsons and hopefully Seinfeld, but then I forgot about shows like Who's the Boss? Like seriously! Who the hell would buy that show!? I'd like to think there were people that wouldn't, but... And then Survivor? I caught a few episodes knowing enough afterwards I hated it, but after the initial run of ANY reality show, who seriously wants to watch it again, even if they do like it? And it's these ultra-garbage shows they spew off on DVD like there's no tomorrow. What a waste of resources that could be used elsewhere.

And it's getting worse I see. I never had cable or satellite or whatever while living on my own until I got married, then she made me get a dish (an extra $40 a month I could spend on DVDs.) I at least have IFC and a few other movie stations, and sometimes I can depend on A&E (though they're going to shit, too--Dog the Bounty Hunter, WTF!?) But now I get to see stuff like Wife Swap and The Swan gracing the airwaves. If either of those come on DVD, I swear I'm an opening a wrist. Maybe both. I hate TV. Reminds me why I started collecting DVDs in the first place.

Martha · #34 Post by **Martha** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 4:00 pm

I find Curb sort of tiresome. A little Larry David being selfish goes a seriously long way as far as I'm concerned. So sue me.

All of this listing (shhh) has me trying to come up with the tv dvds I have. Lots of Adult Swim, plus Arrested Development, seasons 2 and 3 of Oz (4 is on pre-order), Freaks and Geeks, and of course season 1 of Magnum PI. Oh, and Buck Rodgers, which was totally bought out of nostalgia-- the episode about the space vampire absolutely scared the FUCK out of me when I was a kid, so for some reason I had to own it. Also when I was a kid, I was obsessed with The Greatest American Hero, which has finally been announced. My weird Robert Culp thing (which continues to this day, frighteningly enough) was surpassed only by my desperate love for Jim Rockford, for whom I used to pretend to be sick (in order, of course, to be home from school when he came on). When that comes out on dvd, I can die happy.

Well, I'm also waiting for Dr. Katz and Andy Richter Controls the Universe. And The Job. But that's all.

ben d banana · #35 Post by **ben d banana** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 4:31 pm

i want a best of andy richter on conan... his gay soap opera, his patch adams-esque dr. bit, him laughing hysterically at a sarah silverman joke about being raped and her telling him to "yuk it up"...

anyway, obviously stores stock more tv on dvd because more people buy it and they make money by supplying what the customer demands. and how can one be surprised that best buy, walmart, target, etc stocks lowest common denominator tripe (even if i sometimes happen to love it, dallas on dvd, yes!)? really, you save a couple bucks maybe buying at these stores but they are strangling our society. i don't care if i end up begging in front of a walmart, i'm still not going to shop in one.

whine whine whine, tv sucks, i'm going home. uh, news flash, the majority of everyfuckingthing sucks and you find what you like in that medium and go with it. sure, i'm baffled that 227 is now on dvd (and i watched it a bit at the time), but when i initially got into this dvd craze there were all of these things i would love to have bought, but were they available? no. you know what was? k-911, a goddamn james belushi and dog sequel. how could they even have made a sequel. now i check amazon and see this. five stars!?! where's leonard snerdley when you need him?

Andre Jurieu · #36 Post by **Andre Jurieu** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 5:02 pm

Hold on a minute.... someone else was watching Andy Richter Controls the Universe and The Job besides me, and they also liked Oz? That's so strange it's downright preposterous!

I have to agree with ben's take on the issue. Is there any medium that isn't flooded by things that suck? Just look at all the complaints that "insert current year here" was an awful year for cinema, and for every one of those moaners there are those who say rock is dead, not to mention those who are mourning over the death of literature.

Narshty · #37 Post by **Narshty** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 5:04 pm

Martha wrote:I find Curb sort of tiresome. A little Larry David being selfish goes a seriously long way as far as I'm concerned. So sue me.

I just find it a little absurd (and formulaic) the way virtually every person he meets seems to explode into a full-blown tantrum at some stage. Mebbe it's only me.

Recently, I have been chowing down on the glorious Yes Minister boxset and King of the Hill series 3. KOTH has got to be the most criminally underrated show in America - it's the sort of subtle, beautifully played (animated?) character humour I had no idea American TV was capable of creating, and not just creating, but sustaining.

Polybius · #38 Post by **Polybius** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:15 pm

Fradom wrote:HBO's THE WIRE. Season 1 is out now. Season 2 is out on 1/25/05.

Far and away the best dramatic show on American TV now, though it seems to be in some trouble w/ HBO, which seems to want to start acting like a regular network, which is distressing.

They got where they were by following thier own muse and trusting creators, not aping trends.

Andre Jurieu wrote:Hold on a minute.... someone else was watching Andy Richter Controls the Universe and The Job besides me, and they also liked Oz? That's so strange it's downright preposterous!

I can match 66% of that. (I loathe Richter and Conan O'Brien, too...part of my list of despised Gen X Sacred Cows that I'd like to see crushed by a Hippo...)

But I religiously watched OZ and The Job was something I savored, knowing it would never, ever last on network TV, unless it was neutered and whitened up, like The John Larroquette Show.

Bill Nunn and Leary were utter, complete and pure gold. The vacation Leary took with his mistress (the delectible Karyn Parsons) is still vivid in my mind. His apoplectic reaction to her choice of sunscreen for him ("SPF 50?!? What am I? An albino?!?") is one of the funniest things I've seen in the last ten years. The old standard joke of a guy falling asleep and being sunburned was given vivid new life in that episode.

Gregory · #39 Post by **Gregory** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 2:47 am

narshty wrote:I just find it a little absurd (and formulaic) the way virtually every person he meets seems to explode into a full-blown tantrum at some stage.

I find it believable because Larry's character mostly associates with shallow, spoiled Los Angeles residents and, being a rude New Yorker, he rubs almost everyone he meets the wrong way until they blow up.

My reaction to the show is pretty unusual, I suspect. I enjoy it quite a bit, but when I'm not laughing out loud I often have a really bad feeling in my stomach as I anticipate and vicariously feel each humiliation and chewing-out that Larry endures. Maybe the semi-improvised dialogue and handheld camerawork make it a little to realistic for me or something.

colinr0380 · #40 Post by **colinr0380** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 7:35 am

In terms of British comedy, I'd highly recommend Spaced. In what other show do you get homages to Robot Wars, Back To The Future, Manhattan, The A-Team, Murder She Wrote, Resident Evil (the game), a thorough drubbing of Jar-Jar Binks and the line "Babylon 5's a big pile of shit!"? I can see why the music rights are so tough to sort out though!

If you like your comedy weird to the point of disturbingly mad (!) I'd give Chis Morris a try. There are three DVDs out of his series. The Day Today is a very funny spoof of TV news, especially the moment where Chris Morris as the presenter misinterprets and goads the Australian and British foreign ministers about a matter that they had agreed, until the two countries end up going to war - at which point the programme becomes a huge special War broadcast

ANNOUNCER: Available now on commercial video, The Day Today: This Is Our War! Featuring the men and women who've sacrificed themselves at the altar of fact - and the beat of over a thousand pop classics!

[They include: 'Jet' by Paul McCartney (Tornados and Jaguars whizzing around in Desert Storm), 'Get Down On It' by Kool And The Gang (soldiers dive for cover), 'Dreadlock Holiday' by 10cc (soldiers with long strips of camouflage on their helmets), 'The Clapping Song' by the Belle Stars (Iraqi prisoners are forced to keep their spirits up by clapping), the 70s-sounding song with the line 'show me you're a lady' by whoever it was (a picture of a woman in combat gear), 'You Really Got Me' by The Animals (I think) (people who've been shot, including that BBC reporter who got hit in Yugoslavia), 'Stop Your Sobbing' by The Pretenders (loads of people weeping), 'I'm Wishing On A Star' by Rose Royce (flares lighting up battlefields at night), 'Disco Inferno' by the Trammps (things blowing up and people on fire), 'Oops Upside Your Head' by the Gap Band (loads more surrendering Iraqis), 'Hands Up (Give Me Your Heart)' by Ottawan (even more surrendering Iraqis).]

ANNOUNCER: The Day Today: This Is Our War. Bang after bang after bang after bang!

MORRIS: Just time to have a quick look at tomorrow's headlines. [He picks up the next morning's papers.] "Aristocrat's dung saves village from flood", that's in the Mail. Today - "Drowned Italian wins Eurovision", the Express go with "Lord Mayor's pirhouette in fire chief wife decapitation" - grisly but gripping. The Sun - "Robin Cock". The Daily Star - "Feel my nose and put my specs there roars drunken Major". That's it, that's The Day Today on the day that Boris Yeltsin told the world how he milked Mrs Thatcher.

[Shot of Yeltsin with a sleeve rolled up, holding out his hand in a fist.]

YELTSIN: Great flabby breasts.

MORRIS: Good night.

[As the credits roll, Morris starts to pilfer pens and items of stationary from his desk.]

Brass Eye moves away from the over-inflated-importance style of TV news to the tabloid news format.

INT. DINNER PARTY (Guests talking)

GUEST1: "... Exactly! The way they are _crushed_ inside those lorrys..."

GUEST2: "...vets hit them with planks - _vets_ -"

GUEST3: "...and hormones make them so huge they're in agony!"

CM: "Listen _boo-hoo_ about calves, they do that with crabs, I don't see you weeping about crabs."

GUEST2: "Well I think every animal has as much right to decent treatment as we do."

CM: "You're _wrong_ - and you're a _grotesquely ugly freak!_"

(Stunned silence)

CM: "Thanks."

(Chris leaves the "room", actually a studio mock-up - he addresses the CAMERA)

TITLE: (Christopher Morris)

CM: "Animal rights. It's an extremely controversial subject, and it's not just the odd dinner party punch-up over squealing meat."

(Slaps a side of meat, strung up abbatoir style)

CM: "It's the Spaniards chucking horses out of church towers, the Chinese sucking the brains out of live monkeys, and now this - a shocking example taken from a recent Libyan news."

CUT TO:

LIBYAN NEWS REPORT (Libyan news footage of barbaric festivities)

TITLE: (WORLD FACTS AT NIGHT, Blessed Action Channel)

VOICEOVER: Chris Morris

CM: "The footage shows a ritual from the feast of "Aid A Labd Dah", an outdoor celebration, in which the men of Tripoli have a great time - but the same can not be said for their cattle. At the climax of the feast, a cow is rounded up, and driven into a metal tube - a tube which is charged with explosives."

(The cow is seemingly fired from the makeshift cannon)

CM: "The cow is fired through the air, and lands in a crunched-up bone-heap. Running men then clobber any remaining life out of it, with their fists and feet and sticks. The body is dragged about, and then left for the dogs and jackals. And possibly scorpions if they eat meat I don't know."

CUT TO:

STUDIO: (Chris Morris, hanging upside down next to sides of meat)

CM: "Tonight on Brass Eye - animals; are we too nice, or too nasty?"

CUT TO:

INTRO SEQUENCE: BRASS EYE

CUT TO:

VOICEOVER, OVER LIBRARY PICTURES: Chris Morris

CM: "Over the centuries, man's relationship with animals has been complex. In ancient Egypt, felines were worshipped because the Egyptians thought they were funny. Many of today's familiar relics are cat monuments. These vast cat-heads were built underground, and seen by no-one."

GRAPHIC: (Two pyramids, a cat-head graphic superimposed underneath the ground shows them to be "ears")

CM: "Europe too has it's animal traditions - in Zaradosa, the streets still get crazy with the annual running of the wasp."

(Crowds of people running from... nothing, in a style similar to the Spanish bull-runs)

CM: "In Britain in the last century, it was quite acceptable for a young gentleman to lose his virginity to one of London's many "whoredogs". Dickens and Prince Albert both boasted of their experience."

CUT TO:

GRAPHIC: (Man Vs Animal evil continuum paradox)

CM: "The evil in our relationship remains a paradox. If you plot "number of animals abused" against "what makes people cruel" versus "intelligence of either party", the pattern is so unreadable, you might as well draw in a chain of fox-heads on sticks. And if you do that, an interesting thing happens - the word "cruel" starts flashing. So, are we cruel to hunt foxes?"

CUT TO:

EXT. FOX HUNT

PDF: "The fox feels nothing. It's made of, string."

CUT TO:

EXT. DESERT (A bus driving along a desert road)

CM: "Or are we too nice? This is a bus-load of flies that are being sent on holiday to Africa. They'll enjoy Somalia - but should they?"

I really like the way both the shows capture the casual -isms (race, sex, homophobia, anything!), the self congratulatory nature of how their news report has managed to sort out all the worlds troubles in one segment (The Simpsons sometimes does a similar thing with Kent Brockman's newscaster), and the way that the news can be thought of as whipping up scares or over inflating the importance of some minor thing (as well as the opposite method of downplaying an important event that they have no interest in).

A poster on the Mobius Home Video Forum hit the nail on the head in their excellent writing on Chris Morris:

Neil Jackson wrote:[Brass Eye] expanded particularly upon Morris ability to lure unsuspecting, minor celebrities and public figures into mouthing ludicrous soundbites and expressing support for patently idiotic charity campaigns. Furthermore, Morris used a variety of guises (he is also a brilliant character actor) to embark upon his penchant for bizarre linguistic and conversational tangents. In 'Crime', one exchange sees Morris ask an aging politician if it would be viable in the UK to employ a masked lawman who would tackle crime by responding to a bat signal (he even informs his guest that there is somebody called Bruce Wayne in Gotham City who performs a similar function). Terrifyingly, the politician seems to agree that this is a good idea, providing the said individual is blessed with sufficient character and charisma. The series is crammed with such bewildering conversations, exposing the primary concern of many individuals not with the subject in hand, but with the need to be observed by the camera lens in the act of doing something, anything, as long as they are being seen.

Out of the whole series I love the throwaway lines such as "and I'm afraid we will have to see that young girl disturbed in a more sustained way later on" or from a reporter: "[in order to stop her from using drugs] she is told her parents are dead. . . I can tell you that when you are actually there, there is something quite moving about this"

But the finest moment for me is from Brass Eye - the fake Japanese TV commercial played to agony aunt Claire Rayner. The device that allows people to smoke drugs through an animal - or as it is jaw-droppingly described in the commercial, the Cani-Bliss "dog puffer"!

And then Jam moves away from spoofing the news and into surrealism. I guess the only way to describe it is to say that at one point a lady is up a tree being beaten on the bottom with a spacehopper by a crying man while singing "Loving You"!

EDIT: Having just seen Sokurov's Mother and Son, I can definitely see where zedz is coming from in his comment below. Jam does look stylistically similar.

Harold Gervais · #41 Post by **Harold Gervais** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 2:59 pm

Andre Jurieu wrote:Hold on a minute.... someone else was watching Andy Richter Controls the Universe and The Job besides me, and they also liked Oz? That's so strange it's downright preposterous!

Not only watched Andy Richter and The Job but also Greg the Bunny....which I highly recommend....the show was f u n n y.
I've got lots of TV on DVD. I can watch shows on my own time and I don't have to tolerate any network logo watermark in the corner of the screen.

Another big shout for the greatest cop show ever, Homicide. I still wish Criterion had gone after doing that series. I'm to the point where I'm discovering shows for the first time on DVD, Arrested Development or watching the first couple of episodes of something first run and deciding to just wait for the season box set, Lost, 24, Gilmore Girls and Alias. Anyone know if a R1 set of Spaced is on the horizon. I had hoped with the release of Shaun of the Dead we would have seen something.

yumitree · #42 Post by **yumitree** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 7:02 pm

r1 of spaced is out of the question. simon pegg was on jimmy kimmel live last night and said it'd probably never happen due to music rights.
i love arctu and have all the episodes (including the ones unaired by fox) on cdrs, and despite hating leary as a (theiving) stand-up, the job was quite good (as well as another awful stand-up to pretty good show jay mohr's action). action has been ruled out on dvd (by mohr) and i doubt we'll be seeing the job (unless that rescue me show really takes off or if there's some other leary resurgance, which i doubt), but i think it might be possible to see andy richter controls the universe on dvd, as fox has a pretty "good" track record with releasing stuff on dvd.

as for this tvondvd backlash, i fail to see the difference between seeing csi: hoboken on dvd and a 3 disc special edition of white chicks.

one final thing:
martha might be pleased to know (if she doesn't already) that the greatest american hero season 1 comes out on dvd feb 8th, with season 2 announced for "mid 2005."

ben d banana · #43 Post by **ben d banana** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 7:15 pm

to go back to curb your enthusiasm, the gf actually couldn't handle watching until the third season because it hit too close to home (uh, guess who). it's just like steve buscemi in ghost world going off in his car about the slow, fat people in the crosswalk, a little slice of heaven made especially for me.

Martha · #44 Post by **Martha** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 7:48 pm

yumitree wrote:r1 of spaced is out of the question. simon pegg was on jimmy kimmel live last night and said it'd probably never happen due to music rights.
i love arctu and have all the episodes (including the ones unaired by fox) on cdrs, and despite hating leary as a (theiving) stand-up, the job was quite good (as well as another awful stand-up to pretty good show jay mohr's action). action has been ruled out on dvd (by mohr) and i doubt we'll be seeing the job (unless that rescue me show really takes off or if there's some other leary resurgance, which i doubt), but i think it might be possible to see andy richter controls the universe on dvd, as fox has a pretty "good" track record with releasing stuff on dvd.

one final thing: martha might be pleased to know (if she doesn't already) that the greatest american hero season 1 comes out on dvd feb 8th, with season 2 announced for "mid 2005."

I knew about season 1, but not 2. Excellent. Is that it? I can't imagine it lasted more than two years....

I'm more hopeful about The Job than I have been in years, because Rescue Me is actually doing quite well, at least critically, and the Emmy nomination for Leary surely bought it at least a full 2nd season. Is anyone watching Rescue Me? I season passed it because of my devotion to Denis and loved it at first. By the end, though, his character was so utterly pathetic and completely repulsive in every way that watching it mostly just made me mad. The writing is good and all, and his decline was well done-- I'm just not sure making a character totally unlikable is the best way to get an audience, but hey, at least the critics like it.

#45 Post by **zedz** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 8:15 pm

colinr0380 wrote:In terms of British comedy, I'd highly recommend Spaced.

If you like your comedy weird to the point of disturbingly mad (!) I'd give Chis Morris a try. There are three DVDs out of his series.

And then Jam moves away from spoofing the news and into surrealism. I guess the only way to describe it is to say that at one point a lady is up a tree being beaten on the bottom with a spacehopper by a crying man while singing "Loving You"!

Heartily second all of these. I notice that both series of Spaced and the Brass Eye DVD are about half price on Benson's at the moment, so now's the time to get them.

Chris Morris is definitely the way to go if you like your humour surreal, disturbing and hilarious. He started out cutting edge and then progressively moved that edge further than you'd ever think possible. The Day Today must be about the funniest TV series ever (distressingly prophetic even, as TV news coverage has "evolved" to resemble this ever more closely). Even the computer animated segues are brilliantly satirical. Not recommended if you ever want to take real news coverage seriously again, however.

Jam is definitely not for the faint-hearted. Other representative highlights include footage of a suicide who, rather than throw himself out of a 40th floor window, throws himself out of a first floor window forty times - in case he changes his mind (he doesn't), and (my favourite) the eerie tale of the sweet six-year-old you can call upon to dispose of any inconvenient corpses. Stylistically, the series is way out there as well: if you ever wanted to know what sketch comedy would look like directed by Aleksandr Sokhurov, for instance, look no further. Special mention should be made of the extremely antisocial DVD of the series, which offers you all sorts of bizarre and annoying ways of viewing the episodes (such as in bouncing screensaver mode, or squashed vertically) and even includes a "forced viewing" option that shows you absolutely everything on the disc while disabling the DVD controls so you can't skip anything or stop.

Polybius · #46 Post by **Polybius** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 10:45 pm

Harold Gervais wrote: Another big shout for the greatest cop show ever, Homicide.

I'd say (and often I do), the best dramatic show of any kind, ever.

The Fanciful Norwegian · #47 Post by **The Fanciful Norwegian** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 10:47 pm

The Day Today and Brass Eye I can wholeheartedly recommend, but jam is really the most redudant and unnecessary television series I've ever seen, insofar as it's almost entirely sketches from the radio series carried over directly with irritating After Effects-plugin-of-the-week visuals (sorry, I don't really see the Sokhurov comparison at all) that, try as they might, can't make what is overwhelmingly a bunch of talking heads visually interesting for more than five or six seconds. I've seen every episode of TDT and Brass Eye more times than I care to remember, but in the case of jam I watched the entire series all the way through twice, in both original and jaaaaam incarnations (speaking of redundancy...), then put it on my shelf and have never felt compelled to touch it again. The radio series, on the other hand, is great stuff for 2 A.M. car drives.

cafeman · #48 Post by **cafeman** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 12:04 am

I heartily recommend something I never thought would end up on DVD, a weird little cancelled-before-its-end cartoon show called God, The Devil and Bob which is a total hoot.

Now all we need is a Complete Series Box for Vengeance Unlimited, and I`m set as far as TV on DVD is concerned.

#49 Post by **zedz** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 2:12 am

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote: (sorry, I don't really see the Sokhurov comparison at all)

It's quite simple really. If you consider some of the most obvious elements of Sokhurov's style (heavy use of filters, non-standard use of anamorphic lenses, low contrast, low light, glacial pacing), some of the sketches in Jam employ all of those elements. QED.

I don't think Morris & co. set out to emulate Sokhurov in those cases, but they clearly set out to shun the paradigms of TV comedy, and I guess the further away you try to get from The Two Ronnies the closer you're likely to find yourself to filmmakers like Sokhurov. Jam's visual style is all over the place, however, and there are equally elements (unmotivated drifting camera, manipulation of camera speed, flaring colours, degraded video) that recall Tsukamoto, Ahwesh, Wong Kar-wai.

colinr0380 · #50 Post by **colinr0380** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 5:20 am

Here is the link to davebert's review of Brass Eye from Cinenikki.

EDIT: Sorry - link is now gone.