One of the strange things about reviewing television series DVDs is that sometimes quality can be so wildly divergent.  One episode is killer, whilst another just unpleasant.  And that’s the path that Supernatural will follow–Warner Brothers sent me a copy of the complete first season, and parts of it are great, while others, not so much.

Supernatural’s first season on the Warner network the CW follows brothers Sam and Dean Winchester, who are out to find their father who in turn disappeared in the midst of a hunting trip.  This being a show called “Supernatural”, of course, he didn’t get drunk and wander into a swamp.  See, the elder Winchester was a hunter, all right–but a hunter of ghosts and demons and assorted paranormal whatnot.  Now, the brothers Winchester are taking up their father’s mantle as hunters of ghosts and demons and assorted paranormal whatnot to find him.  And when the brothers find out what happened to their dad, well…things are really going to get strange.

Strange?  Or maybe just lunatic?  I don’t know.  But I’ll say this for at least the first season–there are some pretty scary moments in here.  Of course, this is a television show, so naturally, it’s brought to you in “Totally Neutered For Family Viewing in Full Accordance With Any and All Applicable FCC Regulations”-vision, so you can forget about anything really unpleasant here.  But they’ll still do a nice job of bringing the scary, and yes, there will be (at least some) blood.

I love using that pun.

At any rate, Supernatural’s complete first season is a surprisingly rich experience, though it’s not a continually rich experience.  It’s pretty much a standard of most any television series–some parts are better than others, but it’s all about how the average works out.  And the average here works out pretty good.  Horror on television is pretty short on the ground (anyone else remember Fear Itself?  Wow, was that unpleasant), but Supernatural does a pretty fair job of bringing some scary, along with some action.

Thus, the Screenhead Ten Scale gives this mostly solid package, with some side trips into unpleasantness, a seven out of ten.  What better for a show that’s good three times out of four?

The folks out at Warner Brothers sent me a copy of the Complete Third Season of Everwood, and I admit that I was a bit concerned about the whole thing.  I had never been much for the “family drama”, being convinced that Seventh Heaven was a punishment on an unworthy planet and that Gilmore Girls was some kind of biological weapon designed to get us all to commit suicide just to make the hurting stop.  And so, tucking into Everwood left me more than a little unnerved–would this be regular drama?  Or would this be a really concentrated drama?

The third season of Everwood rejoins the cast, who are in the midst of a whole lot of issues that I really can’t tell you about without spoilering earlier seasons (I would’ve started at season one, but that’s been out for some time now).  And now, we’ve got a whole host of nasty problems to deal with here–pregnancies and high school relationships and chlamydia and all that kind of nonsense, including lots of guys who are actively sleeping around.

What’s really disturbing about Everwood is how deeply enmeshed an episode can get in intense amounts of drama and then, somehow, manage to wrap up every loose end, almost inexplicably, before the end.  Everwood needs to have a big stamp on the front of the box that reads “Warning: Deus Ex Machina Occurs At Least Twice An Episode”.  Seriously, it does–one of the biggest problems of season two, for example, disappeared when Dr. Andy Brown bribed it to go away with his doctorin’ money.  It was a wonder that Hermes didn’t descend from on high, declare all right with the world and then demand that the credits roll.

For people who love drama, then Everwood will do very nicely.  But for those who don’t enjoy the drama, Everwood will be a constant and unending source of misery and torment for everyone who watches.

It’s not the greatest thing here–most of the women are portrayed as long-suffering nigh-martyrs at the hands of their male counterparts, whilst the males are often histrionic morons busily engaging in some kind of immoral and / or self-destructive behavior.  But again, this is fuel for superdrama–nay, hyperdrama–of the highest caliber.   Then there are the occasional stabs at comedy–one episode revolves around the sudden finding of a certain…intimate appliance…under a bed.  Yeah, I know. Someone was clearly desperate.

The Screenhead Ten Scale, meanwhile, hands Everwood: The Complete Third Season a five out of ten for being incredible at one thing only, and leaving the rest of us to suffer through an impenetrable sludge pit of purest hyperdrama.

We just gave a copy of this away not too long ago, and now, Warner Brothers has sent me a copy of the BBC / Discovery Channel supermassive performance of Life, a huge and sweeping biological epic that shows you, firsthand, the sheer array of spectacular things on this planet.

Life is about exactly that, life.  Specifically, animal life on Earth–everything from birds to mammals to fish and insects.  For those of you wondering, why not people, stick around; they’ll be bringing us Human Planet later and hopefully I’ll get a copy of that in when it finally shows up.  But this is all about animal life in all its numerous forms and colors and movements, in deep and startlingly brilliant high definition.

Folks, this is the kind of thing that huge home theater systems were made for–big, bold, beautiful, brilliant imagery on a thoroughly epic scale right in your very own home.  Amazing sights like butterfly swarms or lizards that run on water (they’re called Jesus Christ lizards, and I’m absolutely not making this up) abound in this presentation.

Even better is the narration.  Normally, I’m not fond of Oprah Winfrey, but here, her voice serves as an excellent explanation and occasional counterpoint to the images in screen.  And the background score is also extremely well done.  A further plus comes in if you don’t like Oprah but still want to see the movie–an option is offered where you can watch the movie without Oprah’s narration, simply watching the movie with the soundtrack.  This is an equally exciting experience.

It’ll be downright difficult to get bored watching Life, and that’s a good thing, because Life weighs in at a massive four hundred eighty four minutes (right around eight hours), and that’s a long time to sit watching any nature program.  This is why Life was originally split into several nights during its original airing, and why you’ll want to do the same should you watch this.

And frankly, you should watch this.  Life is a deep, sweeping, beautiful presentation that dazzles at every inch and makes us glad for big screen television.

The Screenhead Ten Scale thus gives Life a spectacular eight out of ten for presenting an incredible and exciting presentation that, despite its huge runtime, doesn’t get boring.  And that’s a feat in and of itself.

So the folks at TLC, by way of Gaiam, sent me a copy of Toddlers and Tiaras on DVD, and chances are, my name is now on a list somewhere.

See, Toddlers and Tiaras is pretty much what it says on the box–it’s all about those bizarre child beauty pageants that are so popular, especially down south.  There are various sponsors, various competition styles and various rewards, but one thing is the same no matter what’s going on–the pageants we see here are some of the most genuinely frightening moments of television today.
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Screenhead is joining History in order to sponsor a giveaway – duffel bag filled with goodies to promote America The Story of Us. 

I recommend every family watch this program because you will learn so much about America’s history. It’s invaluable.

America The Story of Us is an epic 12-hour television event that tells the extraordinary story of America with highly realistic CGI animation, dramatic recreations and thoughtful insights from some of America’s most respected artists, business leaders, academics and intellectuals. Elaborate, ambitious and cinematic, America The Story of Uswill take you into the moments when Americans harnessed technology to advance human progress, from the rigors of linking the continent by transcontinental railroad–the Internet of its day–to triumphing over vertical space through the construction of steel structured buildings to putting a man on the moon. Visit the official site to take the Ultimate History Quiz, watch videos and get more info. Follow HISTORY on foursquare to unlock the HISTORY in your city. You’ll discover tips about America, unlock our limited edition badge and be entered into the AMERICA THE STORY OF US SWEEPSTAKES!

Enter to win a HISTORY Duffel Bag filled with:

• -Umbrella
• -Stainless Steel Desk Pen
• -Ceramic Mug
• -Track Jacket
• -Golf Balls

To enter the giveaway post your name and we will pick the winner Tuesday, May 11, 2010.

If you were a child of the eighties, you might well remember the prime time soap opera glory that was Falcon Crest.  For some strange reason, I, a young lad, remember watching this show, even though I didn’t understand a lot of it.  This isn’t such an outlandish memory, as the show lasted fully nine seasons.

Thus, when the crew out at Warner Brothers offered to send me a copy of the complete first season of Falcon Crest, I fairly leapt at the opportunity.

Falcon Crest revolves around the Gioberti / Channings, a powerful family of vintners who have lots of infighting over the direction the Falcon Crest Winery should take.  Led by the family matriarch, Angela Channing, the Falcon Crest experience begins when Jason Gioberti dies in an unfortunate “accident”, thus prompting the return of Jason’s son Lance, who takes over a tiny piece of Falcon Crest, much to Angela’s dismay.  Apparently, the grapes on Lance’s chunk are all that stands between a merely average wine and a truly great one, and Angela can’t stand being at anyone’s mercy for choice product.

Falcon Crest was, as eighties dramas went, commonly regarded as “middle of the road”, being somewhat more extravagant and genteel than Dallas, but more subdued and conservative than Dynasty.   And indeed, it does fit into this sort of description fairly well.  It does have that “depiction of the rich” edge to it, but they’re all, in their way, craftsmen, so it’s not quite just the idle rich enjoying their playtime for an hour a week.

Being as the show went on for nearly a decade, it does have a tendency to move a little slowly.  But there is a LOT going on here, even if you’ll only get it in tiny little increments a very, very little at a time.  Suspense is the order of the day here as you discover, little by little, what all’s going on in the deep and twisted world of Falcon Crest.

So if you’re into soap operas or suspense dramas, but hate that they never seem to end, you might want to give Falcon Crest a try with its very definite ending point, and the complete first season is a great place to start.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives this fairly immersive if somewhat slow massive drama a seven out of ten–it may be glacial, but man, does it know how to tell a story.

I am so happy to announce and share an exclusive 9 minute sneak peek from the first episode of the new season of BBC America’s Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith. The sneak peek is now available for freedownload via iTunes!  

You can access the iTunes sneak peek via the following link.

Today’s review target, the third season of Night Court (which Warner Brothers sent me a copy of) is something of a joy to me personally, because it’s a little piece of my childhood.

See, I used to love this show.  It was on Wednesdays, if I remember right, about nine o’clock, and when I was a kid, this show was hilarious.  But would it stand the test of time?

Night Court revolves around exactly what the title says it does–the New York Criminal Court (part two), or, Night Court.  The night shift of New York Criminal Court is populated largely by a collection of misfits and loons.  Led by Mel Torme fanboy and prankster general Harry Stone, and assisted by lecherous assistant district attorney Dan Fielding, beleaguered, besweatered clerk Mac Robinson, massive, childlike bailiff Bull Shannon, and new additions Christine Sullivan and Flo the bailiff, the crew of the Night Court must navigate their way through a series of preposterous cases in order to serve justice and the public trust.

I admit that I was afraid, when I started watching this one.  I was afraid that the jokes would be stale, the visuals fuzzy, the sound ruined.  I was afraid that this show wouldn’t make me laugh the way it did when I was just a wee lad watching the reruns late at night on local television.

My fears were entirely ungrounded.  After just the first two episodes I had had at least seven moments in which I actually laughed, out loud.  Three times I said “It’s still funny!” and I meant every last one of them.  The density of the jokes in this thing is still downright awesome, and precious few of them are dependent on their era.  Those handful that are time-dependent are actually funnier IN RETROSPECT.   That is, looking back on the time in which they were delivered makes them even more relevant because we knew what would happen with the rest of the decade in which it was released.

But that’s a minor point.  The key takeaway here is that, if you’ve never seen this show, it’s going to blow your mind.  And if you’ve seen it before, you’re going to love catching up with all the antics and laughs.  The timing, the occasional bouts of physical humor–everything you could possibly want out of a comedy is right here.

The Screenhead Ten Scale hands this laugh riot of classic humor a nine out of ten for being comedy that stands up against the greatest test–time. It’s still funny.  Enjoy it.

Seriously, that’s exactly what it is.  It’s not every day that I can sum up an entire article–especially for a movie with a patently preposterous run time of two hundred and eighty eight minutes, but AMC’s The Prisoner (which the guys at Warner Brothers sent a copy of) is exactly that.

A truly massive and thoroughly epic mindbender is truly the only way to describe it.

We join a man named Six, who’s convinced that the life he’s leading is not reality, and that his life in a charming little place called The Village is not really his life.  And the more we find out about Six, and the more we find out about The Village, the more we discover that there’s a whole lot going on under the surface, and that The Village itself is merely that surface.

Ooooh, spooky!  And considering that this is based on an old television show, it’s really not that surprising that the mindbending levels in here are just plain old epic.

In fact, listening to Six’s “niece” explain the intricacies of The Village’s favorite television show, Wonkers, will be a wonderful microcosmic view of the constant skein of twists and turns in which we find ourselves following The Prisoner around.

But there’s a problem here, lingering under that surface–and the problem is for us.  As twisty and suspenseful as this all may be, the payoff…the payoff is really not at all worth what all you’re going to go through to get there.  The third episode, for example, will introduce you to the “undercovers”, a subset of the population that answers only to The Village’s leader, Number Two.  None of the “undercovers” know who the others are, so, as Six points out, everybody in The VIllage could be an “undercover” spying on everybody else.

This is exactly what watching The Prisoner is like–a whole raftload of questions (where are we?  who’s really a spy and who isn’t? why must all food on this island be first wrapped in a tortilla before serving? and I’m not kidding on that one, either, that’s a real question) and not very many interesting answers.  Some, sure, and some more interesting than others, but still…not too many.

But still, there are more than a few people out there who love nothing more than a great and confusing mystery, in the hopes that they can unscramble it themselves before they’re told by the story itself, and in that case, this is a fantastic little title.  Otherwise, sadly, it will be huge, jumbled, and fora sorrowfully disappointing payoff.

The Screenhead Ten Scale is puzzled by the whole thing, but realizes that, as puzzles go, this one couldn’t be much more complex.  And so it gives The Prisoner a six out of ten for succeeding admirably in its primary objective–which is clearly to confuse the hell out of anyone who watches it–but no more than that for not being very satisfying at the end.

It’s been an interesting week for documentaries, folks–first I tackled Chris Rock’s opus Good Hair, with decent results, and now I go back to the Discovery vault to tackle T-Rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood, which they sent me a copy of.

It’s an admittedly–self-admittedly, even–tongue in cheek biography of the great dinosaur who stomped into the world’s imagination just a hundred and five years ago (this October!)–Tyrannosaurus Rex.  In a thoroughly Forrest Gump fashion, we discover the life and times of Rex, starting from his discovery by paleontologist Barnum T. Brown, all the way up to the present day.

It’s a bit too tongue in cheek, sometimes, playing up the “dinosaur as movie star” angle just a little too hard, but there’s still a lot of information here, and it’s presented in a straightforward and very accessible fashion.  And the conjecture, where it’s applied, is also pretty entertaining–the conjectural image, for example, of a T-Rex at an awards show covered in feathers is actually something to see, even if it’s absolutely nothing like what you’d expect a T-Rex to look like.

If there’s a down side to the movie, it’s that it’s entirely too short.  I only got about forty six minutes out of this, despite the box’s insistence of a run time of 86 minutes.  However, the other forty minutes will be devoted to another title–”T-Rex of the Deep”.

This one is also well put together, but much more serious in tone and heavy on the information.  You wouldn’t believe how many gigantic fish and aquatic reptiles there were back then, and many of them had horrendous arrays of teeth and even, in some cases, claws.

The Screenhead Ten Scale knows a good value when it sees one and thus hands T-Rex in Hollywood an eight out of ten.  Lots of great information presented in that exciting Discovery Channel style makes this an incredibly worthwhile video.