Posted on 09/27/2006 11:04:53 AM PDT by Keltik
There's a gag in one of the old "Treehouse of Horror" episodes of "The Simpsons," in which Homer and Marge attend a parents meeting at Springfield Elementary School on the "thirteenth hour of the thirteenth day of the thirteenth month." The meeting, of course, is to discuss misprinted calendars; as Homer walks in from the wintry outdoors he glances at one hanging nearby and grouses, "lousy Smarch weather."
Well, the DVD calendar now has its very own Smarch. Until recently, video releases have followed essentially the same schedule as theatrical openings, just shifted forward three or four months: The studios' end-of-the-year, Oscar-bait movies generally hit DVD in the spring, the summer blockbusters are pushed to fall, and the prestige indies come out early in the new year. But, lately, a new season has been added to the year in video: the pre-fall-premieres TV-boxed-set stampede.
TV on DVD has been a growing market for some time, but this month it's all but forcing theatrical releases off the shelves. As I write, five of Amazon's top six bestsellers--and about half of the top 100--are TV boxed sets. For decades, television has been slowly killing Americans' desire go out and see movies at the theater; now it's killing their desire to watch them at home as well.
This is probably as it should be. As any number of critics have noted, there's a lot more quality mainstream TV these days than quality mainstream cinema. Moreover, DVDs, DVRs, and various forms of video-on-demand have largely erased the single greatest shortcoming of broadcast television: its insistence that you adapt to its schedule rather than the other way around. It's still possible to set a weekly date with your favorite TV show; it's just no longer necessary. And, while those eager to stay up-to-the-minute with "The Sopranos" -- or "Rome" or "Desperate Housewives"--still must settle for the leisurely rate of one episode a week, those willing to wait for the DVD can compress that schedule to an episode a night, or two or three at a stretch, or even an entire season in one Herculean sitting.
It's no fluke that this technological revolution has coincided with a substantial rise in TV serials--that is, shows whose individual episodes are part of a longer narrative arc. In the past, such programs could be a tricky proposition: Miss one episode thanks to a dinner party or bout of the flu and the whole thread could be lost. But, lately, the miniseries--which was premised, to some degree, on the assumption that people would only be willing to follow a given story for a handful of hours--has given way to the maxiseries: 20 or 60 or 100 hours in the life of Tony Soprano or Jack Bauer.
Back in 1989, Tom Wolfe wrote a notorious (also disingenuous and shamelessly self-serving) essay in Harper's titled "stalking the billion-footed beast." In it, he bemoaned the decline in America of the "big, realistic novel, with its broad social sweep," and wondered who would write novels of New York, "in the sense that Balzac and Zola had written novels of Paris and Dickens and Thackeray had written novels of London." The answer Tom Wolfe came up with was, unsurprisingly, Tom Wolfe. But, almost 20 years later, television is offering another possible answer. What is "The Wire," after all, if not a sprawling social novel of Baltimore? "The Sopranos," too, despite its more intimate focus on one profession and one family, is very much the kind of novelistic enterprise whose (exaggerated) absence Wolfe was mourning. The DVD format enables--even encourages--viewers to interact with these series as they would with novels, picking them up and putting them down when they wish.
Not every program aspires to the sweep or seriousness of "The Wire" and "The Sopranos," of course. "Lost" is a throwback to the radio adventure serials of the 1940s, "Arrested Development" a magnificent, picaresque farce. But, in their individual ways, all of these shows--and many others--are expanding our notions of the storytelling possibilities of the medium. It's a development worthy of commemoration with an expanded (though necessarily still incomplete) version of this week's list, featuring a few of the boxed sets to hit shelves recently or due out soon.
The Home Movies List: Serial Box
Arrested Development: Season 3. Two years ago, I called this "the best sitcom on television." The first half of that assessment stands even if the latter doesn't. From the very start, "AD" was haunted by the specter of its inevitable cancellation; each season--each episode--charged forward with a breakneck hilarity that betrayed the creators' sense that they had nothing to lose. The third season begins to show inklings of self-parody, and stumbles through a 5-story arc with Charlize Theron that makes little sense until its ultimate punch line. But it's still funnier than anything else you're likely to find on TV or in the video store.
Lost : The Complete Second Season. As above (and below) it's best to start at the very beginning. Familiarity with the first season of the pulpy mystery/adventure/romance/thriller will not only help around the water cooler, it'll enable you to fully appreciate the dada genius of the second season's opening scene--a mesmerizing bit of televised misdirection and surely the best-ever use of Mama Cass's "Make Your Own Kind of Music."
The Wire: The Complete Third Season. Between "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "The Wire," Baltimore has attained a kind of iconic status--though hardly one that other American cities would envy. Rich in its texture, persuasive in its details, and boasting greater sociological range--from the tenements to the mayor's office--than any other show on television, "The Wire" is finally (as readers of Open University are aware) getting the attention it deserves.
The Office: Season Two. Heretical statement alert: The American version of "The Office" is better than the British original. Yes, in the transition from Ricky Gervais to Steve Carell, the show's central antihero lost some of his wicked bite. But the subplots and supporting performances are much more richly developed, from the peripheral (Stanley, Ryan) to the inner circle (Rainn Wilson's brilliant Dwight Schrute). Jim and Pam, meanwhile, may be the most endearing will-they-or-won't-they couple in television history--better than Sam and Diane or David and Maddie or Joel and Maggie.
Rome: The Complete First Season. A ground floor well worth getting in on. The ambitious HBO-BBC collaboration has its share of shortcomings: The budget is too spare to truly capture the civil wars (at times it seems as if Caesar and Pompey command a few dozen men each); the interludes in Egypt resemble a foray into glam rock; and the languid pace of the first three-quarters of the season abruptly gives way to a frantic sprint to the Ides of March. But the show is more than redeemed by its lavish staging, intelligent scripts, and exceptional casting--especially Ray Stevenson as legionnaire Titus Pullo (exactly the kind of sensitive brute it was beginning to seem only Russell Crowe could bring off) and Ciarin Hinds, one of few actors (and human beings) with a face and bearing worthy of Julius Caesar.
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5. Not quite as good as its cult reputation, but good nonetheless. And who, after all, imagined that, post-"Buffy," we'd be lucky enough to see another second-tier movie turned into first-tier television? (What's next? An Emmy-worthy re-imagining of The Black Hole?) The four-part miniseries that launched the show is a little too pleased with its own bleakness, but things improve quickly. And while Edward James Olmos may not quite be a Jaime-Escalante-in-space, he lends gravity enough to keep "Galactica" from drifting away.
Northern Exposure: The Complete Fourth Season. A postcard from before the Age of Irony. Though "NX" has only been off the air for a little over a decade, it somehow seems longer. Much imitated, the show's quirky innocence has rarely, if ever, been equaled.
Epitafios. A 13-part, Spanish-language miniseries developed in Argentina by HBO, this is the show everyone would be talking about if only it were in English. I haven't finished the series (yet), but its stylish, Grand Guignol horrors--reminiscent of The Silence of the Lambs and (especially) Se7en--are hard to shake. Not for the squeamish.
The Sopranos: Season 6, Part 1 (out in November). The "Part 1" in the title gives away the real problem here. At its best (e.g., with the Vito storyline), this semi-season was as good as ever. But too often David Chase et al. seemed to be killing time with redundant filler--the overlong dream subplot, the recycled storylines (Christopher falling off the wagon, Artie getting in trouble over a pretty young hostess). Here's hoping that when it returns for its finale, the show will have a little more forward momentum toward one of television's most richly deserved curtain calls.
24: Season Five (out in December). Arguably the best season to date of this relentlessly engrossing series, a "Perils of Pauline" for the post-9/11 era. Rolling Stone's claim that this is the "central moral-political drama of our time," however, is more than a little silly, as I argue here. Still, these days it probably beats a typical night at the multiplex.
I cannot say enough good things about BSG. Most of season 2.5 though was a downer till the final 3 episodes got their footing back. Even with the low points it was still the best show on TV with season 3 coming up in 2(3?) weeks.
If you haven't seen the show seriously check it out.
You will be hooked. My husband and I are half-way through season 3.
They won't because they can't. BOR should go back to teaching third graders.
I dumped cable about 4 years ago now... and other than big news events.. I don't miss it at all.
There are only a handful of shows worth making an attempt to see on...
The ones I make an effort to see:
My Name is Earl
Everybody Hates Chris
The Simpsons - hit or miss anymore,but still watch.
Generally will watch the Law and Order series' if they are on I'm not busy, but don't go out of way to see them.
My wife is die hard Veronic Mars fan, and frankly there is far worse on TV.
She was huge into Buffy and Angel back when they were on.
If I could just get the shows I wanted, I'd probably give that a chance, but no way in hell I'll ever have full fledged cable again.... 879 channels of crap, and frankly can't escape insanely over sexualization on cable even in the middle of the afternoon... just flipping through the channels a 3pm at a hotel and I had to turn it off.
Your list is not adjusted dollars.. that puts newer movies at a huge advantage.
A mediocre movie can make 50-100 Million today.. when in 1970 that would have been an unquestionable blockbuster.
I sure wish History Channel would back off on the "Modern Marvels" show a bit. It's not a bad show but it seems like it's all that's ever on.
They left out the best TV show...ever.....THE SHIELD. It's now five seasons of incredible TV to watch on DVD. The absolute best adult drama EVER EVER EVER on TV.
For the record, Battlestar Galactica started out as a TV-movie/series and was not originally a secont-tier movie. (It was later re-released in theatres AFTER the TV showing).
I actually thought that Wolfe's "I Am Charlotte Simmons" would play extremely well as a maxi-series. It is too involved to be a two-hour movie. I wish there'd be some way to tone down the language and bedroom/dorm scenes, but the book would work perfectly in the maxi-series format.
HBO shill wrote that garbage.
The Fox show "24" just garnered all the awards and is making zillions in boxed sets.
Rome compared to "24" ?.....you have to be kidding me.
"Unless you get the dreaded "long wait" or worse "very long wait". Which is what happened to me with the 2nd season of the series "Ghost Hunters"."
Hey, I edit Ghost Hunters. Glad to see someone here is watching!
I completely agree. I just got through 2.0 e12 and the second series was actually better than the first. One of the few sci fi series I've seen that makes the reaslistic case for war against an implacable enemy. Very timely.
Only caveat: takes a post-Starship Troopers approach to battle troops, though Katee Sackhoff makes a cracker=jane Starbuck. Light=years better than the original, IMHO.
I don't really think the popularity of these TV show DVDs marks any trouble to the movie business at all. For most of the last 25 years (with a hickup last year, though this year seems to be back on trend) attendance and/or revenue at theaters has been up. What the DVDs are a death knell for is the old model of rerun syndication. It used to be the holy grail of TV was to get 100 episodes and sell the rerun rights, these days instead of trying to convince local and second tier national stations to buy the rerun rights they now try to convince the audience to buy their own private rerun rights. We're now seeing an entire era of TV shows that will probably never be sold to syndication no matter how many episodes they produce.
I never miss Ghost Hunters - can't wait for the next season!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
There are more of us here, but I think I'm the only one who will openly admit it! :-)
"What? Me watch a show about hunting ghosts? Never! Hey, wait a sec, the show ghos....er.....the mozart opera I've been looking forward to watching on the Sci-Fi channel is coming on right now...gotta run!"
(Actually, I dont have cable tv. I used to have it up untill late 2002, but couldnt afford it anymore. So now I watch all my movies and tv shows via Netflix/Blockbuster rentals. I learned about the series from just average surfing around the internet)
I'm actually enjoying Studio 90, even if it is written by Aaron Sorkin.
"I completely agree. I just got through 2.0 e12 and the second series was actually better than the first. One of the few sci fi series I've seen that makes the reaslistic case for war against an implacable enemy. Very timely."
One of the "contriversial" episodes that really made me think was somewhere in 2.5 I think it was, may have been in 2.0. Episode dealt with Doc Cottle(sp) doing abortions among the fleet.
President Roslin, apparently a pro-choicer, had the realization thanks to Baltar that the situation they were in abortion was not an option, and harkened back to the mini-series when Adama said "they better start having babies." Tigh: Is that an order? Adama: It might be soon.
Anyway the point being that BSG really tackles some issues that are pertinant to us, but drive the story there. Rape, Murder, the black market (episode sucked but had a point), military coup, abortion, racism, politics, religion, war (of course), war crimes, and more.
Some resolutions are left leaning, some are right leaning. Overall it comes back to right/left doesn't really matter, it's how less than 50,000 people are going to survive, and that what ends up making the decision.
It's all there. BSG reimaged is a drama that happens to take place in space, where as most sci-fi is sci-fi that happens to have some dramatic elements.
As far as "bleakness" goes of course it's going to be bleak. Billions of people got whacked in less then 24 hours and the survivors mostly just happened to be in space at the time on commercial transport vessels. Galactica had no bullets, and old fighters in a museum, as she was an old ship up for decommision. Of course the show is going to be bleak, unlike the original series that almost every episode forgot that they were the only survivors and half the time everything was happy go lucky.
Anyway I'm rambling.
I completely disagree. We are living in the TRUE "Golden Age" of television! TV has never been better. Battlestar Galactica, Myth Busters, Dirty Jobs, NFL Live, House, NOVA, Modern Marvels, the Family Guy, Bones, Deadwood, etc. My Tivo usually has far more enjoyable programming stored than I can get to.
I love TV!
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