olivia_sutton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
olivia_sutton) wrote2008-11-12 02:02 am
olivia_sutton) wrote2008-11-12 02:02 am
Sherlock Holmes, B:TAS V. 3, Smothers Brothers
Hi all --
Well -- some short DVD reviews today. First, The Complete Granada Television Series of Sherlock Holmes, starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes, David Burke and Edward Hardwicke as Watson. First -- this is the BEST version of Sherlock Holmes ever. Jeremy Brett is THE perfect Holmes and I just love him. Both David Burke and Edward Hardwicke play Doctor Watson as an intelligent man with a deep, caring (non-slash) love for his best friend, Holmes. Brett plays Holmes as a brilliant man, with little to no social graces (He even attacks Watson when he must) - true to the books. Holmes, -- the original geek.
One of the interesting things about the Granada series is that they did adaptations of the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories, rather then thrusting Holmes into the modern day or at least "modern" stories. Holmes is a Victorian and Edwardian hero -- and he's at his best in the original stories as written by Conan Doyle.
I also love both Watsons -- quietly supporting Holmes, because he IS the Doctor's friend. I sometimes wish I could find fic for Sherlock Holmes, 'cause some good old fashioned fannish h/c wouldn't come amiss at all, for me.
Both of the Watsons are intelligent, smart -- and the handover, from David Burke in "The Final Problem" to Hardwicke in "The Empty House" and all subsequent episodes is handled well. Holmesian lore remarks it's like 2-3 years from Holmes "death" to his resurrection - an older Watson fits.
I can't even say one or the other actor's my favorite -- because Burke fits the early Holmes stories and Hardwicke fits the latter ones.
The set is gorgeously packaged in a double slip-case, green with gold embossing, with Holmes's sayings embossed on the inner case. The DVDs are packaged in two foldout cases, but at least the discs don't overlap. Also, the set is digitally remastered -- and the episodes look fantastic, much, much better than the original "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" box set release of the first 13 episodes (only). If you do have the original box sets of: "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes", "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes", and the Feature Film collection -- then you already have the material in this set (there are only a couple of extra features unfortunately) -- but the gorgous, book-like case, and digital re-mastering might make you want to pick this up as well. Check DeepDiscount.com for specials -- that's where I got mine for 20% off their standard low price.
---------------
Batman: The Animated Series V. 3
Ok, I love B:TAS -- As far as I'm concerned Kevin Conroy IS Batman (and he's wonderful doing the voice work of Batman in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited as well. This collection features 29 episodes, both solo Batman and The Adventures of Batman and Robin. (B&R)
I do kinda' wish the folks at Warner Bros. would have seperated out the solo Batman series and B&R into seperate sets -- 'cause now I'll need to buy set 4 to finish off the collection, plus looking at Batman Beyond, and possibly Batman: Gotham Knight (I need to find out more about that one). But since I really, really, really prefer solo Batman to Batman and company, I just wish I had more choice about what I was collecting, rather than WB pushing B&R on me by putting it in the same collection. Overall, Volume 3 has some great episodes -- even crack!fic like "Make 'em Laugh" (come on "Condiment King"? "The Pack Rat"? -- Those sound like villians from The Flash!) And I do like what Bruce Timm and co did with Robin -- making him older, and more likely to challenge Bruce Wayne. But, again, fangirl here -- I want to see h/c and darkness in Batman --- and once Robin shows up any possibly of that just disappears. (Tho' I love the two-part "Robin's Reckoning", but that's on Volume 1. Still, Bruce's confession that he shut Dick out of the investigation into catching the man who murdered Dick's parents NOT because he thought Dick was too emotionally close to it to be effective -- but because he (Bruce) was terrified that he'd lose Dick -- I mean, wow!). And that's what B&R misses -- no angst, no h/c -- lots of fluffiness, right down to crack!fic.
Occasional crack!fic is fun -- and entire series of it, esp. in the Batman universe which is SUPPOSED to be the darkest character in the DC universe. No. -- I'm not having it. And don't get me started on Batgirl -- she needed to be thrown thru' the nearest wall, and forgotten about. I don't mind Barbara Gordon, actually. And Comissioner Gordon as a single father, is a nice updating of the mythology. (If it's an update). But Batgirl? She brings about bad memories of the 60s series, which although fun, certainly wasn't Batman.
---------------------
The Best of the Smother's Brothers Comedy Hour Season 3
I also just started watching "The Smother's Brothers Comedy Hour". Now, I'd first seen that historic series when it aired on E! - the Entertainment channel. This nice thing about how E! aired it was that they started with on camera interviews at the opening and close of every episode -- which rocked. The brothers are just nice, you know, and it's really fun to watch the two together, both when they are performing and when they are not. The third season set, which unfortunately is NOT the whole season, includes some of the more controversial episodes of the series (such as the one I just watched with Harry Belafonte). Apparently, there's also a lot of extra features. We'll see - WATCH THIS SPACE.
Also, included with my set 'cause I bought it directly from Time-Life is a film about the Smothers Brothers and the censorship issues they had with CBS and their show. Should be fun to watch, but I'm holding off until I've watched everything on the set. So, again, watch this space.
--Olivia
PS -- weather. Cold, cloudy, with some sun, but no snow or rain. According to NOAA current temp is: 39 F, (4 C), wind chill 35 F (not bad compared to temp), and get this -- NOAA now shows the latitude for my city -- 42.94N (The 45 parellel, halfway between the Equator and the North Pole is not that far north of here).
Well -- some short DVD reviews today. First, The Complete Granada Television Series of Sherlock Holmes, starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes, David Burke and Edward Hardwicke as Watson. First -- this is the BEST version of Sherlock Holmes ever. Jeremy Brett is THE perfect Holmes and I just love him. Both David Burke and Edward Hardwicke play Doctor Watson as an intelligent man with a deep, caring (non-slash) love for his best friend, Holmes. Brett plays Holmes as a brilliant man, with little to no social graces (He even attacks Watson when he must) - true to the books. Holmes, -- the original geek.
One of the interesting things about the Granada series is that they did adaptations of the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories, rather then thrusting Holmes into the modern day or at least "modern" stories. Holmes is a Victorian and Edwardian hero -- and he's at his best in the original stories as written by Conan Doyle.
I also love both Watsons -- quietly supporting Holmes, because he IS the Doctor's friend. I sometimes wish I could find fic for Sherlock Holmes, 'cause some good old fashioned fannish h/c wouldn't come amiss at all, for me.
Both of the Watsons are intelligent, smart -- and the handover, from David Burke in "The Final Problem" to Hardwicke in "The Empty House" and all subsequent episodes is handled well. Holmesian lore remarks it's like 2-3 years from Holmes "death" to his resurrection - an older Watson fits.
I can't even say one or the other actor's my favorite -- because Burke fits the early Holmes stories and Hardwicke fits the latter ones.
The set is gorgeously packaged in a double slip-case, green with gold embossing, with Holmes's sayings embossed on the inner case. The DVDs are packaged in two foldout cases, but at least the discs don't overlap. Also, the set is digitally remastered -- and the episodes look fantastic, much, much better than the original "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" box set release of the first 13 episodes (only). If you do have the original box sets of: "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes", "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes", and the Feature Film collection -- then you already have the material in this set (there are only a couple of extra features unfortunately) -- but the gorgous, book-like case, and digital re-mastering might make you want to pick this up as well. Check DeepDiscount.com for specials -- that's where I got mine for 20% off their standard low price.
---------------
Batman: The Animated Series V. 3
Ok, I love B:TAS -- As far as I'm concerned Kevin Conroy IS Batman (and he's wonderful doing the voice work of Batman in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited as well. This collection features 29 episodes, both solo Batman and The Adventures of Batman and Robin. (B&R)
I do kinda' wish the folks at Warner Bros. would have seperated out the solo Batman series and B&R into seperate sets -- 'cause now I'll need to buy set 4 to finish off the collection, plus looking at Batman Beyond, and possibly Batman: Gotham Knight (I need to find out more about that one). But since I really, really, really prefer solo Batman to Batman and company, I just wish I had more choice about what I was collecting, rather than WB pushing B&R on me by putting it in the same collection. Overall, Volume 3 has some great episodes -- even crack!fic like "Make 'em Laugh" (come on "Condiment King"? "The Pack Rat"? -- Those sound like villians from The Flash!) And I do like what Bruce Timm and co did with Robin -- making him older, and more likely to challenge Bruce Wayne. But, again, fangirl here -- I want to see h/c and darkness in Batman --- and once Robin shows up any possibly of that just disappears. (Tho' I love the two-part "Robin's Reckoning", but that's on Volume 1. Still, Bruce's confession that he shut Dick out of the investigation into catching the man who murdered Dick's parents NOT because he thought Dick was too emotionally close to it to be effective -- but because he (Bruce) was terrified that he'd lose Dick -- I mean, wow!). And that's what B&R misses -- no angst, no h/c -- lots of fluffiness, right down to crack!fic.
Occasional crack!fic is fun -- and entire series of it, esp. in the Batman universe which is SUPPOSED to be the darkest character in the DC universe. No. -- I'm not having it. And don't get me started on Batgirl -- she needed to be thrown thru' the nearest wall, and forgotten about. I don't mind Barbara Gordon, actually. And Comissioner Gordon as a single father, is a nice updating of the mythology. (If it's an update). But Batgirl? She brings about bad memories of the 60s series, which although fun, certainly wasn't Batman.
---------------------
The Best of the Smother's Brothers Comedy Hour Season 3
I also just started watching "The Smother's Brothers Comedy Hour". Now, I'd first seen that historic series when it aired on E! - the Entertainment channel. This nice thing about how E! aired it was that they started with on camera interviews at the opening and close of every episode -- which rocked. The brothers are just nice, you know, and it's really fun to watch the two together, both when they are performing and when they are not. The third season set, which unfortunately is NOT the whole season, includes some of the more controversial episodes of the series (such as the one I just watched with Harry Belafonte). Apparently, there's also a lot of extra features. We'll see - WATCH THIS SPACE.
Also, included with my set 'cause I bought it directly from Time-Life is a film about the Smothers Brothers and the censorship issues they had with CBS and their show. Should be fun to watch, but I'm holding off until I've watched everything on the set. So, again, watch this space.
--Olivia
PS -- weather. Cold, cloudy, with some sun, but no snow or rain. According to NOAA current temp is: 39 F, (4 C), wind chill 35 F (not bad compared to temp), and get this -- NOAA now shows the latitude for my city -- 42.94N (The 45 parellel, halfway between the Equator and the North Pole is not that far north of here).