olivia_sutton | Entries tagged with the job

Blog for March 21, 2008 -- DVD reviews

Hiya all,

Easter Vigil is TOMORROW and it's snowing today! It's snowing hard and has been all day. And it's not like it's been cold this past week. Actually, over the last couple of weeks I've actually been driving around town with the windows open in my car (under sunny bright blue skies) so go fig?

DVD Reviews

I've finished watching The Job Denis Leary's brilliant cop comedy. It's kinda' like Barney Miller, if you remember that show, in that most of the show takes place at the station house or in the detectives' cars, and it's more about the cops as people rather that solving a crime each week. Not that there aren't crimes, there are, but they take a back seat to the character stuff.

Leary plays an incredibly messed-up cop (detective), which is the type of character he seems to specialise in. Anyways, Leary's character is a pill-popping, alcoholic, smoking mess; with a wife and kids in the 'burbs and girlfriend on the side. Which sounds awful but actually it just works, somehow Leary's very likable anyway. It also doesn't hurt that the entire series is laugh out loud funny.

It's just funny! Darkly comic, yeah, but brilliant. I'd say the best episodes are "Anger" and the last one (with kinda' a give-away title). "Anger" consists of Mike McNeil (Leary's character) being sent to an anger management class. Of course, he thinks the entire thing is total B.S. so on the second day, he manages to, just by talking, start a fight in the anger management class, which turns into a free-for-all, and the police are called in. The last episode is actually really depressing (it ranks up there with the last ep. of Blake's 7), but it's not a guns-blazing end, it's more character stuff that's so gut-wrenching. And it's characters just doing self-destructive stuff that's bad for themselves, but they're so screwed-up they do it anyways. And it's not just Leary's character-- it's everyone around him. Awesome stuff!

Needless to say, since I was pre-ordering the April 1^st releases of Doctor Who (classic) anyway, I ordered Season 1 of Leary's firefighter series, Rescue Me, which I've never seen. Should prove to be interesting.

The other thing I've been watching is Batman. A lot of Batman. I started by stumbling across Batman: The Animated Series on Jetix (Toon Disney's evening/night channel). Now, I had seen Warner Bros. animated Justice League a few years ago on Boomerang or Cartoon Network, and ended-up buying a couple single DVD discs and eventually Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD, so I vaguely knew that Batman: TAS existed, I just hadn't seen it. Anyway, watching Batman occasionally, quickly became watching it daily, and even taping a bit. Then, I started catching Justice League Unlimited on Boomerang, which led to watching The Batman (with a different voice actor, animation style, etc). So, now, of course I'll need to collect all the various versions. Bugger! (Tho', since I do get tired watching too much animé, so I'll spread out my purchases). But here's my low-down on the two I'm watching.

Batman: The Animated Series: OK, Kevin Conway IS Batman! I mean, he's been in what, four? Five? Batman series? And the reason is because he's good! But the rest of the regular (voice) cast is also brilliant. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr, whom I first saw in Remington Steele, is excellent as Alfred. He's as perfectly cast as Conway. Bob Hastings, whom I'm embarrassed to say I remember from 80s General Hospital, is excellent as Police Commissioner Gordon. And of course the various guest stars, as they did on Justice League, just rev it up a notch by giving credible performances. It definitely helps animé to have the series written as if the characters are actually human, if you know what I mean. I mean, no "cartoon logic". The Real Ghostbusters worked the same way -- the human characters were human and could get hurt, whereas the logic of the universe was that there were ghosts and demons and various paranormal beings running around New York. Anyway, I like that style of animation, where you have a base of reality amid a fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal show (and with animé, your effects are going to be better 'cause your only limited by imagination). You'd think I'd like Japanese Animation, but I've never really cared for it, despite my cousin and various fan-boy friends of mine trying to get me into it. And the few series that I have liked, are too expensive to purchase anyway.

Anyways, getting back to Batman: TAS, the series has a 1930s/film-noir look to it that I love. And some of favorite episodes in set one are the ones with a film noir feel to them like: "Appt in Crime Alley", "UnderDwellers", and, tho' it's not strictly film-noir, "P.O.V.". Anyway, I love the look of the show, the writing, the stories, and the kinda' psychological look at some of the characters, such as Batman and a couple of the villains (esp. Two-Face).

The Batman is of course completely different. In the pilot (tho' EpGuides.com lists it as the second episode), Alfred brings Bruce an anniversary cake with three candles. It's been three years since Bruce has donned the camp & cowl as The Batman to revenge his parents death. So, Bruce here is very young. Much younger than most other versions of Batman, even ones doing the origin story (such as Tim Burton's original Batman movie, where Bruce was in his late 20s or early 30s). Here, Bruce is in his early 20s. Alfred is also a bit younger than normal, and still has dark brown (not white) hair. The Batman really gets into the psychological nature of the various villains, as well as Bruce/Batman himself. For example, Det. Ethan Bennett is an old friend of Bruce's (whom he had considered revealing his secret identity to), who's kidnapped by the Joker, tortured, and dosed with this stuff that turns him into Clayface.

Tho' B:TAS got into psychology with it's background story for Two-Face (and it doesn't help at all that Batman was kinda' responsible for the accident. Well, Bats and the villain of the ep, whom I can't remember his name at the moment).

In this series, Batman does use a lot of gadgets and electronics -- but I liked that. Yeah, it's different from the heavily-noir B:TAS, but honestly, you couldn't remake B:TAS, so it was better to go in a completely different direction. And, you get used to the different look after awhile. Again, Alfred is brilliant in The Batman, and has a sense of humor, which helps but is also amusing. It takes awhile to get used to someone other than Kevin Conway playing Batman, and honestly, I think I would have preferred Conway, but once you get used to it the voice actor (?) does a decent job with the character. And, of course, some eps of The Batman are just total and complete crack! As in, What were the writers on, when they came up with this stuff. Bits to watch for that are extremely interesting include, Alfred signing Bruce up with an Internet dating service, and even finding him a date! And, any episode with Catwoman - since she and Bruce have great chemistry! (By contrast, Selina Kyle in Batman: The Animated Series, is pretty obviously a lesbian, with no interest in Bruce Wayne, and a live-in female secretary!)