MELROSE PLACE: The Fifth Season, Vol. 2 DVD

While it’s curious that CBS chose to split Melrose Place, Season Five into two separate volumes, especially considering Beverly Hills 90210 and all the MP prior had been full season sets, it sort of makes sense. Season five was tumultuous with a huge hemorrhaging of the main cast and a big influx of new residents. While the show stayed as steamy as ever, the demographics certainly changed a lot between the first and second halves of the season. The adage of season five truly was “out with the old, in with the new”. Also leaving with the old, though, were viewers, and season five marked the start of a steady ratings decline after the peak of the explosive season opener in season four. Should fans who have collected the series thus far on DVD follow suit, or do the new season five residents more than pay their rent? They definitely do enough of it on their back, at any rate!


I’m going to spare the lengthy synopsis, since if you’ve made it to the second half of season five, you know your Melrose. That and I’ve already written about it at length for the previous volume of season five. Instead, I’ll try and dodge major spoilers and instead just give you an appraisal of the real estate for this season’s second half. Jane (Josie Bissett) is gone and Kimberly (Marcia Cross) will be making her exit shortly after, too, but even on her death bed she keeps the love triangle between her, my main man Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro) and Megan (Kelly Rutherford) alive and kicking. Just as soon as Kimberly is gone (and typical of Melrose’s ability to one-up itself, another person leaves the same episode!) there’s a new tenant in LA, Jennifer (Alyssa Milano) who happens to be of the Mancini persuasion. Like her older brother she isn’t afraid to scheme to get what she wants, and she’s got her eyes set on a few tenants on Melrose. Jake (Grant Show) and Alison (Courtney Thorne-Smith) are still falling in and out of love, Matt’s dealing with the sudden appearance of his abandoned niece, Taylor’s (Lisa Rinna) out of Kyle’s (Rob Estes) place and into the bed of many others and Sydney (Laura Leighton) settles down, first with one man and then another in white. Suave sonofabitch Peter Burns (Jack Wagner) is playing cat and mouse with Michael for control over Wilshire memorial, and Billy (Andrew Shue) and Sam (Brooke Langton) face hardship as her jailbird daddy comes back asking for favors. That leaves us with the queen of the show, Amanda (Queen Locklear), who tackles both marriage and divorce in the same season and a bunch of other side investments.


It’s in this season that the favorite Melrose hangout, Shooters, is finally retired and Kyle’s new dig, After Dark, takes its place in full jazz fashion. Other than Marcia Cross, all the other full-timers make it to the end, but whether they die or make it out of Melrose amicably (yes, it actually can happen!) , the end of the season sees the last of, count ‘em, Grant Show, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Laura Leighton and, if you discount the one episode farewell at the start of season six, Doug Savant. That’s a big hit, but under the wing of Frank South, who was promoted to head writer after creator Darren Star left in season four, the season proves that big twists and sharp dialogue can always trump big changes and sharp exits. Because so much of the cast does leave this season that makes for a lot of good drama on its own, but the new cast certainly gives some new blood, too. Craig Field (David Chavert), who by my estimation provided the best drama for the first half of season five with all his office scheming with Amanda, continues to smarm it up, and bringing in Alyssa Milano as Michael’s sister was the perfect way to both flesh out Michael’s otherwise untapped family (every other main character has had some major run-ins with family) and to add in another feisty, passionate female lead. Kyle and Taylor really start to settle into their parts by the second half after the whole Taylor-Peter subplot finally resolves itself. While Megan is nice if not entirely exciting, the sore thumb is definitely Sam, who really drags Billy into the clenches of boredom for all their parts this season. It’s only at the end where she really, uh, crashes, the party.


While none of the major twists match the wig-tearing, building blowing, head-smashing rise-from-the-grave fun of previous seasons, this season, and particularly this half, certainly has its share of big twists. Even if there are more bumps in the road this season than ones past, it still comes together for a grand two-hour finale. The problem, though, is that the bar was just set too high with the wild and sensational seasons three and four, so by the time they hit five, where the focus shifted more to the spicy personal drama of season two, it just seemed a little…anti-climactic. There was no shortage of climaxing this series, though, with the bed hopping that made the series famous still in full swing. It all ends bittersweet as many of the characters say goodbye (either suddenly or not) to their longtime roomies, and don’t worry, Melrose fans, the last two seasons don’t really give you much time for remorse. From this half of Melrose Place onwards, each season has a completely different feel and cast, but bask in this, the last of the old and the start of the new. If transition is tough, don’t worry, Michael Mancini never changes his smug, selfish ways throughout the entire show, so as long as he’s aboard (and that stands again now for the recent revamp) I’m there. Consider this my deposit.


presentation...

The final 13 episodes are presented in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Sadly, they are also presented in their original interlaced exhibition, which makes for a less than flattering HDTV viewing experience. Other than that self-imposed softness, there’s added softness in the overall image too. It’s not the sharpest picture, and that might be due to the fact that each dual layer disc is pushing three and a half hours. Thankfully the image is nice and vibrant, so colors hold up quite well. Some scenes are darker than they should be, and every so often some grain permeates the frame, but overall it’s like most any other nineties show on DVD – watchable, but definitely no knock out. Chalk it up to old video tape archival.


Sound wise, the episodes are presented in English Stereo. Don’t go looking for some left to right separation, even during some of the inevitable explosions that happen throughout this second half. Dialogue comes through nice and clear, and the music is adequately mixed. It should be noted that again, music has been changed from the original airing. While I normally don’t have a problem with it, since I understand the complexities of copyright management in the digital era, a show like Melrose Place¸ which was always garnished with the hottest tracks, certainly suffers without them. Some of those post-opening credit music beds are really, really tacky. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when season seven rolls around, when bands like Tal Bachman and Hanson were playing live at Kyle’s bar.

extras...


Any extras that were planned for this second set have been evicted. Or maybe the whole extras department has been condemned, since there hasn’t been a supplement on Melrose Place since season three. Too bad.

wrapping it up…


While it’s sad to see so many regulars go at the tail end of this fifth season, the series hardly bothered to look back, moving forward with sexy, saucy and scandalous melodrama. New tenants like Rob Estes, Lisa Rinna, David Chavert and Alyssa Milano really add some good personality, and it’s fun to see how all the old favorites bid farewell. At only 13 episodes (compared to the 19 of this season’s previous volume) it’s kind of tough to recommend this set at the same price point (especially since previous full length, 30+ episode seasons retail for the same), but if you’ve enjoyed Melrose Place thus far, don’t jump ship. There are still plenty of delights in season six and seven. In Mancini We Trust.

overall... Content: A- Video: C Audio: C+ Extras: F Final Grade: B

ONE TREE HILL: The Complete Sixth Season DVD

One Tree Hill has lived the most curious life. A pick up the pieces fill in for The WB after all the Dawson’s Creek cast wanted to grow up, One Tree Hill was rushed out on the same North Carolina sets but it didn’t get the same kind of ratings as its Kevin Williamson inspirer. Instead, One Tree Hill played second (maybe third) fiddle to pop culture phenom, The OC, on Fox. To steal a quote from Blade Runner, “The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long” and after three seasons The OC was all but dead, limping forward one last painful year to close off the fourth. One Tree Hill, on the other hand, started to build an audience from the first to second season, and after a slight ratings drop when it switched nights in the stellar third season, it virtually held on to those dedicated teen fans up to present. It may never get the pop culture play that The OC or Dawson’s Creek received before it, or even the press its lead-in, Gossip Girl, receives, but it’s weathered the storm and has stuck it out through six seasons, with a seventh currently in production. The only teen show that has lasted longer has been Beverly Hills, 90210. Not bad for a modest little show initially about the perils that come with being on a basketball team.


Its ability to tread water all these years is a pretty significant feat, but One Tree Hill also deserves some kudos for its writing. One of the main reasons the show was able to stay alive was the clever construction of the fifth season, which eschewed the usual pratfalls of high school dramas by jumping the series forward four years. Normally teen shows start to fizzle when high school dramas merely become college dramas, so Mark Schwahn did brilliant by jumping us forward to after college life so we could not only witness these kids as grownups, but to also add a five year mystery that could be dramatically mined for years to come. Each character was suddenly defined by a career or lack thereof rather than teen angst, and it again lit a spark to the already brightly burning series. Granted, Dawson’s Creek did it first with the landmark series finale, but that was after we had to sit through boring lit class after lit class with Joey Potter through the fifth and sixth seasons.


Now, before I really get into One Tree Hill¸ I think I better address its incestuous connection with Dawson’s Creek. As much as One Tree Hill is a different show, it will always be indebted to the Creek by mere fact that superficially it is on many of the same sets and in the same location as Williamson’s series. The criticism and comparison has always been there, and in season six Mark Schwahn ingeniously addresses the elephant in the room by not only casting James Van Der Beek in a supporting role and not only making him an aged filmmaker, but having him oversee the most reflexive and self-conscious lift from Dawson’s Creek – the life story movie being made from Lucas’s memoirs. That amazing series finale for Dawson’s Creek, where (like One Tree Hill) everyone is grown up and now recollecting on the past, features a wonderfully parodying television series being made by Dawson on his life experiences, affectionately dubbed The Creek. When Dawson surprisingly didn’t get the girl in the finale, he had his show wherein his Dawson did get Joey. It was a wonderful testament to the cathartic and nostalgic power of filmmaking, and by bringing “Dawson” back to watch Lucas relive the same dream finally allows One Tree Hill to come full circle.


The thing is, though, Mark Schwahn doesn’t simply drum up one of Dawson’s Creek’s essential innovations just to copy or even pay homage. Schwahn presents us with what Dawson could be now, offering another perspective on the notion of storybook endings. What happens if the romanticized power of film, as it is so often depicted and as it was depicted in Dawson’s Creek, ain’t quite so romantic. What happens if it ends up being only a shallow substitute for real life experience? Looking at Van Der Beek here, you get the sense that this neo-Dawson definitely feels that way. Taking the meta layer one further, though, it’s as if Schwahn is letting Van Der Beek the actor vent his frustration of being teen idol one minute and the moment the show was canceled a direct to video has been the next. How fickle audiences are, and it’s only fitting that through the clever constructs by Schwahn & Co., Van Der Beek gets his best role post-Dawson (I’m counting the sublime The Rules of Attraction as before) performance on the very sets that once made him a household name.


So what about the rest of the sixth season? The relationships are still very much the same for those raised on the first few seasons. Nathan’s (James Lafferty) still with Hailey (Bethany Joy Lenz Galeotti), Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) is still brooding under Peyton (Hilarie Burton) and Brooke (Sophia Bush) is still the wild card with the clothing line. Mouth “Yes, I’m the nerd from Boy Meets World” McFadden (Lee Norris) is still being nice and hooking up with subsidiary guest appearances, and proving that every teen series needs a little boost of Melrose Place, Daphne Zuniga is still bitching it up as Brooke’s mother. It’s amazing that we should still care at this point, but while most series lose their creator later on into their runs (Darren Star with Melrose, Kevin Williamson with the Creek) Mark Schwahn has diligently committed to these characters and rather than tack on new traits and superficial spins, he’s stuck to exploring the core of these young souls, and with each year we learn more rather than deal with less.


The big dramas this season involve Lucas knocking Peyton up, Skills (Antwon Tanner) booty calling with Nathan’s mom (Barbara Alyn Woods), Hollywood opportunity knocking for Lucas, robbers knocking down Brooke, a big league basketball revival for Nathan and a kidnapping for Dan (Paul Johansson). After so many on-again-off-again romances between Lucas and Peyton it’s nice to finally see some closure here, especially knowing now that the two won’t be returning next year. One Tree Hill has been a show that’s never shied from growing up over the years, and Mark Schwahn gives his blonde core a beautiful arc that was in the making right from the first episode. They mature, find direction and secure a future together – sounds pretty good, Lucas, so why are you still brooding?!


Another way the show has been able to grow where others keep rehashing the same old thing is in not only having the main characters have a child, but in keeping that child as a regular on the show. For two seasons now, little Jackson Brundage has played son to Nathan and Hailey, and in those two seasons he’s grown a lot. Like the 7 Up films, it’s interesting to see a life shaped right on screen, and not only that, but the kid can act. He injects a spontaneous energy to the show, his non-scripted interludes often making the cut and surely adding levity to all the grown actors around him. It has always been an annoying distraction in television when kids are either born and forgotten (Friends, The OC) or miscarried once the pregnancy plot has played its course (Melrose Place). Here, One Tree Hill embraces the little one, and rather than bog the series down with responsibility, it jacks it up to a new level of realism.


That’s not to say the show isn’t sensational. Another thing that comes with growing up is that typical high school dramas like proms, kisses and hearsay can be replaced with soapier things like sex, death and careers. Although the plots haven’t gone totally sensational like Beverly Hills, 90210 did when it graduated, One Tree Hill has managed to consistently up the stakes while still retaining that quiet, small town core.


The core is the last thing I want to dwell on, because another thing that has kept this series alive and kicking where so many others have failed is that it’s really kept the group together. For six full seasons not only were the fab five all kept front and center, but so many of the supporting players stuck around too. Even characters who served a small arc and left usually wound up back in the show in one form or another. Creator Mark Schwahn has done a great job at looking inside for drama rather than always trying to pull it from outside. Drama is richer when the characters have a history, and everyone from Lucas’ mom and Ravens basketball star Quentin (Robbie Jones) to skater Chase Adams (Stephen Colletti) and slut with a heart Rachel Gatina (Danneel Harris) are always popping in for continuity. This has always been a favorite custom of the show ever since the third season when a once forgotten character suddenly returned to the show to take the school Columbine style because everyone (including the show’s producers) had forgotten about him. Since that point on, Schwahn’s never dumped a character and that’s why One Tree Hill stands today as one of the richest, deepest dramas on television.


You can tell times are tight, since the seams of production are certainly starting to show on those Wilmington sets. The photography isn’t as sharp, the camera moves less competent and the set pieces less extravagant, likely due to less shoot days, smaller crews and dwindling budgets. The Gavin DeGraw theme song is long gone, in fact so are most of the big music plugs like Fall Out Boy that used to frequent the show. Yet hold on it does, and for the first time One Tree Hill will be moving forward without its full core at the center next year. Even if it’s visually starting to look more like a daytime soap than the nighttime one it aspired to be, One Tree Hill is still very much alive and kicking, and if this season six is any indication, it has a long set of legs still ahead of it. Even after six straight points, One Tree Hill is still a swish.

presentation...


The production values may have been downgraded for this season, but the transfers here are still of the high quality Warner has consistently delivered for the previous five. The episodes are progressive scan, 16x9 and with a ratio of 1.78:1. Four of the 24 episodes are included on each dual layer disc, averaging around 3-hours per disc. That means there is a little compression, but the encoding is such that it’s not overly noticeable. Edges are fairly sharp and detail is maintained, although given the grain present throughout there are at times some bits of macro blocking in some of the still areas. Colors don’t totally jump from the screen, but flesh tones have been preserved well. Overall, a nice picture.


While the show has always been 16x9, only recently has it been in Dolby Digital 5.1. The first several seasons were stereo only, but now they are 5.1 and honestly, it doesn’t sound all that different. There is a bit more bass kick to the episodes, but the sound space is still virtually all up front, and even then directionality between left and right speakers isn’t really that pronounced. Everything is clear and there is no hiss or crackle, but there is nothing really stand out about this mix either. Good, serviceable and as it should be.

extras...


Through all the extensive supplements that have peppered the previous releases, it’s always been apparent the crew for One Tree Hill really does love the show. It’s a different experience watching these supplements compared to most other extras because you feel, cheesy enough, like you’re walking in on a loving, inviting family. It’s great to see the supportive world that makes one of televisions finest shows out today, and season six continues the trend with hours worth of behind-the-scenes content.


First up are a couple commentaries by Mark Schwahn and select cast and crew. If you’ve ever seen any of the previous sets you know what to expect here – affectionate, honest and revealing reflections and observations about how these fine little pieces were put together. The episodes selected aren’t really the notable ones you’d expect given everything that happens in the show, but some of those episodes do get extra play in the featurettes below.


“OTH – The Director’s Debut” (13:06) is a wonderful little featurette demonstrating how Mark Schwahn not only keeps his core together on screen, but also behind it. The featurette chronicles the first time directing gigs on the show for actors Chad Michael Murray, James Lafferty and Bethany Joy Galeotti. All the other principals are interviewed as well, and each show great support for their peers and the fun everyone was having is certainly infectious. Schwahn talking about how it was a great way to give back to the team and to help them grow really make the show seem more than just a job but more like a family. It’s a revealing and positive look at just how tight this team really is.


There’s also a Gag Reel (4:03) that is hardly about flubbing lines and more just behind-the-scenes antics, pranks and some funny slapstick stuff on set. The most humorous bit is when Lucas and Peyton are having a tender moment on the bleachers and an extra in the background accidentally flashes the beaver right in between their eye line. Worthy of some chuckles and feel good like the rest of the extras included here.


One Tree Hill has always had a special tie to music, with all the episodes named after songs, Hailey always exploring her passion as a musical artist and Peyton always working her magic as a music producer and aficionado. While again the heyday of big musical cameos like Gavin DeGraw, Sheryl Crow or Fall Out Boy, they are still giving back to the musical community both on the show and outside it, and this “OTH Celebrity Soundtrack” (21:39) featurette shows just what they’ve been up to for season six. In short, they’ve allowed artists they respect compose individual episodes, they’ve featured a few artists as characters in the show and even centered an entire episode around a concert that Peyton throws for the troops. That in-show concert was actually a concert in real life, with characters still staying in character for all the fans who attended, which is another fine moment of meta for an always reflexive show. This little piece is another enlightening little piece about the musical process on the show.


Yet another fine featurette follows with “OTH Goes Back in Time” (17:25) where the entire cast and crew reflect on the out of character experience of setting an episode in the 1940s. There is extensive behind the scenes footage of the set construction and even some of the stunts, and the crew talk about what it was like to play in an alternate universe. Chad Michael Murray wrote the episode, so it was interesting to hear his take and to see his involvement (both here and as a director in the other featurette). Murray seems to have such a blast behind-the-scenes that even if he isn’t coming back to act in Season 7, I wonder if he’ll be extending his passion for writing or directing. I don’t know if he’s any good or not, but he seems to have fun, at any rate.


The last featurette is “Slammin’ with OTH” (11:34) which introduces (to me, at least) the bat crazy “Slam Ball” sport which is sort of a hybrid between basketball, hockey and trampolining. It’s a wild sport to watch and with this featurette we get to see behind the scenes into the game and how it factored into a story arc on the show. There is a bunch of test footage with James Lafferty trying some dunks, and honestly, the guy can play. He almost earns that number 23 he wears in the show. Hearing Lafferty and the rest of the crew talk about the sport and seeing it on screen really makes me want to at least give it a shot. So with that, a job well done on this promo piece!

Lastly there are a number of deleted scenes included for every odd episode. Nothing substantial or really all that worthy of inclusion, but nice to have for the completists.

wrapping it up...


One Tree Hill reinvented itself when it jumped forward four years in season five, and season six continues to keep things fresh by not exploring new characters or locales, but by simply looking within. The core for this show, from the five leads to the adults and the recurring support have always been so relatable and interesting to watch, and creator Mark Schwahn doesn’t take it for granted for a second. He continues to bring back older characters for newer situations and by this point the social rubric is so rich now no other teen show can touch it in regards to sheer emotional depth. Not only does Schwahn look inward on his own characters, but he even takes a plot thread to do it with James Van Der Beek’s Dawson. What’s not to like? This DVD set doesn’t have much to scoff at either, delivering another consistently solid video and audio transfer and a rich assortment of featurettes, commentaries and deleted scenes. One Tree Hill hardly made it past the pilot, hardly was renewed for the second season and has been day to day every time renewal talks hit The WB/CW, but six seasons later it’s still top of the teen class. In the hills and valleys of a television show’s run, One Tree has been all hills.

overall... Content: A- Video: B+ Audio: B+ Extras: A- Final Grade: B

GOSSIP GIRL: The Complete Second Season DVD

It’s funny the way television works. Shows always seem to begin their run as innocent testaments to the triumph of love. Drama is almost always centered around a central guy-girl duo, both being from opposite sides of the tracks and both finding a way to beat the odds and make it work. Dallas, Melrose Place, Beverly Hills, 90210, The OC, One Tree Hill, Dawson’s Creek, it’s all the same template. Yet, it’s hardly ever that romance that translates into big ratings. Do we really remember Dallas for the Romeo & Juliet pairing of Bobby and Pam? No, we remember it for J.R. and his scheming ways. Do we remember Melrose Place because of Allison and Billy’s goofy courtship? No, we remember it for crazy Kimberly, bitchy Amanda and scheming Michael. Viewers love the bad boys, and no matter how much studios try to shovel romance, it’s the dirt that keeps viewers interested. Happy endings are so 1940.


Case in point, Gossip Girl. Here is a show that again began as a star-crossed pairing between the pampered private school princess Serena van der Woodsen (I know, with a name like that how could you guess, right?) , played not-so-lively by Blake Lively, and east-ender with a struggling rock star for a father Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), but quickly found its footing in another vocation. Gossip Girl became a show about spoiled douchebags. Part of the initial allure of The OC was all the rich and oblivious mockery of the nouveau riche, but rather than mock it, Gossip Girl embraces it. Serena’s foil, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) is a mollycoddled little brat, and her male equal, Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) is even worse. Despite the Tiger Beat looks and harmless and generally well-to-do posturing of on-again-off-again Serena/Blair love interest Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), it’s the badass buffoonery of Chuck that seems to have all the girls and pop culture in a swoon. And this guy’s bad.


Now, there have certainly been anti-heroes in soaps before, indeed with people like J.R., Michael Mancini and One Tree Hill’s Dan Scott the genre practically thrives on it. With Chuck though, the Gossip crew push the limits of vile asshattery. You know your anti-hero is bad when his rich connections get him off rape charges during the opening episode. What a way to begin! So even if Gossip Girl tried to center on the goody good with Dan and Serena, by the first episode it was already becoming a peep hole into the lives of assholes and people you generally just love to not hate, but despise. It took Melrose Place and Dallas a good 40 episodes to reach that conclusion, but here in 2007 it only took Gossip Girl one. And once Gossip Girl found its footing in vice, it ran with it. For the season two push, The CW even went as far as to promote the well-received series with the most venomous critical pans, proudly boasting the Boston Herald’s “Every Parent’s Nightmare!” dismissal. It’s rich kids doing bad things, and by posturing it as the film adults want to hate, they’ve turned it into a faux-taboo pop culture mainstay. The douchebags are here to stay.


So what’s new in season two? Well, to start we get some amusing guest roles from Michelle TratchenIcanneverspellherlastnameberg and Brittany Snow. The Upper East Siders are still as spoiled and selfish as ever, but that doesn’t’t stop them from falling in and out of love and alliance on bi-episode basis. Most of the conflicts are of the petty omg J ruined S’s party cuz she texted the addy to gossip girl variety, but the scheming and sobbing also extends to funerals, jails and ivy league colleges. The prime mover this season is just where oh where each senior will affirm their family status by choosing a posh school in post-secondary. That is, if they ever make it there. Chuck’s back on the booze, Blair’s classing it up with community service and Serena’s flirting with a walk down the aisle. There are school plays, sweet sixteen parties and bed swapping galore, and all the while Kirsten Bell is dropping XO-XOs and hearsay as the titular gossip girl. Even her reign as the vile voice of the show is in limbo when Serena plans to out the mystery blogger for the finale.


These people are shallow, their pursuits frivolous, but all the pompous, wintry New York gloss somehow translates into addicting entertainment. Perhaps it’s because all the other breakout teen TV has been set in warm, vapid bikini weather or because we’re all just so cynical now, but watching these mindless tarts trot around in button jackets and woven scarves certainly has an appeal. Maybe it’s the fun in seeing all these spoiled brats going through the motions of trying on mommy’s makeup or daddy’s credit cards as a rite of passage. Maybe it’s because, deep down, we like to see the Gordon Gecko’s of the world succeed because, hey, ain’t that capitalism and ain’t that America?


While these snots will probably never change, I still do wait with baited, misty breath for what changes come with season three in the Big Apple. The era of the wide-eyed, do good teenager is dead. The douche bags have taken over, and until this current recession becomes a blip in the past, cynicism will rule all. And it’s all happening in the high rises and low brows of Gossip Girl.

Presentation...

All 25-episodes of the second season come in high quality 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, progressively encoded, and a 5.1 Dolby Digital surround mix. I didn’t notice a ton of directional effects – it’s mostly dialogue up front and a bit of fill in the back, but the mix effectively levels the dialogue and “It” band music in harmony. The video looks really crisp and it’s quite amazing how far television has come in the last decade, since my Melrose, Dawson’s Creek and 90210 still look like utter crap. Colors are intentionally muted because you can’t really be sly and detached without hues of grey, but it still looks ice cold appealing.


The series is presented in one big alpha case with most of the DVDs located in a middle snap in holster series. There’s a cardboard slipcase overtop of it all to make it more fitting with box sets previously released for TV product. There’s also a nice little booklet that provides a listing, summary and bullets of included extras for each episode. The menus are a little tacky, with the highlight in the form of a mouse pointer like the equally tacky episode intros, but they are organized well enough to make navigating the discs pretty intuitive. My one gripe is that right off the bat it features descriptions of the episodes on the right side of the screen, making it tough to start things up without some sense of what’s going to unfold in the episode. A plus is the toggle switch between watching the episodes with or without the recap. I remember some of my classic TV shows with the recaps and when they’re nowhere on the discs it’s always a bit of a throw-off.


As for extras, here’s the gossip:

“5th Avenue Meets Gossip Girl” features an interactive map of New York with short little 2:00 video documents of each location used in the series. It features interviews with the cast, crew and building owners, and gives a nice description not only of how each is used in the show but how each location functions in real life, too. Gossip Girl fans heading to NY, take note!


“lol” which translates to “Gag reel” for those not text message inclined. It’s actually quite humorous and really shows the way all these actors are when they’re not putting up a front for the show or for the press kit. It runs a substantial length of 10:39 and features all the principals and even a bit of the jovial crew. From the looks of it, Leighton Meester flubs her shit by far the most.

There are six “Chasing Dorota” webisodes that run roughly 3:00 a piece. Basically the proletariat spin on Gossip Girl, this features the trials and tribulations of Blair’s maid. The concept is probably funnier than the execution, it nevertheless features the maids getting together and talking shop, and Dorota trying to choose between the security guard downstairs or an old Polish ex. Each episode has the requisite narration, replacing “XOXO” with “Ta Ta”. Cute, but insubstantial.


“Gossip Girl: Faces Behind the Design” talks about the posh designs on display in the show, from the clothing to the actual art pieces within the locales. Jenny’s fashion line in the series is featured, with interviews with the ghost designer on how he came up with the styles by relating with the characters from the show. More interesting is how the show worked in a street photographer into the episodes and how the real photographer had to come in after cut to get the shots the actors were faking during the roll. The show did a few other interesting things with art throughout, and it’s on display here in this well edited 17:02 supplement.


And winning the award for the longest supplement I’ve ever seen (this side of The Frightners' 4.5 hour doc) is the 2:27:50 audiobook reading of the second entry in the Gossip Girl book series, “You Know You Love Me”. The series predated the show and set the groundwork for all that was to follow, and it’s nice to have that bit of history here, read for this release by Christina Ricci. It’s kind of funny to hear the usually wry actress reading everything with such earnest enunciation, but a paycheck is a paycheck, right? There are a ton of chapter stops, although regrettably no index for all those not hardcore enough to do it all in one sitting. It can also be downloaded onto a computer via DVD-ROM for those who want to throw it on their iPod. A novel (heh) extra that’s been continued on from the Ricci reading of the first novel on season one, here’s hoping it continues.

All those extras are located on the final disc, but there are unaired scenes scattered throughout the other discs, appended to whatever episode they originate from. There are often several on a single episode, showing just how easy it can be to trim or exclude subplots to hit that forty-three minutes.


While I’d like to see more on the cast opening up about their characters, or even the writers talking about how to adapt the book material, the extras here are still well done and a cut above the usual TV on DVD treatment.

Wrapping it up…


It may have abandoned the conceit that love conquers all after the first episode, but Gossip Girl still entertains free of irony as a window into the vapidity of bourgeois life. These people are douchebags and they revel in the fact, living out their shallow lives like it’s the only thing that matters. After this bunch, I don’t know how teen TV can ever go back to earnest romances and After School Special-esque lessons. The episodes look great in 16x9 and sound equally as good in 5.1. The packaging and presentation are solid, and the extras provide a decent window into the series plus a cool Christina Ricci spoken audio book of the novel that started it all. If you like your soaps steamy and in a tub filled with San Pellegrino, Gossip Girl won’t clean you up, but it’ll at least heat things up. Looking forward to next season, XOXO, Rhett Miller.

Overall... Content: B Video: A- Audio: B+ Extras: B Final Grade: B

MELROSE PLACE: The Fifth Season, Vol. 1 DVD

Truly, madly, deeply, I’m in love with Melrose Place. I grew up watching Beverly Hills, 90210 on TBS afterschool, and had perfect attendance throughout the other teen soap runs of Dawson’s Creek, The O.C., One Tree Hill and Degrassi, but little did I know it was all child’s play. It wasn’t until I moved into the Place Melrose when it hit DVD in 2006 that I truly started to live. Somehow in my teen years I lived oblivious to the whole pop culture phenomenon, instead basking contently in le triangle d’amour of Brenda-Dylan-Kelly. I never felt a void for not including a dollop of Melrose in all those sudsy baths of television soaps. I was in high school, and I was content. Who needs a spin-off of 90210 when you could have the real thing at West Beverly?


This was more than just a spin-off, though…this was graduation. This was higher education into just how outrageous, sexy, fun and catty television could be. Of course I didn’t know that, but with the 2006 DVD debut looming, some of my friends on set began talking. Reminiscing in all the great Melrose memories – of Marcia Cross blowing up the building, Patrick Muldoon coming back from the dead or Heather Locklear watching her father get blown to smithereens. “But Donna kept her virginity all throughout high school…” I’d mumbled defeated. Whatever. I’ve got my show, and all this Melrose talk will cease come once production wraps.


Well, as it turns out, my next film project following was to be camera trainee on some crummy Nora Roberts Lifetime movie. Refuge from all these Melrose musings? No, it was the breaking point. As fate would have it, Heather Locklear was to star, and I’d spend the better part of the month taping down her marks. There was no escaping this now – I had to jump feet first into the melodrama, L.A. style. I bought the first season, and hook line and sinker I was immediately reeled in by all the mile a minute plot twists. Of course the series began more humbly than the prime time soap du jour it would become, but that’s a tale for a different review. The fifth season here, sadly truncated into only the first half for this DVD release, marks an important turning point in the series. Let’s talk about the Melrose magic, and just what happened to it when the series went from ratings juggernaut in season four to barely being renewed in season six.


If you ask series connoisseurs, of which I can proudly consider myself a part two short years later, the series Jumped the Shark at the end of the fourth season. It was always a series characterized by jaw dropping plot twists at every cliffhanger finale, but no matter how outrageous, they always seemed grounded in some sense of reality. Cross’s Kimberly was a loon, but even when she was blowing up buildings there were repercussions. By the end of the fourth season, though, the series had nearly drowned in its own soap bubbles as Kimberly kidnapped smarmy and smug doctor, Peter Burns (current beau of our favorite Locklear, Jack Wagner), and somehow managed to have him committed to an insane asylum where she was not only running under one of her deranged split-personalities, but where she also had the authority to give him a full frontal lobotomy in front of, who else, Priscilla Presley. And then, meanwhile, Muldoon’s evil fashion mogul Richard Hart closed off the episode by reaching his hand up from his grave to come back to get revenge on his killers, Sydney and Jane Andrews (Laura Leighton and Josie Bissett, respectively). It was damn fun, but so over-the-top that no future twist could ever top it without breaking the fourth wall. With all its outlandishness, Melrose Place had painted itself into a corner.


For season five, the writers vowed to return the series to its, erm, roots, but moving away from rising from the grave storylines to the more plausible sexy trash that made seasons two and three dy-no-mite. It’s for this reason that those new to the show tread cautiously here, since this is no doubt a construction zone. A time of rebuilding. Original cast members were being phased out in favor of bringing new blood to the series. Kimberly was facing a brain tumor, gaybestfriend Matt Fielding (Desperate Housewives’ Doug Savant, who’d later marry Melrose alum Leighton) was starting an adoptive family, Jane was heading back to Chicago to deal with news of a different birth mother, and Allison Parker (Courtney Thorne-Smith) and Jake Hanson (Grant Show) were looking for residence outside of L.A. Even Sydney’s days were numbered. With six original leads sent packing by the end, just as many new tenants to the famous apartment complex needed to take up residency. So the season five cast was huge – the biggest the series cast would ever be. All this change and the series was supposed to return to its roots, too? Yikes.


Somehow, it managed, though. Highlighting the new additions was Rob Estes, who had just come off a successful run on the trashy Silk Stalkings (and who would later do Spelling proud with the patriarchal lead on the new 90210) and his big-lipped, big-mouthed wife, Lisa Renna (now doing workout videos in the Jane Fonda vein). Together they played the doomed McBrides who would jump in and out of love octagons with Locklear’s Amanda, Peter Burns and the rat to end all rats, Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro, the only guy to make it from first episode to last). Then there was David Charvet as Craig Field, the scheming little rich brat to try and usurp Amanda’s throne as queen (king?) of the advertising world. The mantra of Melrose was always “For Sex and Money”, and for at least season five the snotty weasel followed it to a T. Kelly Rutherford joined as call girl Megan Lewis, hired by Kimberly to fulfill Mancini’s sexual impulses while she battled it out with cancer. And remember, this is the series when it’s not over-the-top! Rounding out the new additions was the Southern nice girl with a white-trash past, Samantha Reilly (Brooke Langton), who aw shucks-ed her way into Billy Campbell’s (Andrew Shue) heart.


Basically, one of the many pleasures of Melrose Place is that eventually every tenant in the building would sleep with the other, sort of solidifying that Bulworth phrase that if we all just fucked each other then dichotomies of race, religion and difference would fall by the wayside. Of course, in prime time, nobody ever has kids though. It’s always abortions and adoptions and miscarriages before those little tykes force the show to grow up and the ratings to erode. So it was with all this new cast that we could finally set aside our old Melrose hang-ups about Billy and Allison and Amanda and Jake and finally just let everyone have it every which way on bed, desk or the totally awesome common area pool. My brother and I clocked it in one episode of this season, and there were no less than eight separate sex scenes from different cast members in a single episode. Try to find a porn with that much.


Of course there was more to the show than just sex. There was money. Dr. Mancini was always thinking of ways to get even more of it, and Amanda was memorably tearing down anyone who stood in her way from rising to the top of her ad company. Jake was looking to break from his blue collar roots by running the local hangout, Shooters, and even Matt, the man who in season one turned down many a promotion for social work with inner-city kids, was on his way to himself becoming a rich doctor. To get to the money often took scheming, which again made for great TV, or even sex, which made for even better TV.


Melrose Place was head of the pack because no matter what, it was never ashamed of being saucy, shallow or downright slutty. It embraced it. When most shows then, and even most today, were always copping out with happy endings and canonical ideas of romance and honor, Melrose Place was gleefully tearing conventions down with bitchy Amanda as its spokeswoman. Taylor is going to force Mancini to impregnate her not because of goals of maternity or of bringing a life into this world, but to make her ex-husband crazy jealous. That’s it, and that’s what Melrose is all about. Check your pretension at the door and prepare for the wildest soap opera residency you can imagine. I did, and kneeling down at Locklear’s feet to mark her camera steps felt not only natural, but earned. For in the nineties, her Amanda Woodward was Queen Bitch of prime time, and if everyone else could grovel at her feet, then I sure as hell could too.

presentation...

The first nineteen episodes of season five are presented in their correct 1.33:1 full frame aspect ratio. Like all other shows from the early nineties, these episodes have been preserved on horribly interlaced video, hampering any extra sharpness the DVD format provides. The episodes are mostly clean of defect, which is in a way amazing considering how they’ve used those same stock shots of the Melrose Place pool for five seasons now. In his own way the stock shot pool boy should be considered a regular on IMDb. Digressions aside, the image is perfectly acceptable, and at least a step up from the SOAPNET airings.


The music doesn’t fare so well. Like with all the previous seasons on versatile disc, these episodes have had their music swapped with royalty free garbage. Some of those post-credit tunes are just painful to sit through. The plus side is that no episodes have been edited content wise like they were in Season Two (when an entire Billy Campbell karaoke subplot was removed to avoid paying rights for a Neil Diamond song), but then again, there were no real songs incorporated into any of the narratives. Seasons six and seven get problematic when Kyle brings in a bunch of (at the time) big acts like Tal Bachman and those crazy MMMBoppers to his After Hours bar and jazz club. These guys were featured throughout the episodes, so I fear for the future of our favorite apartment complex on DVD. The episodes are supposed to be stereo, but I must have soap suds in my ears because all I hear is mon to the izzo.



extras...

There is little incentive supplement wise for paying the rent this season. Nadda.

wrapping it up…


There’s only one place I want to live, and it ain’t with Dawson, it ain’t in Beverly Hills or One Tree Hill and it sure as hell isn’t The O.C. Melrose Place is what prime time soap opera is all about, equally apt to taking a lead character over the deep end as it is taking them to bed with a different lover. The love triangles, squares and pentagons come as fast and furious as Paul Walker and with Locklear, Cross and Rinna en camp, there’s more bitch here than Lassie. The fifth season was so bulging at the seams from all the new characters that they’d virtually get a whole new sweater by the sixth season, but for old Melrose fans, this is the last of the original cast. While the sex, drama and sex here doesn’t compare with the heyday of seasons two to four, it’s still top notch TV that deserves to perch atop the soap opera canon. Heather, next time I’ll grovel at your feet without pay.

overall... Content: A- Video: C Audio: C+ Extras: F Final Grade: B