If sexual
innuendo and jokes at the intelligence level of a fifteen-year-old boy are
still humorous to you, or if you still are fifteen, “2 Broke Girls” will make
you laugh. I watch the series with mild amusement, mostly because I have met
girls like the foul-mouthed and sex-obsessed Max (Kat Denning), as well as the
superficial and self-involved Caroline (Beth Behrs). I watch the show because I
can turn it off after twenty minutes, reminded why I no longer see those girls.
Max and Caroline
work in a Brooklyn diner, although it often appears much more like the trendy
hipster cities of Los Angeles than New York
Attempting to
escape their job, the girls try and start up a cupcake business. This season
they open a store, which doesn’t really go anywhere, but they have a few
relationships along the way. The series is full of many devices to keep them
from succeeding too soon, because what kind of show called “2 Broke Girls” has
successful entrepreneurs.
The DVD release
for the second season of 2 Broke Girls has all twenty-four episodes on three
discs. There are also a handful of special features dispersed among the discs,
including unaired scenes and a gag reel. The rest of the features are a bit
like imagine Max’s cupcakes; enjoyable but void of any nutritional value.
Entertainment Value:
8/10
Quality of Filmmaking:
6/10
Historical
Significance: 6/10
Disc Features: 6/10
Arrow: The Complete First Season
First and
foremost, Arrow is yet another CW series. This means a familiar polished set of
colorful visuals, a cast of actors who either look too young or too old for the
role they are playing, and a number of predictably melodramatic love triangle
situations. Production design and casting choices aside, “Arrow” actually
stands above many other CW series of recent history. They seem to make shows
directed exclusively at teenagers, younger the better, but “Arrow” has a few things
going for it that make up for the show’s sillier aspects.
I have never
read any Green Arrow comics, although I find it interesting that Green is such
a popular color to attach to any superhero type character. Whether or not this
series stays close to the comics is a mystery to me, but the narrative in this
series is something of a blend between Robin Hood and Hamlet. As unoriginal as
some of these story elements are, including a crime fighting costume that looks
like a bad-ass Robin Hood with a mask, at least they have ground the story in
solid narratives. On top of this solid foundation, the series makes bold choice
to keep the origin story something of a mystery, told only through flashback
sequences. This helps keep the series interesting, especially when the stale
teen melodrama begins to take over.
There is also a
great deal of action, and it is all done somewhat realistically. Though the
logic of some of the arrows is about as believable as the gadgets James Bond
was using not too long ago, there are no superhuman elements within the
storyline. The action is a mixture of MMA fighting and parkour, all rather
impressively choreographed. This helps to overlook the fact that nearly every
set seems to be backlit by green gels. Or that an enormously large percentage
of the cast members have green eyes, despite it being the rarest color. If you
can ignore this sledgehammer attempts at subtle imagery, there are some
sincerely compelling action storylines to make this one of the more solid
superhero series.
In a new trend
from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment, the Blu-ray release of “Arrow” comes
with a DVD and Ultraviolet copy as well. The only problem with this generous
addition is the amount of space the additional discs take up. Suddenly this single
season is a massive box set, albeit an impressive one. The special features
helped me out in understanding some of the origins for the story with the
“Arrow Comes Alive” featurette, as well as a look at the stunts and
choreography training for the film’s impressive action. There are also unaired
scenes, a gag reel and footage from Paleyfest with the cast and crew of the
series.
Entertainment Value:
8/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 5/10
Historical
Significance: 6/10
Disc Features: 7/10
Homeland: The Complete Second Season
When “24” came
out it was the first post-9/11 terrorist thriller on television, and for a few
years it seemed cutting edge. Even with the absurdity of the time constraint
gimmick, “24” had moments of brilliance, and it provided a cathartic and
patriotic win against terrorism. After the series had been done to death,
writers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa moved on to loosely adapt the Israeli
series entitled “Hatufim,” which means Prisoner of War.
“Homeland” is a much more complex and
character driven than “24” was, filled with a certain amount of intensity and
action while also retaining a certain level of realism. It follows the
suspicions of CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Golden Globe winner Claire Danes), a
bipolar woman with an obsession destroyed her career in the first season. When
a marine is rescued after being a prisoner of the Al Qaeda for years, Carrie
suspects that he may have been turned. Sgt. Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis)
returns home a different man, which is apparent to his family as well as
Carrie. The question remains whether this is simple post traumatic stress or
whether Brody has been turned into a sleeper agent plotting a terrorist attack
against the country.
Season one ended
in such a way that suggested Brody’s secrets would remain hidden, dragging the
same premise out for another season. Fortunately, this was not the case. What
makes “Homeland” remain compelling in the second season is the way in which the
writer’s are unafraid to tear everything down in order to take the series in a
new direction. The manner in which the second season ends also suggests a whole
new approach in season three. Television used to be safe and dull, predictably
formatted in the series and each individual episode. “Homeland” follows none of
those rules, and is one of the reasons why television has grown more
sophisticated.
The 3-disc set
includes all twelve season two episodes, along with exclusive story extensions
and a prologue to season three. There are also some deleted scenes, a
featurette about the finale and the sequences shot in Israel
Entertainment Value:
9/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 8.5/10
Historical
Significance: 8/10
Disc Features: 8/10
The Mentalist: The Complete Fifth Season
There are a
dozen different ways that “The Mentalist” can be compared to other shows. You
could easily compare it to the cable show “Psych,” but I tend to find
similarities with this show and “Lie to Me.” Both use the study of human
behavior in order to deduce the truth behind a crime. “Lie to Me” was about a
man brilliantly able to detect lies, better than a polygraph. There is a
sequence in “The Mentalist” in which a suspect says that he heard Patrick Jane
(Simon Baker) could tell when anyone was lying.
Simon Baker is
what truly seems to make the show work the way it does. It is a dark show about
a celebrity psychic whose family was murdered by a serial killer named Red John,
following some ill-made arrogant remarks about catching him. Although Jane is a
grieving father and husband dedicated to hunting down the man responsible for
vengeance, Baker plays the role in a carefree manner that is likeable. He is
nearly always jovial and easy-going despite the heavy weight that he carries,
making his character a unique addition to the investigative detective genre.
Jane works
alongside a team of specially trained detectives in California
All twenty-two
season five episodes are includes in this five disc set, along with a handful
of special features. There are two featurettes; one follows the process of
production, from script to screen, while the other deals with the process of
training given to the actors in order to behave like real law enforcement.
Entertainment Value:
8/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 7.5/10
Historical
Significance: 7/10
Disc Features: 6/10
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