(no subject)

[ivyfic]

Since trinityvixen brought up the subject of extras, I'd just like to share a bit about the extras on the Dead Zone DVD sets. Not only are all their commentaries the writers and directors sitting around with Anthony Michael Hall (who is the star, executive producer and writes and directs) telling each other how great they are, but their featurettes...well.

They have a fifteen minute featurette on their caterers. Their caterers. Because everyone wants to see Chris Bruno being served hash browns at 4AM by a guy in a ponytail with tattoos of flaming hamburgers on his arms.

And speaking of Chris Bruno, who plays Sherrif Walt Bannerman on the show, there's a fifteen minute featurette on him. It's titled "A Quiet Confidence." No subtitle or explanation. And all it is is video of him grappling with his personal trainers. Grappling being like wrestling except even more sketchy looking. Also, grappling apparently doesn't involve a whole lot of movement, just two nasty sweaty men wrapped around each other like pretzels on the floor. Yeah. Yes I watched this thing, vainly hoping for some explanatory interview at the end that explained why the producers thought it would be a good idea to include this on the DVDs.

In conclusion, Dead Zone has some of the worst DVD extras I've ever seen. On the plus side, the extras do explain why they turned the two-part season finale into a one-episode season-ending cliff-hanger. They basically took one story which actually dealt with the greater mythology, wimped the heck out, begged clemency from the network and took the summer to reshoot and completely change the outcome to something innocuous that didn't tie up the story line. All the while in the commentaries telling themselves that the original ending really really sucked and they did the right thing by changing it. That was interesting to hear.

Comments

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

Wow. What's even more interesting is that you watched these extras. Why??

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

In fairness, there was no indication in the title of the featurettes as to what they were about (cause caterers! is not immediately what leaps to mind when I look at a list of extras). Once they were on, I was just waiting for something that would make them coherent.

I am a sick, sick person. I know.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I found the Red Dwarf extras to be excellently labelled. You picked one off the menu, and before it started up (unless it was just one feature), they gave a short description of it, thus thwarting the confusion that the short-named menu options can cause.

Is there some sort of site that does reviews of the extras for TV shows so you know to avoid this in future?

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Well, tvshowsondvd sort of does, but their search engine sucks ass. I mean really, really sucks. You search for a show and it doesn't point you to the main page about it, it points you to a bunch of random press releases from three years ago. *grrrr*

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

So much for that then. I try to check reviews when a DVD set comes out, but really I rely on word of mouth. I've got to watch the Farscape eps with commentary. I hear they're hilarious.