Recently I ordered several HBO series DVDs. If they offered HBO here I wouldn’t have to buy any of these DVDs, but now and I’m hooked. Everything they produce is so well done that they’ve really risen the bar for pay per view-why watch regular TV at all?
The first series I watched was The Sopranos Season 5. It was another great season, and I particularly enjoyed the addition of Steve Buscemi to the cast. There were some interesting commentaries from special guest directors like Mike Figgis and Peter Bogdanovich, who like fellow director Steve Buscemi has acted in the series. It always entertaining and has the best production values of any TV series that I can think of, not to mention the cinematography, acting, writing, and music. I don’t want to give anything away, but it ends with a definite opening for another season, which I’ve heard may be the last.
For some reason Six Feet Under has been lagging with the release of their DVDs, my brother says they are starting the 5th Season this year and I have just finished watching Season 3. I can really relate to the mindset of the character Nate Fischer, who has a rough time of it again. I think most of the storylines are pretty interesting, but I get a bit tired of the antics of the mother character. I like how they’ve incorporated Rico into more storylines.
I caught up with Season 2 and 3 of Curb Your Enthusiasm as well. I was inspired by the Larry David interviews I saw on the Seinfeld DVDs that were lent to me. He really makes the art of being an ass very funny. He seems to be pushing the envelope every episode…culminating in the Episode 8 “Krazee-Eyez Killa” and Episode 10 “The Grand Opening” from Season 3. I like how it is a sort of meta-reality as David refers to things in Seinfeld: I was in a “contest” once; I ate a éclair out of the garbage once, etc… Season 3 also included a bonus first episode of Deadwood, created by David Milch, which was great. It makes revisionist westerns McCabe and Ms. Miller and Unforgiven look down right glamorized. I could probably really get into this series as well, but I’ll fight the urge.
The last time I was back home visiting I saw some episodes of Entourage, which also seems quite entertaining and I’ve heard great things about The Wire. Man when are they going to export HBO?
I resisted with Deadwood as well and, from what I hear, we are missing out ona another great show.
Posted by: Kraig | July 16, 2005 at 05:30 AM
Pat, you mentioned all of the shows that I particularly enjoy from HBO. Even if you had access to HBO subscription, you'd probably still want to own the DVD boxsets...trust me. Other shows to check out are Carnivale and Dead Like Me (but I believe that one's from Showtime). I also really liked the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. Stayed away from Sex and the City...doesn't sound like my kind of thing. The TV shows really do well in our video stores...people like the fact that they can watch as much as they want and not need to wait (a week) to see the next episode. Most people blast through the entire season(s) in one shot. Of course, this has also caused a lot of my customers to become hermits for periods of time. Great stuff for when you're ill and don't want to leave the house...
Posted by: Ray Lee | July 18, 2005 at 03:13 PM
Actually, Sex InThe City is pretty entertaining (I think you might appreciate the perspectives on sex and realtionships), but you're right about getting to watch as many episodes as you want without having to wait is nice. I tore through these DVDs pretty quickly.
Posted by: MC | July 18, 2005 at 04:20 PM