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First-season disc keeps close to AMC series' rich visuals, themes
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal pop culture writer
Published on Sunday, Jun 29, 2008
AMC's fine series Mad Men begins its second season on July 27 — and gives DVD collectors a lavish presentation of the first season on Tuesday.
Mad Men: Season One (Lionsgate, 13 episodes, $49.98 in standard DVD, just a penny more for high-definition Blu-ray) offered a look at America in the '60s through the work and lives of advertising men in New York City, and the women around and involved with them.
It was a show that was both visually and thematically rich, and the DVD has tried to meet those standards, starting with a metal package in the shape of a cigarette lighter. (Yes, there was plenty of smoking on the show.)
In addition, it includes commentaries — sometimes more than one — on each episode, a segment on the advertising business, photo galleries that show off hair and clothes with commentary from production staffers, a segment on the music and a CD-promoting sampler of clips from songs used on the show. There's also a coupon for Mad Men-themed lighters.
It's impressive to the point of exhaustion, especially if you try to get through all the commentaries. A couple of drawbacks: the individual discs can be easily removed from the package, but it's a little awkward getting them back in.
And some of the commentaries suffer from consisting of multiple people recorded separately. While you can find commentaries where, say, two actors are conversing with each other as well as discussing the action, others feel eerily disconnected because the actors' comments were edited together from individual monologues done apart.
The weird-commentary issue also arises with Drillbit Taylor: Extended Survival Edition (Paramount, $29.99 on standard DVD, $39.99 Blu-ray), the comedy about three high-school kids who hire a bodyguard, with Ravenna native Nate Hartley playing one of the kids.
The movie is a disappointment, but the DVD still dutifully loads on the extras: an extended, unrated version of the movie, deleted and extended scenes, a montage of good lines from the movie, a blooper reel, a piece on the making of the ''rap off'' scene, and a conversation between writers Seth Rogen and Kristofor Brown.
It also promises audio commentary by Brown, director Steven Brill, Hartley and co-stars Troy Gentile and David Dorfman. (Owen Wilson, who played the title character, did not participate.) But it's mostly Brill and Brown, with the young actors joining the commentary for a time and then departing. Hartley, for one, shows up about an hour into the movie, long after his character has appeared onscreen.
Still, the commentary includes some interesting bits and asides— such as the worries that arose when Gentile began to lose noticeable weight during production, and Hartley's Woody Allen imitation.
Heathers, the very dark high-school comedy written by Cleveland native Daniel Waters, is worth seeing. If you haven't yet, Anchor Bay on Tuesday releases a two-disc 20th High School Reunion Edition ($19.97). But the extras include one new segment on the making of the movie along with material that has appeared on previous Heathers DVD releases. The audio commentary, for one, is more than 10 years old.
The new DVD release seems designed more to help promote the DVD of Sex and Death 101 (Anchor Bay, $29.98), a feature written and directed by Waters, which had a brief theatrical run a few months ago.
It's actually a sort of interesting movie. Simon Baker (The Devil Wears Prada, TV's The Guardian) stars as a man who receives a list of 101 women — everyone he has had sex with, or will have sex with. While he deals with the consequences of such a list, the news is full of reports about a woman called Death Nell (Winona Ryder of Heathers) who is methodically putting misbehaving men into comas.
The movie doesn't entirely work — and you can see the ending from a long way off. But it has its amusing and thoughtful moments. The DVD also includes a making-of segment and an audio commentary by Waters.
I have more than once mentioned here the troubles that music rights have caused for DVD releases — in some cases delaying the release of popular but music-laden programs, in others leading the distributors to substitute far less satisfying but cheaper music. But music historian Jon Burlingame recently wrote in Variety of a really extreme case; a second-season set of The Fugitive wiped out all of the original background music except for the show's theme song — and only used the theme during the opening and closing credits. It then added different music.
Burlingame says it may be the first instance of background music ''being dumped wholesale.'' CBS Home Entertainment reportedly said ownership of all the original music was not clear and that ''it would be better to rescore full episodes to give viewers a seamless, consistent experience throughout.''
Still, as Burlingame noted, ''Fans are livid because the music of any classic series is familiar, and new music can be jarring even if written in a similar style.''
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in a blog at http://www.ohio.com. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 and rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
AMC's fine series Mad Men begins its second season on July 27 — and gives DVD collectors a lavish presentation of the first season on Tuesday.
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