Hank's Pics

DVD BRINGS OUT THE BEST OF TV!

Hank and Lynn: The Early Years 

As I've mentioned a while ago, my wife and I watch a lot of TV, but it's all on DVD. This started happening when, after years of shunning mindless TV with its numbing commercials, I discovered, much to my surprise, that some of our best new arrivals on DVD are TV series! 

Some of these series are no longer on the air; some are available only on DVD; some have had lamentably short runs despite critical acclaim --all are compellingly involving and have the merit of requiring only an episodic viewing of 40 or 50 minutes rather than the 2 hours a movie takes. And none have commercials! How often do you come home from work without the time for a full-length movie? All these series put you on a promising track of looking forward to subsequent episodes at your own leisure  a beautiful punctuation to your normal routines, a late night video hor d'oeuvres. On the other hand, many series come in box sets that allow you to indulge your compulsion to the fullest to see what happens next (an all-nighter with The Sopranos or 24 hours - actually 22 without the commercials - to spend a complete day with Jack Bauer).  

Here, in the first of two parts, are the series that got me and my wife Lynn started, and that have altered our viewing habits and raised the bar of our appreciation of TV. Next week I�ll tell you what we�ve been watching lately. 

Law and Order 1^st Season Unlike the current, formulaic, Law and Order, each episode of this 1^st Season (starring Michael Moriarty) deals with a different and contemporary issue, and gets into the leading characters� lives rather than simply their investigative or forensic mannerisms. 

NYPD Blue David Caruso provided one of the most charismatic characters ever presented on TV, and midway into the 2^nd season, was seamlessly succeeded by the equally inimitable Jimmy Smits. This series offers great ensemble character melodrama infused with interesting cases. 

Homocide Barry Levinson�s stylish, realistic saga depicting a precinct in his own Baltimore concentrates on the too often thankless drudgery of detective work rather than the action or melodrama � interludes and frustrations that vividly reveal and endear the characters� lives to us. Perhaps the most realistic view of police work on TV, some of these episodes are still used as training films for police precincts across the country. 

The Shield Tough, exciting, controversial: the riveting Michael Chiklis heads an elite Strike Team unit that regularly crosses the line between legal and illegal and (not always successfully) tries to keep them self-servingly separate. It�s no wonder it�s on cable - stretching the viewer�s moral identification, yet earning the most Emmys for any cable show. 

The West Wing So what if the dialogue goes by so fast you miss half of it � it�s still the most intelligent, politically aware show on the networks. Here�s your chance to see it from the beginning. 

ER  After years of Lynn and I studiously avoiding any hospital shows, my daughter Jodi � a former film major � convinced us to give this one a chance: and boy are we hooked! We always keep the current DVD box set (twelve years behind the current TV segments) on hand for emergency viewing. We have no idea what the series is like now, but with its initial ensemble of involving characters played by George Clooney, Anthony Edwards, Noah Wyle, Sherry Stringfield, and Julianna Margulies, we can�t wait for the next season on DVD. I suppose we�ll eventually catch up, unless the show goes on life support.   

The Sopranos This truly landmark series features great characters in a dyspeptic gloss on the American Dream, focusing on Tony Soprano as the head of his dual extended family - crime and suburban. A number of Best Video�s customers (social workers, psychiatrists, mafia dons) have commented on the �right-on-tack� interpersonal dynamics in Tony's explosive nuclear family as well as his clandestine therapy sessions. But I'm sure they watch it for the same reason we do: it�s compelling entertainment and a trenchant satire of current American life. 

Sex and the City This aptly named series follows the fortunes of a quartet of single women pursuing their lives in the big city with and without Mr. Right. There may not be many profundities here, but there�s plenty of wit, style, and sex  with good shoes thrown in!   

24Another landmark series featuring Kiefer Sutherland as a CTU (Counter-Terrorist Unit) agent racing against time to protect his agency, country, and family. Filmed in real time (each season is 24 one-hour episodes � actually 50 minutes without commercials on DVD) and a split-screen technique that pumps up the adrenalin of watching several stories at once, this show infuses contemporary plotlines (terrorism, nuclear blackmail, kidnapping, family dysfunction) with the virtues of a cliffhanger series. It�s guaranteed you can�t watch just one episode! 

Six Feet Under  Centering on a funeral home run by a quasi-dysfunctional family haunted by guilt and premonition (not to mention the dead patriarch), this affecting, smartly written one-of-a-kind series about death has a lot to say about life. The characters are all very different yet equally absorbing. 

Curb Your Enthusiasm This HBO series by and starring Seinfeld creator Larry David, and featuring cameos of real stars, revolves around the no-holds-barred daily efforts of David to protect his ego at any cost in the leisurely jungles of Beverly Hills and Hollywood. Though perhaps, initially, something of an acquired taste, the outrageous behavior of Larry David (who plays himself in the show) offers some fun and truth about contemporary mores and manners. And it�s funny! Just ask my wife.