Californication-The Fifth Season (2012) |
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Californication-The Fifth Season (2012) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Costuming Californication (6:22) 1.78:1 and16x9 Featurette-Chic Mixology (10:21) 1.78:1 and16x9 Featurette-Seven Tips for Healthy Parenting (2:05) 1.78:1 and 16x9 Trivia-Trivia Test 1.78:1 and 16x9 Trailer-Mock trailer for Santa Monica Cop (1:08) |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2012 | ||
| Running Time | 328:48 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (92:05) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By |
David Duchovny Helen Hunt Eric Stolz John Dahl |
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Studio
Distributor |
Showtime Paramount Home Entertainment |
Starring |
David Duchovny Natascha McElhone Madeleine Martin Evan Handler Pamela Adlon Camilla Luddington Scott Michael Foster Jason Beghe RZA Natalie Zea Stephen Toblowsky Meagan Good |
| Case | Amaray-Opaque-Secure Clip | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | Tree Adams |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) 2.0 |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | Yes | ||
| Subtitles |
English English for the Hearing Impaired Danish Dutch Norwegian Finnish Swedish |
Smoking | Yes, In character. |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes, "Previously on Californication ..." | ||
Unleashed on television in 2007, Californication is at present in production of its sixth season, due to hit screens January 2013. Paramount are releasing Season Five of this black comedy on a two disc set which also has a pleasing collection of extras.
The show’s executive producer and head writer is Tom Kapinos, who gained TV experience writing for Dawson's Creek. Californication is a show which has a very definite energy centre, with every aspect of the show perfectly fused into a cohesive whole. Writing, direction, casting, music, design and photography all contribute to the total impact of the series. The obvious centre is, however, the central role of Henry James "Hank" Moody. This character, admired novelist with destructive personal demons, is perfectly cast in David Duchovny. Undoubtedly financially comfortable for life after The X Files, Duchovny has been seen regularly on the big screen, scoring in one of the best romantic comedies of recent years, Bonnie Hunt's Return to Me (2000), and in the chilling The Secret (2007), directed by Vincent Perez. Duchovny seems to like being directed by fellow actors, with Helen Hunt and Eric Stolz directing two of the twelve episodes in Season Five. These episodes, each just short of half-an-hour, are here spread across two discs :
The season premiere has Hank returning from New York to Los Angeles, his agent, Charlie Runkle, (Evan Handler) enticing him with a new Hollywood assignment. Hank leaves behind in the Big Apple his slightly psycho girlfriend, Carrie (Natalie Zea) - she later torches Hank's apartment in retaliation. On the plane Hank has a mile-high encounter (almost) with Kali (Meagan Good) before landing and becoming embroiled once again in the sex-riddled life of Hollywood. Hank still mourns for what he had with ex-wife Karen (Natascha McElhone), now married to the sexually ambivalent Professor Richard Bates (Jason Beghe), and nineteen-year-old daughter Becca (Madeleine Martin). Becca, now in college, has a new boyfriend, Tyler (Scott Michael Foster), a would-be writer who secretly admires Hank, who in turns loathes Tyler. Also involved in Hank's life are Charlie's ex, Mercy (Pamela Adlon), now married to the producer of Hank's new project, Stu Beggs (Stephen Toblowsky). Mercy and Stu are raising Stewart, the child of Mercy's marriage to Charlie, and employ as nanny would-be-actress, or whatever else is on offer, Lizzie (Camilla Luddington). All actors are excellent in their roles, with Duchovny the undoubted star at the centre of the hot and steamy manoeuvres, in and out of the bedroom. The show is almost always preoccupied, if not in fact occupied, with sex. There is abundant nudity, though nothing totally full-frontal in these episodes. There are a couple of episodes mid-season in which Charlie's sexual antics become too predictable and repetitive, but that lapse in creativity is forgiven as the season builds to a terrific close. Most faces are familiar to fans of the series, but the new characters of Tyler and, particularly, Lizzie make a big impression. Camilla Luddington, originally from England, is a young actress we will be seeing more of - though we see almost all of her in a swimming sequence here - as she is currently working on Season Six of Californication, True Blood and Grey's Anatomy. A busy young lady. Mention should be made of RZA who portrays Samurai Apocalypse, the rapper star of Santa Monica Cops, the movie Hank is hired to write. Frequently unintelligible, the portrayal adds much humour to the show with some hilarious exchanges between him and Hank.
This is a slick, sexy, funny and literate show. Despite all the bawdry, there is a heart at the centre of the show, which is Duchovny. Hank is often wronged, battered and abused, and more often morally bankrupt, but despite that he is a character we genuinely care for and, against all odds, long to see happy. As well as creating a memorable, flawed "hero", David Duchovny is a genuine, charismatic STAR. Frequently dazzling with its photography and editing, with telling combination of high quality footage with black and white and "home movie" style shots, the icing on the cake is the excellent, dynamic soundtrack with its integration of rock classics. The music reaches its climax in the final episode with brilliant use of The Beatles's A Day in the Life. This show has offended many, and no doubt it is not everyone's cup-of-tea, but it is frequently brilliant TV.
The twelve episodes are given excellent presentation on these two dual-layered discs.
The episodes are presented at the original ratio of 1.78:1 and the image is 16x9 enhanced. There are short "square screen "sequences often made to look like home movie footage.
The image is extremely sharp and clear throughout, with excellent detail in both bright and darker scenes. Some scenes - generally L.A. night street scenes - are heavily grained giving a documentary feel to certain scenes. This is all very effective, adding to the "live" feel of some of the footage.
The colour is excellent, with a range of effect from brilliant, richly hued LA swimming pool sequences to grittily orange night scenes. This series utilises photography as an art, and is totally successful.
I could see no sign of video artefacts.
There are subtitles available in English, English for the Hearing Impaired, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish. Titles are white and centred at the foot of the image.
The layer change occurs with a brief freeze of image, on Disc One at 92:35, and on Disc Two at 92:05.
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This disc contains one audio stream, English Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded at 448 Kbps.
The soundtrack to this series is dynamic and exciting. Dialogue is basically front and centred with every syllable crystal clear - even if one actor is frequently unintelligible. There are no sync problems.
Left and right we get a great deal of off-screen sounds, more than in many big screen features. The rear channels are also frequently employed for individual off-screen effects.
The full five channels are frequently filling the sound field with the sub-woofer contributing to the total impact. The music is outstanding.
This is an excellent soundtrack.
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Despite the fact that at start-up a screen offers a list of six languages : Danish, English, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish, the only language on these discs is English. When we get to the extras themselves, they are light so far as length goes but very enjoyable. They are all cleverly different and totally devoid of back-slapping and self-praise.
The menus are virtually the same on both discs. The menu splits the screen, with the still from the cover of the DVD on the left, and a montage of scenes on the right, accompanied by the original title theme.
Short but excellent behind the scenes look at the costuming of this show with the lady responsible Peggy Schnitzer. Informative and refreshingly different, this is one of the best behind-the-scenes glimpses I have seen. A show like Californication isn't "good" by accident. Here is one of the artists who contribute to the quality we see on screen. The quality isn't quite as good as the show itself, but is presented 1.78:1 and 16x9.
Again we have a refreshingly different extra, actually unique. Two LA bartenders, Ken Whang and Zach Patterson, take turns in presenting the recipes for a total of five cocktails, all inspired by characters in the series. These personable young men demonstrate the making of : The Hank Moody, The Charlie Runkle, The Karen, The Samurai Apocalypse and the Marcy. An inspired idea for an extra.
Seven ironic excerpts from the season.
This is a fun little dialogue recognition test. One thing it does is make you realise how memorable the lines from the show are.
Again, a fun idea. Here we get the "trailer" for the movie within the season.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Season Five of Californication is being released in the United Sates in December.
Californication continues to be sharp, funny, dark and very, very bawdy. This is an excellent series, and is probably very close to the reality of life in the fast lane of Los Angeles. Technically and artistically dazzling, the performances are excellent. The centre of each super-charged half hour episode is the performance - and charisma - of David Duchovny. Season Five will delight followers of Hank Moody's sex saturated life and the climax will leave you panting for Season Six, now in production. I believe we will see Hank writing a musical. The twelve episodes are presented on two discs, in excellent image and sound. There are a few short, but wonderfully different extras.
Summary
Ratings (out of 5)
Video Audio Extras Plot Overall
© Garry Armstrong (BioGarry)
Saturday, November 03, 2012
Review Equipment DVD SONY BLU RAY BDP-S350, using HDMI output Display Samsung LA55A950D1F : 55 inch LCD HD.
Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio Decoder Built in to DVD player.
Calibrated with THX Optimizer.
Amplification Onkyo TX-DS777 Speakers VAF DC-X fronts; VAF DC-6 center; VAF DC-2 rears; LFE-07subwoofer (80W X 2)
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