Queer Eye for the Straight Guy-The Best of-Volume 1 (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	112:25 (Case: 110)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Brendon Carter Stephen Kijak Max Makowski Joshua Seftel
Studio Distributor	Visual Entertainment Group	Starring	Kyan Douglas Ted Allen Jai Rodriguez Thom Filicia Carson Kressley Blair Boone
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$34.95	Music	Sebastian Arocha-Morton Brad Chiet Miguel Govea

    As the title would suggest, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy - The Best Of - Volume One is a collection of highlights from the first season, spread across two discs.

    Created by David Collins, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was launched on American cable television in 2003. It's motto was: "Five gay men. Out to make over the world. One straight guy at a time."

    The five gay men, and their speciality, were: Carson Kressley - fashion, Kyan Douglas - Grooming, Ted Allen - Food and Wine, Jai Rodriguez - Culture, and Thom Filicia - Interior Design.

    The premise behind the show was that these five gay men were to form a "Fab 5" team, and rescue helpless straight men with a complete make over. Combining elements of reality television with cooking, renovation, and make-over shows, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was light hearted and entertaining.

    The highlight for most viewers, I'm sure, was self-proclaimed fashion savant Carson's cheeky sarcasm and caustic wit. Indeed, the show's dialogue was often irreverent, as the Fab 5's bombastic banter was always saturated with homosexual innuendo, and the Fab 5 often made playful attempts to interest their straight subjects in "experimenting".

    One of the notable elements of the show is its flagrant use of product placement. Indeed, the show almost verges on being an infomercial, as some of the US's biggest brands lined up to be featured and gushed over.

    There have been several spin-off television shows, including unsuccessful UK and Australian versions, and last year's Queer Eye for the Straight Girl in the US.

    The title of this DVD is a little misleading, as the content is not a collection of episodes as I was expecting. Rather, a montage of clips from various episodes are included, with the first disc focussing on Carson (Fashion), and the second on Jai and Kyan (Grooming and Culture)

Looking Good with Jai & Kyan: Take a Queer Eye crash course with Kyan Douglas and Jai Rodriguez as they team up and show you great highlights from Queer Eye and offer sensible tips in this guide to grooming and culture. Jai will sharpen your senses with tips on art, music and pop culture-the essentials for any refined man's repertoire. And Kyan will bring out the real you with grooming tips you won't believe you ever lived without."

Video

    The transfer is fairly representative of broadcast television, and is fine for the content.

    The transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, full frame.

    The sharpness, black level, and shadow detail of the transfer are all fine. Obviously there are some occasional issues with the source material, as the show is shot on location in people's apartments and in shops.

    The colour is generally good, but occasionally the image is slightly over-exposed and washed-out due to the harsh camera lighting, such as at 25:45 and 43:29 of disc one.

    MPEG artefacts are not a problem, but occasionally the image did appear slightly pixelated.

    There are no problems with film-to-video artefacts or film artefacts.

    No subtitles are provided on these two single layered discs. Disc One runs for 55:36 and is divided into 14 chapters, and Disc Two runs for 56:49 and is divided into 15 chapters.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio option on this DVD: English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are fine throughout.

    The musical score is credited to Sebastian Arocha-Morton, Brad Chiet, and Miguel Govea, but the only music I recall is the frequent use of the show's theme song All Things (Just Keep Getting Better), performed by Widelife and featuring the vocals of Simone Denny.

    Understandably, there is no surround presence or LFE activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are few extras.

Menu

    A simple menu with audio.

Trailer

    A forced trailer for Visual Entertainment Group.

Photo Gallery

    Disc Two contains a collection of promotional stills which can be navigated through with the remote.

    Queer Eye for the Straight Guy - The Best Of - Volume One is not available in Region 1. In R1 they have released five separate Queer Eye DVDs.

    Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was a fun, light hearted show that included some good tips for men in regard to fashion and cooking. This Best Of DVD allows one to enjoy some of the highlights from the first season, although I would have much preferred a collection of episodes. Part of the attraction of these make-over shows is to see the before and after, a progression which is lost here in the montage of clips.

    The video quality is acceptable.

    The audio quality is also acceptable.

    The extras are really not worth mentioning.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall