The Grid-Season 1 (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Introduction Audio Commentary-Director and Executive Producer Audio Commentary-Scene Specific - Actors Deleted Scenes Featurette-Decoding The Grid Featurette-VFX : Secrets of the Grid Featurette-Race Against Time Web Links
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	252:03
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Mikael Salomon
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Dylan McDermott Julianna Margulies Bernard Hill Jemma Redgrave James Remar Piter Fattouche Paula Devicq Silas Carson Olek Krupa Alki David Barna Moricz Emil Marwa Robert Forster
Case	?
RPI	$35.95	Music	Ramin Djawadi Clay Duncan

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The cover for this UK/US co-production mini-series from 2004 includes the quote '24 meets Alias' which is really quite misleading and untrue. This doesn't mean that The Grid is not of good quality: it is just a very different style of production than those shows, which are much more about action and style rather than being about the story and the characters. Although there is a superficial similarity between them, once you get into The Grid it proves itself to be much more intelligent and thought provoking.

    The story plays out over 3 episodes on this release, although they were originally broadcast as 6 one hour episodes on US television. Each of the three episodes runs for approximately 84 minutes, entitled "Hours 1 & 2," "Hours 3 & 4" and "Hours 5 & 6". To my knowledge The Grid has not been broadcast on local television, although it may have been on Foxtel. The plot concerns a string of terrorist strikes around the world and a joint team from UK & US counter terrorism agencies created to investigate and shut down the terrorist group behind the actions. It starts with a bungled sarin gas attack in London resulting in the deaths of several people, including some of the terrorists. This event leads to the formation of a group by MI5, MI6, the CIA, FBI and National Security Council. Obviously, this causes inter-agency and inter-personal friction before the team settles down to focus on the task at hand.

    The main characters are:

• Maren Jackson, NSC (Julianna Marguiles) - A senior advisor in the National Security Council, she is initially given leadership of the inter-agency team. She is having a relationship with Hud Benoit, a businessman in the energy industry. She is a strong willed, somewhat abrasive individual.
• Max Canery, FBI Counter Terrorist unit (Dylan McDermott) - Max is a dedicated agent whose best friend died during 9/11. He has since started a relationship with his friend's wife and is living with her, helping to raise his friend's son. He feels guilty about being alive while his friend is dead.
• Derek Jennings, MI5 Counter Terrorism Unit (Bernard Hill, Theoden in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) - A very experienced police and counter terrorism officer who is a bit less gung-ho and more realistic than some of his american and MI6 counterparts.
• Emily Tuthill, MI6 (Jemma Redgrave) - Tough, hands on spy who gets personally involved with her work.
• Raza Michaels, CIA (Piter Marek) - Muslim CIA analyst who gets his hands dirty for the first time chasing down the terrorists.
• Yussef Nasseriah aka 'Muhummad' (Alki David) - Professional terrorist who leads the cell. Ex-Al Qaeda commander.
• Dr Raghib Mutar (Silas Carson) - An ex-Afghan freedom fighter who has become a Doctor treating the poor in Egypt. He has strong Muslim beliefs and despite detesting violence is lured back into the world of terrorism.
• Acton Sandman, Deputy Director CIA (Tom Skerritt) - Raza's boss and a keen player of the rivalry game between the various agencies. He tries to make life difficult for Maren.
• Kaz Moore (Barna Moricz) - A young American Muslim originally from Chechnya who gets drawn into the world of terrorism.

    The strengths of this series lie in its interesting and well thought out plot, rounded characters on both sides of the war and quality production values and acting. This series was directed by Mikael Salomon, who also directed the highly regarded Band of Brothers and is an academy award nominated cinematographer. The acting is generally strong although Jemma Redgrave, Piter Marek, Silas Carson & Bernard Hill stand out. The well-known American leads do fine jobs, however, the cast members listed show more emotion and are more believable in their roles. This series also show the various motivations of people who become terrorists, not all religious fanatics or psychopaths. It is this even-handedness that really raises this series above more action based ones, such as those mentioned on the cover. Unlike many television shows, this series was shot mostly on location in Canada, Morocco & London. The Grid was nominated for two Emmys and one Golden Globe.

    The only real weaknesses was that the first episode was a little difficult to follow, attempting to introduce many characters quickly. However this soon settled down. Also, some viewers might be expecting more action due to the cover comparisons. The relative under-reliance on action allows for a better storyline to develop. Technically, some of the special effects were a bit obvious, which was probably a result of budget restrictions. The test discs refer to this as The Grid - Season 1. As far as I can tell there has been only one mini-series made and the version listed in online retailers is referred to as only The Grid.

     This series is excellent viewing if you don't go into it expecting an all-action fight against cliché terrorists. Recommended.

Video

    The video quality is good but has some issues.

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced, which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was quite clear and sharp, especially in the foregrounds, although the backgrounds lacked definition probably due to the relatively low bitrate of the transfer. The third episode (on the second disc) had a slightly higher bitrate but still averaged under 5 Mb/s. There was no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was okay, but no better. Light background grain was generally present, which occasionally worsened into mild macro-blocking.

    The colour was quite good, although there was some chroma noise at times and some mild bleeding from light colours.

    Artefacts included occasional aliasing on car grilles, windows and other bits and pieces, plus some moire effect here and there, especially on television screens.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read. There was some summarisation, plus one or two errors (such as swapping SAS for MI6). There are also subtitles available for the commentary track. There were also burned-in subtitles for foreign language or heavily accented dialogue.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s. This is not the most dynamic 5.1 track I have ever heard, however for a television show it is certainly above average.

    Dialogue was sometimes a little muffled, which made the subtitles useful, although it was mostly clear enough. Audio sync was an issue especially with the Arabic speakers.This seems to have been a problem with the source material. However, as the director and producer mention in their commentary, much of the Arabic dialogue was dubbed later due either to the actors not being proficient in Arabic or because they were advised that some of the dialogue they used could be considered blasphemous.

    The score for this series by Ramin Djawadi is very good indeed, adding significantly to the tension, drama and feel of the show. The middle eastern flavours in the score made it feel very authentic.

    The surround speakers added some directional effects and atmosphere without ever really surprising.

    The subwoofer was used a lot, adding tension rumbles and bass to the music, plus highlights to explosions and noisy cars.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    A good selection of extras are included although none of them could really be called essential.

Menu

    The menu was still and silent but did allow the ability to select episodes, scenes and subtitles.

Disc 1

Commentary - Hours 3 & 4 - Exec Producer - Tracey Alexander and Director - Mikael Salomon

    This commentary is for one of the three episodes only, however, it is of quite good quality. Both participants have interesting things to say covering the credit sequence, shooting difficulties, casting problems, the characters, research, the themes of the show, technical information, politics, gaffes and language issues. There are some pauses, but generally this track is worthwhile.

Scene Specific Commentaries - Hours 1 & 2 - Dylan McDermott (16:44) & Julianna Marguiles (19:21)

    The two American leads supply scene specific commentaries for scenes in which they feature during Hours 1 & 2. They are separate tracks on different scenes, which is why the run-times are different. McDermott is very dry, pauses too often and has very little of interest to say. Marguiles is certainly more relaxed and self-effacing, which makes her commentary more interesting, but still nothing special.

Deleted Scenes (4:36)

    This section includes 9 deleted scenes most of which are very short snippets rather than full scenes. None of them add much value.

Decoding The Grid (8:23)

    This featurette focuses on the themes and approach taken in the series and includes interviews with the director and Executive Producer. Topics covered include influences stylistically, the characters, research, development, scripting and the Muslim input they used. Not bad.

Disc 2

Scene Specific Commentaries - Hours 5 & 6 - Dylan McDermott (12:00) & Julianna Marguiles (13:26)

    The two American leads supply scene specific commentaries for scenes in which they feature during Hours 5 & 6. As above.

Deleted Scenes (3:13)

    This section includes 4 deleted scenes which are more interesting than those on Disc 1. The last one is certainly worth a look.

VFX : Secrets of The Grid (3:55)

    A short featurette about the special effects and how they were done.

Race Against Time (7:08)

    A decent featurette about the short shooting schedule and the problems they encountered along the way including weather, timing, budget and location issues.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    This series is available in Region 1 with the same extras and a couple of extra subtitle options (French & Spanish). The local version would probably be a slightly different edit based upon what I can glean from the internet. Let's call it a draw.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The set has a large collection of extras which are of mostly decent quality.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall