Correlli (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	537:59
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (6:48)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Robert Klenner Julian McSwiney Mandy Smith Tony Tilse
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	Chris Neal

    Louisa Correlli (Deborra-Lee Furness) is the new psychologist at Blackstream prison, nicknamed the "Rat Tamer". Blackstream houses a wide range of male offenders, many of whom have issues that Correlli has to help tackle. She is also there for the guards, some of whom are worse than the prisoners. Outside of work, she is a single mother struggling to keep up with her two teenage children.

    Louisa quickly forms a rapport with new inmate Kevin Jones (Hugh Jackman), drug and alcohol councillor Pat, and her boss (and ex-lover Sam). Over the course of her tenure, the people she works with and situations the prison puts her in begin to shape a change in her family life.

    Correlli is best known as the show that brought husband and wife Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness together. As cynical as it sounds, I have no doubt this will be the biggest sales driver for this DVD set. That's not to say it's a bad show, it is just not a particularly memorable show.

    The magnetic charm of Hugh Jackman ultimately proves both the show's biggest boon and the catalyst for most of its weaknesses. The stellar acting of a handful of players, particularly Furness and Jackman, shows up the dismal acting many of the other players. In turn, the weaker actors show up the rather patchy nature of the scripts (something the better players manage to help cover in their turn).

    If you're after a prison drama, Australian crime drama or "edgy" shows featuring psychologists, you don't have to look far to find much more involving fare. Much the same goes for the family drama angle of the show (which is by far the weakest aspect of the whole affair). The same sort of premise has been done to death and in a number of cases it has been done better. Anybody looking for a Hugh Jackman fix should be content with Correlli, but be warned it is a hit and miss affair.

    The 10 episodes of the short-lived series are split across three discs. The episodes are:

1. Rat Tamer: A movie-length start to the series. Corrections Officer Ben Costa starts losing grip of his sanity when Kevin Jones returns to prison, triggering old memories for the troubled officer. Meanwhile Jones appears to have some form of brain damage stemming from his journey to prison.
2. Roman Holiday: Correlli uncovers more about the mysterious Kevin Jones than he would like. Meanwhile another prisoner is deeply affected by the death of his visiting partner.
3. Shots In the Dark: 18 year old new prisoner Brett Hodges begins sharing a cell with Jones at the bequest of Correlli. Hodges, a junkie and a pretty boy, soon finds himself in over his head with the dealers in the prison.
4. Solitary: Jones finds himself in solitary after making a move on Correlli. Meanwhile a naive new guard is seduced by one of the inmates.
5. Lock-Down: The prison is placed in lockdown because of a union dispute as Hodges sister makes her way to Blackstream to reconcile with him.
6. Spoons: A self mutilating prisoner named Spoons is moved to Blackstream from a psychiatric facility and becomes friends with a band of drunken aboriginal cousins.
7. Wishin’ And Hopin’: Two women make a pact to leave their husbands if their sentences exceed 5 years.
8. An Early Release: When a prisoner named Haines is up for parole, Correlli tries to arrange a meeting between the psychopath and the family of one of his victims in order to determine his state of reform.
9. Revelations: Drug and Alcohol councillor Pat begins to question her own vows when one of her friends decides to cease being a nun.
10. Rumours: The drugs situation is getting out of hand at Blackstream and suspicion falls on guards for aiding the supply.

Video

    The show is presented in its original 1.29:1 aspect ratio and is not 16x9 enhanced (nor should it be).

    The video quality is comparable to that of a VHS tape the first time it is played, as you would probably expect of an Australian TV show that is now more than a decade old, but it is also marred by a number of digital artefacts.

    The video is quite soft, as is typical of any TV show that was shot on video more than 10 years ago. Low level noise is fairly well contained, and the level of grain is noticeable but pretty much on par with expectations for a show of this age and calibre. Thankfully, there is a reasonable level of detail visible in shadows as there are a number of scenes in dark cells.

    The colour palette is quite pale, which is typical of older analogue television shows. The colours are reasonably well balanced despite being pale.

    The video in every episode suffers from aliasing artefacts and noticeable pixelation. In most episodes these artefacts are relatively mild but they are certainly noticeable and occasionally distracting. For the entire duration of the first episode, which is a double-length episode, the aliasing is nearly unbearable. A handful of tape tracking errors are visible in several episodes, but it is a case of blink and you would miss them.

    English subtitles for the hearing impaired are available for each episode. Based on the portion I sampled, they appear accurate and reasonably well timed.

    Each of the three discs in this set is a RSDL disc. The layer break for the first disc occurs mid scene, at 6:48 of the second episode, but the break was not noticeable on my equipment. The layer breaks for the other discs occur between scenes are are consequently not noticeable either.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    A single English Dolby Digital 2.0 (256 Kbps) is available in each episode.

    Despite the reasonably high bitrate for a stereo soundtrack it is not terribly impressive. A moderate background hiss is noticeable throughout and there is very little use of stereo in the track.

    The dialogue is quite clear and easy to understand. The audio sync appears reasonably accurate during most episodes, but is slightly off for the whole duration of the first episode.

    The music in Correlli is fairly typical of ABC's crime-related dramas throughout the 1990s. Bold and never quite a good fit for the show. A more subtle soundtrack would have been more effective.

    There is no surround channel or subwoofer usage. There is barely even stereo usage. All of the dialogue floats about the centre speaker and there is only modest differentiation between the left and right channels in the background audio.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no extras in this set (unless you consider a static menu on each disc an extra).

    The full series of Correlli is only available in Region 4 at this point in time. The first episode was released in the guise of a stand-alone movie on DVD in Region 1 in late 2006 but, like the Region 4 release, featured no extras.

    A moderately entertaining, but ultimately quite forgettable prison drama that launched the relationship of Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness.

    The video presentation is somewhat disappointing. It looks quite dated and has issues with aliasing (particularly the first episode). The audio is very basic, but is adequate for the show. There are no extras in this set.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall