The Henry Rollins Show-Season 1 (2006) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | TV Series | None | |
Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 2006 | ||
Running Time | 600:00 | ||
RSDL / Flipper |
Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3) |
Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By |
Rhett Bachner Kevin Morra Paul J. Morra |
Studio
Distributor |
MRA Entertainment |
Starring |
Henry Rollins Janine Garofolo Heidi May Kevin Smith Ozzy Osbourne Ben Folds Jeff Bridges Aimee Mann Daniel Johnston Ben Harper Eddie Izzard Penelope Spheeris John C. Reilly |
Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
RPI | ? | Music |
Slayer Ben Folds Aimee Mann |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame | English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) | |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles | None | Smoking | No |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
If there's one thing that can be said for Henry Rollins, he certainly has a lot to say. For those who are unfamiliar with Henry's career or stance on global issues, it would be very easy to write-off the muscular, tattooed American as a bit of ranting loony. But dig a bit deeper, and you begin to appreciate his tenacity.
Henry the musician: Rollins gained notoriety during the 80s as frontman for the now legendary underground punk/rock band Black Flag. When they dissolved, he went on to form the Rollins Band, which has been through numerous line-up changes and reached a peak in the 90s with their album Weight and the huge MTV hit, Liar. The Rollins Band album, Get Some Go Again is a favourite of mine. The classic Rollins Band line-up reunited in 2006 for a performance on this program, for the season finale no less. The band are said to be back in action now.
Henry the actor: If you look closely, you'll see Henry popping up in small roles in all manner of films, from David Lynch's Lost Highway, to Heat with Al Pacino. His scene in Bad Boys II was hilarious.
Henry the author: Hank also runs his very own publishing company, 2.13.61, and has authored numerous books about his career, diaries, journals and the like. All are fantastic reading if you're into the ins and outs of rock bands.
Henry the stand-up comedian: Rollins has toured extensively, doing spoken word gigs to packed houses all over the world. He also tours war-torn countries, performing for American servicemen. I've managed to catch him in Australia a few times and would easily rate him up there with Billy Connolly in terms of pure laugh-factor. I hope to review his latest spoken word DVD, Live in NYC, for you soon.
Henry the talk-show host: The Henry Rollins Show is now in it's second season and is receiving rave reviews. Future guests on the show include William Shatner and musical artists Chris Cornell and Peeping Tom.
Henry is unrelentingly intelligent in his delivery and highly opinionated, but to his credit he is also as uncompromising as he is hilarious. Produced by the IFC Channel in the US, the show follows a regular format; usually Teeing Off with a rant from Henry about something that's been on his mind - this could be anything from Blackberrys to Osama Bin Laden. A special guest occupies most of the episode, and Henry is a surprisingly candid interviewer. The broad range of interviewees is excellent, so there is really something for everyone. In fact, even the guests I'm not ordinarily interested in make for worthy viewing when they're conversing with Henry. Each episode closes with a musical performance, live in the studio.
If I had to make one complaint about this DVD set, that would be the lack of extras. It's well known that each guest musical artist actually recorded more than one performance for the show, with one being broadcast and the other available via streaming on the IFC website. We're reminded of these at the end of each episode on the DVD. The frustrating thing is that if you have an Australian IP address (like me), the IFC website won't let you view the additional footage. Why not include some more music on the DVD as extras?
The below list outlines each episode and the huge variety of guests that appear.
1. Oliver Stone/ Sleater-Kinney 2. Chuck D/ Jurassic 5 3. Werner Herzog/ Frank Black 4. Ozzy Osbourne/ Ben Folds 5. Bill Maher/ Black Rebel MC 6. Jeff Bridges/ Ben Harper 7. P.T. Anderson/ Aimee Mann 8. Eddie Izzard/ Death Cab for Cutie 9. Penelope Spheeris/ John Doe 10. Patton Oswalt/ Damian Marley | 11. Perry Farrell/ Deadboy 12. Adam Carolla/ Dashboard Confession 13. Michael Chiklis/ Dinosaur Jr. 14. Billy Bob Thornton/ Daniel Johnston 15. Peaches/ Ringside 16. John C. Reilly/ Thom Yorke 17. Kevin Smith/ New York Dolls 18. Johnny Knoxville/ Slayer 19. Stephen Gaghan/ Ani DiFranco 20. Matt Dillon/ Rollins Band |
This show was produced independently for broadcast on cable TV in the US. Our transfer is an NTSC conversion, presented in the original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1.
There aren't really any surprises here. Resolution is decent, considering the NTSC source and lower-than-usual budget of the production. Overall the transfer is as solid as you would expect from a recent TV studio production.
Colour depth is consistent with the NTSC source, with adequate depth to be found. There are no inconsistencies or bleeding in the transfer as far as I can see.
A little MPEG grain can be seen on occasion, which isn't helped by the NTSC conversion process. There is no ugly macro blocking to be seen at all.
There are no subtitles provided, which is really disappointing given that this is a talk show with so much to say.
All three discs are DVD9 formatted. I didn't notice any layer breaks, so I presume they are placed between episodes somewhere.
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Overall |
The show's original Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo audio is retained, presented here at 224Kb/s. It's a little on the thin side, particularly during the musical performances. On the upside, we know that because this is an NTSC conversion the audio pitch is going to be uncorrupted by PAL speedup.
The English dialogue is always clear and easy to make out. There are no audio sync issues.
The musical performances contain good separation between instruments and are very clear. The audio lacks a little weight behind the drums and bass guitars, and for what it's worth I would have preferred a higher Dolby bitrate.
The subwoofer and surround channels are not utilised.
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Subwoofer | |
Overall |
None. The menus are static and silent, with a simple list of the episodes contained on the disc.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The transfer is average.
The extras are on the IFC website, but I'd prefer them on disc.
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Audio | |
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Review Equipment | |
DVD | Denon DVD-3910, using HDMI output |
Display | Sanyo PLV-Z2 WXGA projector, Screen Technics Cinemasnap 96" (16x9). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 720p. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to DVD player. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Denon AVR-3806 (7.1 Channels) |
Speakers | Orpheus Aurora III floor-standing Mains and Surrounds. Orpheus Centaurus .5 Front Center. Mirage 10 inch powered sub. |