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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Mortified-Volume 2-Episodes 14-26 (2007)

Mortified-Volume 2-Episodes 14-26 (2007)

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Released 18-Jul-2007

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Childrens None
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 2007
Running Time 299:00
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered
Dual Disc Set
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Pino Amenta
Evan Clarry
Ian Gilmour
Paul Moloney
Studio
Distributor

Madman Entertainment
Starring None Given
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI ? Music Frank Strangio
Tess Natoli
James Harvey


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

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

Our review of Mortified Season 1 (they are referred to as volumes on the DVD - I have used the more traditional Seasons) can be found , here.

When we last left Taylor Fry (Marny Kennedy) she had made the momentous choice not to accept the scholarship to the swanky girls-only private school and had enrolled at Driftwood High School to be with her best mate Hector. Having thrown off the shackles of primary school and all its hassles surely High School will be a breeze and Taylor's life will slip into blissful contentment? ....Yeah, right!

It turns out that first year at High School is every bit as challenging and , well, mortifying as her previous year. Things start very badly when, on her first day, her mother decides that a little aromatherapy will ease Taylor's distress. Trouble is the oil smells horrendous and kids avoid her like the plague. What's worse, her cool maths teacher Mrs Palmer deduces that it is B.O. and gives her a pile of pamphlets about puberty. Aaaargh!

As said, at the end of the last Season Taylor faced a future without her bestie Hector and her crush Leon. However she decides to join Hector at Driftwood High and Miss Perfect Brittany Flune soon decides to join her. By episode three Leon finds his way there too, So the old gang is brought back together. There is no re-invention of the series. If anything the second year issues are a bit more weighty - mid-life crises, the fear of divorce and the not-so-distant call of puberty! But the characters have not changed a great deal. Mum (Rachel Blakely) and Dad (Andrew Blackman) are just as fun-loving (i.e. wacky) as before. Mystic Marj is still on hand to provide sage advice which is more often wrong than right. Boy magnet Layla (Darshana Cahill) is still as loving and caring towards little sister Taylor as a Turkish prison guard!

The Second Season episodes are as follows:

  1. Little Fish
  2. Parent Teacher Night
  3. D.J. Taylor
  4. School Trivia Night
  5. Taylor's Self Portrait
  6. The Wedding
  7. First Child in Space
  8. The Family Tree
  9. Divorce Camp
  10. Taylor Gets A Job
  11. Rome Wasn't Built in a Day
  12. Girl Power
  13. Taylor's Song
The show is well produced, directed and presented. Marny Kennedy is a great little performer and the other kids Nicholas Dunn as Hector, Luke Erceg as Leon and Maia Mitchell as Brittany are all endearing and capable making it easy for kids to identify with them. Even though the situations often lead into high comedy the core problem of growing up and coping with embarrassment ring true.

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Transfer Quality

Video

As said before Mortified seems to have been shot on High Definition video at a native widescreen aspect ratio. The DVD mirrors that ratio. It is described as 16x9 enhanced.

The Second Season is as well transferred to DVD as the First Season.

The image is crisp and clear. There are no obvious deficiencies with the transfer. Digital noise is barely noticeable even in the frequent outdoor scenes and compression is no issue with two and a half hours of program sans extras on each DVD.

Colours are lovely and bright and flesh tones are accurate. Aliasing occurs infrequently but is about the only real technical blemish on offer.

There are no subtitles.

All in all a modest but successful transfer.

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

Audio

Like the First Season, the Second Season of Mortified has a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack running at 192 Kb/s.

Maybe a surround track would have been nice for some scenes but really the stereo track is perfectly adequate for this show.

One year later and I still found that the voices of some of the kids were a little fast for my ageing ears but the youngsters in the household picked up every nuance. Certainly, Marny Kennedy never presents a problem in her clear diction.

The audio sync is fine.

The theme song, Get Me Out of Here !, is unchanged from the First Season and remains a catchy little number. The other music is a perfect accompaniment to the show.

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

Extras

The First Season of Mortified had a nice extra about the process of making the show as well as an introduction to the talented but humble kids who act in it. This set has no extras but they are not really missed.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

This DVD is not yet available in other Regions.

Summary

Another quality slice of kids TV can be found in Mortified Season 2.

It is a no-brainer that fans of the First Season will want to pick up this DVD but they will not be disappointed either by the quality of the episodes or the video and audio transfer on offer.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Trevor Darge (read my bio)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer BDP-LX70A Blu-ray Player, using HDMI output
DisplayPioneer PDP-5000EX. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationOnkyo TX-SR605
SpeakersJBL 5.1 Surround and Subwoofer

Other Reviews NONE