CD Giveaway - Sam Shrieve, "Bittersweet Lullabies"
Ends Nov 29, 2009
The current student at Berklee College of Music has a rock 'n' roll pedigree, but delivers a pleasing and diverse collection of soft pop on his debut record. Enter our contest for your chance to win! |
|
|
DVD Review: Alien Nation - The Complete Series
by R.J. Carter
Published: January 1, 2006
|
|
Rating: 
Country: USA
Release Date: January 3, 2006
Distributor: Fox Home Entertainment
Director:
· Kenneth Johnson
Cast:
· Gary Graham
· Eric Pierpoint
· Michele Scarabelli
· Lauren Woodland
· Sean Six
· Terri Treas
Related Sites:
· IMDb: Alien Nation (TV)
· TV Shows on DVD: Alien Nation
Grade: A
|
|
Director Kenneth Johnson could not have been a more perfect pick for Alien Nation, a television series that still survives as a cult favorite and spawned a handful of made-for-TV movies after its cancellation. Having established himself on the television drama Adam-12 and the sci-fi miniseries V, it was nearly second nature to combine the elements of both programs into what became Alien Nation. On the surface, it's a cop show -- just with aliens added to the mix, and with all the action taking place in present day, on terra firma -- not in some distant future on an unseen landscape.
Johnson, however, immediately took the series beyond the surface. Alien Nation is a societal drama, focusing with laserlike precision on our human foibles, about how quick we turn -- all of us -- to prejudice and intolerance whenever someone is radically different from us. The aliens in this show are Tenctonese -- commonly referred to as "newcomers" (or, in the more vulgar, as "slags".) They arrived in a spaceship where they were being transported as slaves for sale, and are the newest immigrants -- and the newest minority -- tossed into the melting pot of America.
Detectives Matt Sikes and George Francisco prepare for
another day at the office.
L-R: GRAHAM, PIERPOINT
|
The ensemble cast for the show included Gary Graham (Enterprise: "Broken Bow") and Eric Pierpoint ("Holes") as Los Angeles police detectives Matthew Sikes and George Francisco, who are partnered together when Sikes's partner is killed in a shootout with Tenctonese gangs. Their partnership is an uneasy one as George is forever trying to learn his way in this new society, with Matt as both his anchor and his sometimes antogonist. Matt's own feelings about the newcomers are varied and mixed. In the pilot episode, he shares the same fears that we all might have -- particularly when presented with evidence that perhaps the newcomers are just in a larvae stage and pupate into giant killer ants! But he stands up just as much for the equal treatment of the Tenctonese when he speaks out at a bigotry march at a school, designed to keep George's daughter from attending. It's like the worst -- and the best -- of the civil rights movement all over again.
Filling out the cast are Michele Scarabelli, Lauren Woodland (The Young and the Restless), and Sean Six as George's family: Susan, Emily, and Buck. Fueling Matt's own mixed emotions is the presence of Terri Treas as Cathy, Matt's new neighbor, a sexy newcomer whose appeal is both in form and in her openness and honesty when talking with Matt.
Matt's new neighbor, newcomer Cathy Frankel.
TREAS
|
Alien Nation is about alienation, as the play on words title should suggest. Viewers are given a vision of their world through the eyes of an immigrant, laying bare all the hatred, suspicion, and prejudice -- but also exposing all the hope and triumph. (Hey, not all humans are bad, after all.)
This DVD set includes six double-sided discs with two episodes on each side (with two exceptions.) The double-length pilot episode takes the entirety of disc 1A, and features an optional running commentary by the series producer, Kenneth Johnson. Disc 6B has an additional featurette that is more of a promo piece than a behind-the-scenes look, although we do get to see a bit of the makeup process involved, and get soundbytes from some of the major players. It would have been nice to have got a little more recent material from the principals -- IMDb doesn't show much activity for any of them these days -- but there's always the made-for-TV movies that came after the series wrapped. Perhaps we can look there for commentary from Graham, Pierpoint, and the rest on what it was like to live, for a while, in an Alien Nation.
Languages for each episode include English and Spanish, with matching subtitles.
The
Complete Series
|
|
Disc 1A
|
Disc 1B
|
|
01. Alien Nation: The TV Movie (Pilot) (with optional
commentary by Director Kenneth Johnson)
|
02. Fountain of Youth
03. Little Lost Lamb
|
|
Disc 2A
|
Disc 2B
|
04. Fifteen With Wanda
05. The Takeover
|
06. The First Cigar
07. Night of the Screams
|
|
Disc 3A
|
Disc 3B
|
08. Contact
09. Three to Tango
|
10. The Game
11. Chains of Love
|
|
Disc 4A
|
Disc 4B
|
12. The Red Room
13. The Spirit of '95
|
14. Generation to Generation
15. Eyewitness News
|
|
Disc 5A
|
Disc 5B
|
16. Partners
17. Real Men
|
18. Crossing the Line
19. Rebirth
|
|
Disc 6A
|
Disc 6B
|
20. Gimme, Gimme
21. The Touch
|
22. Green Eyes
"Behind-the-Scenes" Featurette (3:38)
|
|
|
