Emmy Nominations

Law & Order - The Fifth Year (1994-1995 Season)
$59.98
It is impossible to talk about every episode in this disc. If you watch, the absolute quality of the writting and acting that makes this show one of the best in televison, ever, will be immediately revealed.

But I picked 1994-1995 Law and Order specifically. It was the season Jerry Orbach truely nailed the essense of the great Lenny Briscoe. The year Lt. Van Burean became a staple. Most important, the officious Ben Stone was replaced by the bucking bronco, Jack McCoy. Law and Order as we know it starts here.

Law and Order is really great New York stage with great New York Stage actors, and the show has never deviated from this. The brillance is in how each twist in the show sets the next four, perfectly. The way the most offhand comments are planted and prove to be keys to solving the crime. The way the crimes imply bigger social issues: these smart charactors sometimes debate the issues, as smart people do, but never in a way that sounds contrived or accidemic. You have to be smart to get the show, becuase Law and Order is so smart. It talks up to you, never down.

I was recently watching a 20th aniversery documentry on the show. Jeramy Sisto said that if you want to understand New York, and America, in our times, watch Law and Order: you'll see the high crime, crack infested, New York. The cleaned up, Gulianni, Nasdaq rocketing New York. New York experiancing and trying to come to grips with 9/11, and finally, the Bloomberg New York we know in 2009; recovered, but still dealing with incremental after shocks.

Stone, McCoy, Shiff, Lewin, Brnach, Kincaid, Ross, Caremichal, Southerland Cutter, Rubarosa. Law and Order has run our times through so many different perspectives, we can't help but watch it over and over both as history and drama. (And you gotta admit, all the assistants have been lookers. No wonder Jack got himself into trouble, at least before Kinkaid died)

You rarely see them at home. These people rarely show a soft side, forgiveness, pity. You always know it is there. Some are probably teddy bears after five o'clock. But these people are at work, and the work is to put very bad people in a very bad place--brass nuckles required.. It is waiting to see the occasional humaness of the charactors that keeps me watching.

Sisto, Anderson and Roche are great actors, and , this show still works. I will always watch. But I miss Briscoe, and that young, black haired maneater McCoy, grinding the sausage at any cost. If you feel that way, get 1994-1995. It all, officially, starts here.

Imps*
$2.99
This is a series of parody sketches from the late 70's early 80's. Unless you are a collector of certain actresses films, AND you are over 40 years old, these sketches will make absolutely no sense.

The set up for every sketch is parody of a televsion show, movie genre, or commercial. For this to work, the viewer has to be familiar with the original, especially since the humor is so thin in these sketches. The part that was tiresome, this reviewer is very familiar with virtually everything they were poking fun at, and just didn't find it funny at all. The problem with every sketch, the joke went on past the punch line.

An example, The Three Mile Island People, Brady Bunch opening. Dad gets home from his job at the Nuclear plant. Dad touches daughter's radio that doesn't work and it glows and starts working (bad yellow effect around them). Dad touches something else and it glows. Where is son? Dad uses a geiger counter to find son - the geiger counter is making noise everywhere, but gets more intense at a certain cabinet. Dad opens and pulls out a pair of legs. That's son. This is the laugh, ha ha ha, the son is a mutant. The power fails, and the whole family glows. We're the 3-Mile Island People.

If you are an absolute rabid collector of certain actresses movies, there's a few famous ones in here. Jennifer Tilly, Marilyn Chambers (in lingerie), Peter Scolari, Lynda Wiesmeier (in all her glory), Linda Blair, Fred Willard, and Julia Duffy. Remember each of these people are in this movie for maybe 1 minute, 3 maximum, and they appear only once.

You might be tempted, given the star studded cast, and the idea that this could be early in their careers. Sadly you'd be wrong, almost every actor was at their sophomore years in television or the movies (aside from Marilyn Chambers who had already done her most famous early work). It's definately not a, gosh look how young and silly Jennifer Tilly looks.

There is a smattering of nudity in the film. The people you would expect show off their assets, briefly. There's no surprises with who takes their clothes off (no Linda Blair keeps her clothes on). There's a fair amount of racist humor, that was common in parodies of that period.

The DVD includes a set of "bonus features." Where are they now and where aren't they now. A movie slide show picture of several actors with pop up bubbles of what they have done since doing this picture. There's also a "don't watch this" feature. It includes two more nude sketches, not funny at all and hardly exciting, and another parody sketch. All in all, not really worth watching. Googling their names will get you faster better information.

Oh so passable.

Imps*
$9.99
This is a series of parody sketches from the late 70's early 80's. Unless you are a collector of certain actresses films, AND you are over 40 years old, these sketches will make absolutely no sense.

The set up for every sketch is parody of a televsion show, movie genre, or commercial. For this to work, the viewer has to be familiar with the original, especially since the humor is so thin in these sketches. The part that was tiresome, this reviewer is very familiar with virtually everything they were poking fun at, and just didn't find it funny at all. The problem with every sketch, the joke went on past the punch line.

An example, The Three Mile Island People, Brady Bunch opening. Dad gets home from his job at the Nuclear plant. Dad touches daughter's radio that doesn't work and it glows and starts working (bad yellow effect around them). Dad touches something else and it glows. Where is son? Dad uses a geiger counter to find son - the geiger counter is making noise everywhere, but gets more intense at a certain cabinet. Dad opens and pulls out a pair of legs. That's son. This is the laugh, ha ha ha, the son is a mutant. The power fails, and the whole family glows. We're the 3-Mile Island People.

If you are an absolute rabid collector of certain actresses movies, there's a few famous ones in here. Jennifer Tilly, Marilyn Chambers (in lingerie), Peter Scolari, Lynda Wiesmeier (in all her glory), Linda Blair, Fred Willard, and Julia Duffy. Remember each of these people are in this movie for maybe 1 minute, 3 maximum, and they appear only once.

You might be tempted, given the star studded cast, and the idea that this could be early in their careers. Sadly you'd be wrong, almost every actor was at their sophomore years in television or the movies (aside from Marilyn Chambers who had already done her most famous early work). It's definately not a, gosh look how young and silly Jennifer Tilly looks.

There is a smattering of nudity in the film. The people you would expect show off their assets, briefly. There's no surprises with who takes their clothes off (no Linda Blair keeps her clothes on). There's a fair amount of racist humor, that was common in parodies of that period.

The DVD includes a set of "bonus features." Where are they now and where aren't they now. A movie slide show picture of several actors with pop up bubbles of what they have done since doing this picture. There's also a "don't watch this" feature. It includes two more nude sketches, not funny at all and hardly exciting, and another parody sketch. All in all, not really worth watching. Googling their names will get you faster better information.

Oh so passable.

Just One Kiss (Emmy nomination, song of the year 2007)
$0.99