Ghost Whisperer - The Complete First Season (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)OK, I will admit to watching this for the lovely Jennifer Love Hewitt, having followed her career since Party of Five and several movies of varying quality. And when I first read that she would be returning to television in a series with this story I was, to put it mildly, not encouraged. But I have to admit this is quite a good show. Yes, the concept is similar to NBC's Medium but crossed with CBS' Touched by an Angel. So yes, it's a little corny at times. It's probably aimed at an older demographic being on CBS. But that doesn't detract from it being rather good, in that "tell me a spooky story" mode like the old Twilight Zone shows were at times.
Jennifer plays Melinda Gordon, recently married, now a small business owner in the town of Grandview (state unknown, but aren't all TV small towns like that?) who has held a particular ability since childhood, the ability to communicate with the dead. She "sees" them and is sought out by them to help them make their final journeys into the afterlife. Or "crossover" as it's been termed. But before they can, they all have unfinished business with their loved ones. Usually, it's the circumstances behind their deaths that lead them to Melinda. So "the dead" range from an M.I.A. soldier wishing to tell his now grown son the details of his disappearance, to a wrongly executed artist, to a 9 year old boy trying to tell his mother his death was not her fault. Naturally those she encounters are all skeptical, even hostile at times. But even she admits it's not easy having this ability, at times she wishes she didn't have it.
With each episode we learn a little more about her and her abilities with the undead. Like the fact her own mother has the same abilities but has tried to suppress them all her life and has had to deal with the guilt that entails. And all this leads up to the first season finale when she must deal with the victims of a plane crash and the multiple "crossings" that must occur, and the sudden twist to this story that served as the first season cliffhanger.
So far, there's no details on extra features, if any, here. But I would hope we'll get some episode commentaries, particularly from the show's creator as well as Ms. Jennifer. She was featured on the commentary track for her film "Heartbreakers" and proved to be a great storyteller on that film. I'm sure she'd be just as informative on this series.
As I said, this show is a guilty pleasure for me. Jennifer is beautiful to look at here; she can play strong, yet vulnerable characters. If you're looking for paranormal crime solvers, you're probably meant for Medium. But if you'd like a Friday night show to chill out with and end your week with, check out Ghost Whisperer.


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Ever since she was a young girl, Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt) has been able to see and talk to dead people--earth bound spirits who have yet to cross over to the other side and who seek her help in communicating and resolving unfinished business with the living.Melinda sometimes has a hard time accepting her "gift," especially now that she's a newlywed and looking forward to starting her new life with her husband, Jim Clancy (David Conrad), a paramedic.Her friend and business partner in the antique store, Andrea Moreno (Aisha Tyler), is fascinated by Melinda's talent.Although Melinda embraces her unique "abilities" as a blessing and sometimes a curse, she always helps her clients--alive or dead--find emotional closure.

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Man vs. Wild (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)I was never really interested in 'survival' programmes on the context of the fact I live in a city/town and the only wilderness around here is a small family park with a small duck pond, not exactly the Rockies.
I found survival documentaries slightly dull, not the programmes themselves, but the fact that it was a topic/genre I could not connect with or relate to. Survival experts seemed to belong to another lifestyle incorporating hunters through to paranoid doomsday nuts (I was very naive about the subject). Survival programmes usually had a barrel-chested bearded guy with glazed twitching eyes trying to show us how to make a smoking-jacket out of some poor rabbit and some leaves for a cravat.
However, I really enjoy the Man vs. Wild ones. In fact, nowadays I like survival programmes a lot, and my naivety about them is now only 'slightly pathetic'.
I first watched this on the Discovery channel, though it was re-titled (or may have been originally titled, I am not too sure) Born Survivor. I slowly come to liked it, listening to Bear Gryll's morbid stories of 'travelers' and 'hikers' meeting a doomed fate - he ALWAYS has a story to go with a poisonous plant, or a man-eating frog, etc. It was also funny watching him eat some gigantic insects to 'survive' and whilst he is telling us that these are good for us he squirms and chews with disgust at what the poor creature tastes like. There is also a slight Steve Irwin OTT drama about Bear Grylls also. For example, watching him jump off a helicopter with a slight over dramatic "yee-hah!"
Man vs. Wild is survival in a dramatic, but fun way, glamourising environments that most of us city dwellers will seldom see, besides sitting on our sofas watching TV.
Grylls comes across as a likeable fella, he seems the type to be devoted to what he does, and I guess that's what makes the programme work well. It must be great to have a job one enjoys as a hobby.
A lot has been said recently about 'faking' parts; I do not know why people would believe that these Man vs. Wild docs were 100 percent genuine. I spotted it first time I watched them, for example Grylls climbs a cliff type face yet the cameraman is at the top filming him climbing up, yet they are `all' together.
The fuss over these programmes came about because of an uproar over 'fake' scandals on British TV (fake phone-in scandals, dodgy editing on a Royal family documentary trailer that made the Queen look like she walked out of a photoshoot in a huff when she was exactly walking IN to the photoshoot, and she wasn't in a huff). Grylls came into the firing line, though his seem the most innocent. His programmes are fun and educational, if you really think that he can walk across most of Alaska and suddenly find an abandoned boat to rescue himself are slightly naive.
Another clear indication to viewers that certain parts are dramatized for artistic lisence is that each episode has a 'plot' arc which is as follows: Grylls gets stranded (albeit, purposely), Grylls has to get to a certain position covering many miles or/and obstacles whilst telling us how to accomplish it, and, finally, Grylls gets rescued or he escapes. It's that simple. The fact that certain things were planned was not shocking. He is showing how things should be done in the wild. If it was 100 percent real what are the chances he could find every plant he wanted to show us ("This is poisonous, don't eat it") or get a camera crew up a cliff? I am sure Grylls, being one of the youngest to climb Everest and being an ex-TA SAS Special Forces soldier could do all the stuff he wants to do, but people forget that programmes are made with the restrictions of lawyers, health and safety people and, most importantly, the liability and insurance restrictions. I also read somewhere that during his time with the SAS he broke his back from a parachuting mishap and spent months recovering, so I think he has already taken enough risks in his lifetime without folks calling him a 'fake'.
I am not writing this review to defend the guy, however, as a fan of the series I was worried that they would not make any more, which would be a huge shame in my opinion.
All in all, you have to take these programmes as they are - a dramatic calculated documentary about survival techniques that appeal to an audience that may not necessarily like 'survival' documentaries. It is fun yet informative, and whilst most of us will never experience some of the things Grylls does, I guess there are loads of us who wish we could get off our lazy arrses and experience some of these journeys through the exotic and hostile environments that our diverse world has to offer.
If you like Bear Grylls stuff, you may also like Ray Mears programmes as well.

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Nightmares & Dreamscapes - From the Stories of Stephen King (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)Stephen King, in the course of 30 years, has become a gargantuan commercial success. And why not? He is wicked scary and chillingly entertaining. But part of King's success is attributed to his ability to raise common, fundamental truths and write characters with universal human flaws in his warped, fantastical stories - truths which any audience can latch onto and flaws which everyone can identify with. It's no different with the fabulous TV cable rendition of his Nightmares & Dreamscapes. Themes of isolation, alienation, mortality, the human condition, and social disintegration are touched on.
This lavish, all-out TNT production doesn't stinge in its mini-series adaptation. I was amazed by the acting talent brought on board: William Hurt, William H. Macy, Kim Delaney (still sexy), Tom Berenger, Samantha Mathis... Stephen King's stories are magnificently and thoughtfully realized by wonderful, fully committed acting, production values of superb quality, and across-the-board earnest efforts by the writers and directors, who honor Stephen King by cleaving close to the spirit of the author's works. The 8 episodes are selected for their diverse storylines and are uniformly excellent. They are, in turn, comedic, meditative, tense, gentle, allegorical, apocalyptic, and, YES, scary. Personal favorites of mine are "Battleground," "Umney's Last Case," and "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band."
For the completists, of the eight episodes, only five are actually from King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes short story collection. "Autopsy Room Four" and "The Road Virus Heads North" are from Everything's Eventual, while "Battlefield" is from Night Shift. TNT's motto is "We know Drama." But, it seems, they also know horror.
Here are the 8 episodes:
"Battleground" - In this terse, funny, cool f/x-laden episode, William Hurt stars as an icy professional hit man who assassinates the CEO of a prominent toy company and ends up waging a one-man war against living plastic toy soldiers from a Jungle Army Footlocker. The little Savage Commando at the end is awesome! No dialogue in this one, which, in a way, enhances Hurt's acting even more. This episode, pretty much a one-man show, pays homage to the 1975 horror movie Trilogy of Terror, which starred Karen Black and the Twilight Zone's classic "The Invaders."
"Crouch End" - A newlywed American couple, superstitious Doris and the more practical Lonnie (Claire Forlani and Eion Bailey), honeymooning in London, are invited to dinner in the neighborhood of Crouch End. A London cabbie earnestly warns Lonnie not to go there but of course, the couple pays no heed. In Crouch End, strange things begin to happen - and weird, scary denizens begin to menace them - and, gradually, they come to realize they've ended up in a "thin spot" - an alternate world. This is an unsettling, spooky tale, as the more they get lost, the more desperate the circumstances become. Another instance of a normal, initially happy couple being faced with weird events and having their personal relationship gradually fall apart.
"Umney's Last Case" - Clyde Umney is a private eye plying his trade in 1938 whose world is upended when a man who looks just like him, named Sam Landry, shows up, claiming to be from the future of 2005. Sam has been writing a series of detective novels, with Clyde as the leading character. Sam and his wife Linda are suffering from the loss of their child, and Sam can't handle it; so he swaps places with Clyde. Everyman William H. Macy, as usual, is superb in both the roles of Clyde and Sam.
"The End of the Whole Mess" - Ron Livingston plays an award-winning filmmaker who, in his final hour of life, narrates the story of how his altruistic brother (Henry Thomas), by chemically finding a cure for all violence, instead brought about the end of the world. This is probably my least favorite story. It has its merits, but it moves at a plodding pace.
"The Road Virus Heads North" - Richard Kinell (Tom Berenger) is a famous horror writer shockingly diagnosed with a form of cancer. When driving to Boston for a book-signing event, he chances upon a garage sale and purchases a painting of a car travelling on the road. Eerily, this painting gradually changes and grows more menacing as Kinell goes along. Now, is the painting real or is Kinell delusional? Or is the painting, in reality, controlling his destiny? The painting is obviously a metaphor for Kinell's suddenly shortened mortality, but knowing that doesn't diminish the viewing of the episode.
"The Fifth Quarter" - Willy Evans (Jeremy Sisto) just never has any luck. Caught in a vicious loop of always making wrong choices, he repeatedly ends up in jail. Finally released but desperate to land that one big score and provide for his hardluck family, he goes in search of a treasure's burial site, aided by one quarter of a treasure map. Will his luck change this time? I couldn't help but root for Willy and his wife Karen (Samantha Mathis), who are inherently good people, but who are stuck in an impoverished situation, with no other recourse but crime. I mean, what would you do? Very good, dramatic character study.
"Autopsy Room Four" - King does his version of the "buried alive" scenario with this "bottle" episode. The story is mainly told thru the eyes of Howard Cottrell (Richard Thomas), who is bitten by a snake and pronounced dead. He is taken to the autopsy room, where the coroners begin talk of cutting him open. But here's the thing: Cottrell isn't dead, merely paralyzed, and desperately trying to let the coroners know it. Richard Thomas does a very good job conveying vulnerable, stark terror while - due to his frozen position on the slab - unable to properly emote. This is nerve-wracking stuff.
"You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" - This is a very cool episode. Kim Delaney and Steven Weber star as a troubled couple on a road trip thru Oregon who get lost and end up in a quaint little town called Rock & Roll Heaven, where the great musical icons of the '60s and '70s are alive and well. It seems like Shangri-La, there's a free concert every night. But, admission comes at a cost: once you enter, you can't leave. Uncanny resemblance between the actors and the musical legends they portray.
I only wish other stories from the Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection had been adapted to the small screen. It would've been interesting to see these following stories interpreted on television: "Suffer the Little Children," "The Ten O'Clock People," "The House on Maple Street," and "The Doctor's Case" (a kind-of posthumous Sherlock Holmes story). *Sigh* but you can't have everything. And what we do have, in these 8 stories, are certainly good enough and thought-provoking enough to tide us over until the next Stephen King project.
From what I understand, extras on this beautiful, slipcase three-disc set include additional scenes, featurettes, interviews and production sketches. Running time: 480 minutes. Screen aspect: Original Aspect Ratio - 1.78, Widescreen (16:9 Transfer).


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This hair-raising miniseries is comprised of 8 mind-bending stories each featuring an all-star cast and cutting-edge special effects. Each episode is adapted from on of King's short stories and will feature such notable performers as Oscar nominees William H. Macy, William Hurt, Tom Berenger and other favorites as Kim Delaney, Steven Weber, Henry Thomas, Samantha Manthis, Claire Forlani and others. The series will premiere this summer in a 4-week television event on TNT starting July 12, 2006.
DVD Features:FeaturetteInterviewsProduction Sketches

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