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This American Life: Season One
R1 - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (24th February 2008). |
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The Film
 There are a few instances were a show has been successfully developed from a radio concept, the BBC in fact is one such network that does this often. Many of their popular shows started life as radio programs such as "Little Britain" (2003-Present) among others. "This American Life" is not a BBC series but it started life in a similar fashion as some of those shows, it was an acclaimed radio program, a weekly hour-long show produced by Chicago Public Radio. The show is hosted by Ira Glass, an intelligent and thoughtful presenter that presents a series of stories that all focus on a similar theme. The show is basically a non-fiction journalistic program. The concept has not changed for the TV version of the show; it's essentially the same format only with pictures. "This American Life" is like no other journalistic show on television, from its 'themed' format to the way in which each episode is structured the series takes you on a journey through the interesting, sometimes weird, funny, and sad lives of the people it takes a look at. It is an "American Life" but not in the traditional sense, Glass and his cohorts delve deep within the fabric of America to bring you these unique stories that showcase the off-kilter aspects of the American Life. The content of each of these episodes varies, occasionally the stories are funny, many times they are plain sad, while others are inspiring, ironic or gloomy as we pick away at the human condition. The themes include reality hitting hard, looking past humiliation to do something for the first time, religious fanaticism, the cost of stubbornness, and unexpected consequences of trying something new. This show is not your average doco series, which is certainly not a bad thing, in fact sometimes it's fresh to break away from convention and present something in a new and interesting manner. This is exactly what Glass and co. have done. I was fascinated by the people and places in which was presented, the tone may at first seem distant and calculating but within minutes you're sucked into each episode. One of my only disappointments is that the episodes run under 30 minutes in length, I felt they could easily stretch this out to an hour, the runtime was a factor in many cases where the stories should have been unraveled further. Sometimes they leave you wanting to know more, for example in the series' second episode there was a story about an elderly woman who wrote a film script for the first time and got her retirement home involved in making the film, I really wanted to know if the film was completed and if it went to Sundance which was the popular choice for the film's premiere. Despite the runtime of these episodes I found them uniquely exceptional and thought-provoking, if you don't subscribe to Showtime (or have simply missed this series when it was originally aired) I suggest picking it up, it's worth looking into. This disc includes all 6 episodes from the first season: - "Reality Check" - "Growth Spurt" - "The Cameraman" - "God's Close-up" - "My Way" - "Pandora's Box"
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 this anamorphic transfer is crisp, the overall quality of the image is good considering it was shot in a digital format. I assume this transfer was struck from the original digital source as it would make sense. The transfer is clean and colors show up real well, skin tones are natural and black levels are pitch perfect. There was some softness and some shimmer as well which added to some compression related issues.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included in English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono. This series is primarily dialogue heavy with little to no surround activity required. Despite this I chose to view the series with its 5.1 sound track. Dialogue was clear and distortion free and the occasionally bouts of score come across well as expected surround activity was minimal. While it's nice to have a 5.1 track, a stereo track would have been enough. This series does not include any optional subtitles.
Extras
Paramount has included an audio commentary on an episode as well as a bio and photo galley as extras on this disc. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is an audio commentary on the first episode entitled "Reality Check" by series creator/host Ira Glass and series director Christopher Wilcha. In this track you'll hear information on the making of the pilot episode and the stories covered, on shooting elements for the episode, as they provide some production information about the series. They comment on the opening of the series and share their experiences in making it as well as talk about the radio version of the show. One area of interest is the style of the show including the visuals among other things. It's a short track, informative (as much as it can be in under half an hour) and easy to listen to, I just wish they recorded tracks for all the episodes. Next up is a bio for the series creator/host Ira Glass and features a series of 7 text pages about his career. Rounding out the extras is a photo gallery featuring 11 images, these are primarily publicity snaps taken during the production.
Overall
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