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DVD
UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP DISTRIBUTION
Publisher: Shout! Factory
Format: AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Actors: Claire Danes, Winnie Holzman, Marshall Herskovitz
Featuring all 19 episodes of the sadly-defunct television series MY SO-CALLED LIFE this definitive box-set follows the trials and tribulations of 15-year-old Angela Chase (Claire Danes) as she navigates through the adolescent dramas of middle-class American high-school life. Danes won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of the angst-ridden Angela bringing a universality to the character that has granted the show its timeless appeal. Although the mopey redhead is always the focal point of the episodes there's no shortage of excellent supporting roles including Angela's heartthrob crush Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto); shy admirer Brian Krakow (Devon Gummersall); wild-girl best friend Rayanne (A.J. Langer); closeted gay friend Ricky (Wilson Cruz); and often-clueless parents Patty (Bess Armstrong) and Graham (Tom Irwin). With its great acting smart dialogue and moody direction MY SO-CALLED LIFE deserved more than its single-season run and retains a loyal cult following. Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 826663105582 Manufacturer No: SF10558
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| Fantastic! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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A wonderful set of DVDs complete with fantastic new interviews; the companion book is short, but enjoyable. The best part, though, is simply the episodes themselves. This is television at its best.
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| In Contrast to Today |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I was one of those who actually got to see the show, one episode, when it was on ABC. I'm not even sure which episode it was, but I caught the tail end of it, and then it was gone. When I showed up on MTV I had just gotten cable, but I saw it disjointed because I would catch an episode here and there. Suffice to say I really love the show for its writing and acting. It can start to get a little melodramatic, but come on, it was the 90's, who wasn't melodramatic. I loved the little insights that Angela would say in a passing manor. Because, even though they came off as just a throw-away thought, there was actually some deep thinking behind those thoughts.
Today's "teen" shows have nothing on MSCL, because they're based in some fantasy world where everyone is rich, beautiful, and only goes to school to socialize. No one deals with problems that go beyond blank sleeping with blanky, while also with blankwitz. I mean come on, I don't know what fancy world these people live in, but none of my friends were hopping in and out of each other's beds. My point is, today's shows are meant for escape, not for real introspection. All these years later I still find something new when I watch the show that makes me go, "Wow, things don't change."
The "book" is good, but is more like a bunch of trivia information than an actual book. Would be be cool is if someone could go to the writers of the show and ask them what they were planning for season two. That would make a good book.
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| my so called life |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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What a fantastic show! The writing, the acting...All seems so real! I couldn't get enough!
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| Ah, memories |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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My friends and I LOVED this show when it originally aired. We still use quips from certain episodes as inside jokes. Watching the series again brought me right back to those ackward and intense "important" things that made up high school.
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| Episodic gem of all '90s TV |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This remains the one truly great and overlooked television creation of the 1990s. The ensemble acting, storytelling skills, production values, and emotional substance are as compelling for me now as when I first saw this series 13 years ago. That persistence, after what must now be a dozen viewings of each episode, is unique for me, as for thousands of others.
Unfortunately, it didn't get a chance to be thus adopted by millions of others, when this first aired, and that is why it didn't continue for even a full 24-to-26-episode season. (Along with ABC's well-documented corporate cowardice - far more than any actor's skittishness, despite what is said on Wikipedia and elsewhere.)
I won't repeat the descriptive (and accurate) points brought out well by many other customers. I'll note here one crucial aspect that is often under-mentioned: "MSCL" is not solely about the teenagers. It revolves around a group of friends of that age. Yet it puts the stories firmly in the settings of their families and their teachers, as well. One knows the context and hidden facets for all the characters' lives, even within only 900 minutes.
This came from both serendipity and law. Claire Danes (Angela) and Devon Gummersall (Brian), portraying the two central threads of characterization, were 14 to 15 when this was made, and had strong legal restrictions on their work hours. That meant more scenes had to be written or rewritten to highlight and deepen their characters' friends. All of them were portrayed by actors with more liberal hours, but who were still all teenagers, rare both then and now.
Most of all, it meant that the adults had to have substantial screen time. It shows most of all in the emotional dimensions opened up for, and by, Bess Armstrong (Patty Chase) and Tom Irwin (Graham Chase). That broadened scope is one of the strongest reasons why this series still resonates, especially for many in our 30s and 40s, when any number of sitcoms and formula dramas using pre-fab parental stereotypes have faded from cultural memory.
This release from Shout! Factory far exceeds the 2002 BMG release in quality and features, and finaly gives this seminal show the treatment it deserves. The book that's included has compelling reading, vivid photos, and an index to the entire series. The sixth disc's documentaries and production information are worth the entire price in themselves, especially the contemporary event from 1995 at the Museum of Television and Radio. Even the series' music, a sprightly and perfectly fitting creation from a then-little-known composer, gets its own lively profile.
Video and audio quality are superb. Several of the actors and creators have contributed commentary tracks that are perceptive and filled with anecdotes, even with having some long pauses - as many of them are clearly newly re-experiencing their work, with considerable wonder. The menus include potent, funny quotations. (The only element from 2002 that's missing here is the English subtitles.)
If you like this series, if you think you might, if you were stunned with delight by it, you must snap this set up at once!
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