Review(s): DVD Silk Stalkings - The Complete Second Season
Missing episodes?
I bought this at a local store and it seems that there are some
discrepencies. According to the episode lists I've seen on-line, "Free-base"(The one with Clean-nation) and "Goodtime Charlie" are the first 2 episodes on the DVD. I don't have that anywhere on my second season collection. Did they throw it on the first season one or something? I loved Good-time Charlie. And I think Clean-nation was the one with Chris's mom. Could someone give me their thoughts on this. Also, I have Crime of Love on mine and according to the list, that's not until the 3rd season.
Too cheesy to watch
I should have rented this show from netflix before shelling out my money. I bought the first two seasons after running out of seasons of Hunter (also produced by Cannell). Now, the first season of Hunter was also a little cheesy and over the top, but got better in the second season. So, after suffering through a couple episodes of the first season of this, I shelved it and moved onto the second, hoping it would also have improved. No such luck. I strongly recommend not buying any of this series until you've watched a few episodes and are sure you can tolerate the bad writing and low budget.
Season Two: Hitting Their Stride
This is the continuing story of a pair of Palm Beach (Florida) detectives investigating crimes of passion, AKA "sik stalkings". The detectives for the first four seasons are Chris Lorenzo and Rita Lee Lance, played respectively by Rob Estes and Mitzi Kapture. If you're new to "Silk Stalkings" you should really look elsewhere, as the rest of this review assumes you're moderately familiar with the show.
This was the second and last CBS "Crimetime After Prime Time" season before it moved to USA network.
This season nailed the formula "Silk Stalkings" was to use for years to come. The golfing metaphors for sex are a thing of the past, and Rita's brain aneurism is never mentioned again. Mitzi Kapture does a voice-over in most episodes, but it's not the constant presence it was in Season One. While male guest roles continue to have diversity of character, women in guest roles are pretty much either Saints or Sinners, and the Sinners only have two ways to go: Sluts and Sociopaths. Thankfully, the fetish for big 1980's hairdos and hosiery ("silk stockings" -- get it?) has largely disappeared. And of course we still see too many San Diego hillsides to convincingly stand in for the flat land around Palm Beach.
As this was a late-night budget show, we still get grainy video. The intro is unchanged; Mitzi Kapture still appears first in the credits with the big 1980's hair. (Later Rob and Mitzi alternated first and second billing.) Closed captions are new this season. In a budget-constrained show that's heavy on sex it's not surprising to see the occasional lapse in censorship; I counted two accidental nipple exposures (down from three in Season One). This season also marked the first use of blur to censor nudity -- it's cheaper to just shoot and blur later than it is to set up careful camera angles to keep things out of sight.
Ben Vereen as Capt. Hutchinson only appears in two episodes. In the others he's been replaced by Robert Gossett as Lt. Hudson. Charlie Brill appears twice this season as "Myron the Mattress King", and his wife Mitzi McCall plays Myron's wife. Starting the next season Charlie Brill replaces Hutchinson and Hudson as the Homicide Division head, and Mitzi McCall again plays his wife.
Anchor Bay screwed up this DVD quite a bit. There are 8 minutes missing from episode "Dead Weight" (the first of Erin Gray's two guest appearances on the show); you don't get to see the denouement at all.
Additionally, during the 55 second intro after the disc loads (FBI warning, Anchor Bay logo, Stephen J. Cannell Productions Logo, and an animated credits sequence before the menu appears) the disc disables
- FF
- reverse
- chapter forward
- menu
- top menu
- search
You *must* watch the full 55 seconds each and every time you load a disc. Bleah!
Also during play there is no
- search by chapter
- search by time
There are no additional chapter stops; just 4 for the 4 acts of each show. This means you can't skip past the credits except by fast forwarding.
Episode order in this set is problematic. For one thing, this "Season Two" collection starts with the third episode of the year (the first two were at the end of the "Season One" DVD set), and includes the first show of Season Three. Episode 2.19, "Star Signs" is misplaced at the end of disc 5 instead of at its beginning. But Anchor Bay isn't the only culprit here. In the original play order coroner Noriko Weinstein first showed up in episode 2.11, "Irreconcilable Differences", but there's an introduction scene for her TEN episodes later (ELEVEN in the Anchor Bay order)!
Recurring roles include
- William Anton as ADA George Donovan
- Dennis Paladino as mobster Donnie "Dogs" DiBarto
- Marie Marshall as photographer Solonge
- John Byner as con artist Cotton Dunn
- Lucy Lin as coroner Noriko Weinstein
Notable guest stars for this collection are Romy Windsor, Roddy Piper, Salli Richardson, Luca Bercovici, Tobin Bell, Edward Albert, Audrey Landers, Josie Bissett, Henry Darrow, Jamie Rose, Erin Gray, John Laughlin, Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall, Maddie Corman, Andrew Stevens, Barbara Niven, Charlie Callas, Andrea Thompson, Tracy Scoggins, Casey Sander, Gail O'Grady, and Jay Acovone.
The extras for this DVD set are reminiscences by Stephen J. Cannell and Mike Post about their lives and careers, mostly NOT about "Silk Stalkings". There's a single SS script and a few Chris & Rita stills from the show.
The production values still reflect the cheap budget, but the guest actors are a bit more competent this season. Mitzi and Rob are starting to get really comfortable in their roles. So don't let the bad Anchor Bay treatment keep you from collecting this set. It's good TV.
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