On the outskirts of Austin, Texas, Ashley (Abbie Cornish) lives a limited life, working a minimum-wage job in a chain grocery store. She’s desperately trying to get enough money and resources together to get her son back from Child Services, but she’s got a bad attitude and a messy apartment filled with open cans and liquor bottles. After a particularly stressful day at work, her father (Will Patton) takes her on an impromptu trip across the border for some relaxation, but on the way back she learns his newfound cash flow comes from transporting Mexicans into the US in the back of his trailer rig. Without any other way to improve her financial situation, she recklessly offers to pick up a group of people on the other side of the river for $500 a head, but a helicopter buzzes the group, and Ashley ends up responsible for a little girl named Rosa (Maritza Santiago Hernandez), separated from her mother.

While it’s true that there are plenty of dramas about the brutal experience facing Mexican people who hope to cross the border into the US, it’s awkward how director / writer David Riker turns the emotional focus away from those people and onto Cornish, a young white woman who clearly made a hasty mistake. Admittedly, Riker’s previous feature film, La Cuidad, appears to focus entirely on Mexican characters, so maybe he was just looking for a change of pace, or he wanted to create a film that didn’t box itself in as a story about a single culture, both in terms of the subject matter and the audience (Riker draws some connections between Ashley’s corner of Austin and the Mexican city where her father lives), but it doesn’t quite sit right as the movie progresses.

Ashley is presented as a woman with an attitude problem, resentful of anyone who comes between her and her child, which she basically defines as “everyone”: the store manager who won’t give her a raise or a promotion, the woman who drops by to check out whether the living conditions in her trailer have improved, and the woman with Child Services who is taking care of the boy in the meantime are all villains in her mind, conspiring to keep them separated. Riker refuses to really pick a side; Cornish plays the role with perpetual irritation, but has lines like “find a poor person in Texas who doesn’t have these same problems,” which Riker backs up with his parallel. On one hand, few movies have the courage to follow a truly flawed, unlikable protagonist, but it doesn’t sit well with the redemption story he has in mind.

The one prominent bright spot in the film is Hernandez, who is lovely as Rosa. The introduction of a cute kid can be a cheap trump card for a movie, but Hernandez creates a pleasing matter-of-fact chemistry with Cornish that never feels overly manipulative or overwrought. Mostly, her role is to try and goad Ashley into taking responsibility, which she does well, offering the kind of blunt assessment of the facts that children plainly see, even when adults try and talk up excuses. Will Patton is fine in his small role, another character in Riker’s world who doesn’t offer traditional cinematic charm. His advice to Ashley is cold and simple, and Riker doesn’t linger on it enough for the audience to feel much sympathy.

Eventually, the film builds to some confrontations, both emotional and literal, but Riker hasn’t prepared for the moment properly. The deck against Ashley is firmly stacked, and it’s entirely possible that she doesn’t deserve any of the pleasant outcomes to the scenario. Even if she managed to bond with a little girl, she remains responsible for a number of other people and incidents, which are apparently not as important as the question of whether or not she’s learned how to grow up and be a better adult. The title of the film is The Girl, but it’s disappointing how much this ends up referring to Ashley instead of Rosa.

The DVD
A generic title and small, white fonts sort of vanish inside a cloudy gray, overly pretentious piece of artwork, making this a rare example of a poster I wish had been re-designed in some way for home video. I’m sure an alternative design would’ve just been big heads of the cast, but this cover feels like a poor summarization of what the movie’s about: the “feather” imagery is kind of irrelevant, and the girl in question is hardly noticeable at a glance. The disc comes in a cheap, non-eco DVD case, and there is no insert.

The Video and Audio
Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, this is a decent SD-DVD effort. Colors are very nicely saturated. There is some softness to the image, but it feels natural, working with the colors to create a film-like appearance, although grain is only occasionally visible. Banding is minimal; artifacting is a more significant issue, frequently popping up in the darkness. Aliasing is also obvious on the burned-in English subtitles for the Spanish-language dialogue. A Dolby Digital 5.1 track is fairly unremarkable, mostly providing ambience as background for the dialogue; there is a minimal amount of music in the movie, so there’s not much for the track to tackle. English captions for the deaf and hard of hearing (for the English-language portions) and Spanish subtitles are also provided.

The Extras
“A Filmmaker’s Journey: The Making of The Girl” (20:50) doesn’t make a great case for Riker, who talks about seeing the true conditions in Mexico for those hoping to cross. He makes a good case for a movie about “the myth of the American dream,” about those trying to get across into America, and about an American citizen who lives in America but faces the same struggle against poverty. Were The Girl more even-handed, fully illustrating the characters trying to cross, the film might’ve been more successful. An original theatrical trailer is also included.

Conclusion
Technically, The Girl is impressive. Riker paints a great backdrop of Mexican culture behind Ashley’s attempts to reunite Rosa with her mother, in a way that feels effortless and natural. Sadly, the writing lets down his skill as a director, painting himself into a corner with his protagonist that the viewer may not want to let her out of. Hernandez is wonderful, and the A/V quality is strong, but this is a rental at best, thanks Riker’s failure to find a balance between his two leads.

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The TV Series

Warning: this review contains spoilers.

It must be tough to compete against Sharknado. If anything, Universal’s DVD collection of the fourth season of the silly yet fun artifact hunting saga Warehouse 13 exists as a brick-like monument to the fickleness of the cable biz. After Warehouse‘s first three seasons proved to be a solid hit, SyFy ordered an extra helping of episodes for this 2012-13 season, bringing the total up to twenty. Bad move. The silliness and appealing cast camaraderie is still there, but mostly this season stands out for its bloat, whiplash-inducing changes in tone, and frustrating, awkward multi-episode stories. By the time this season finished its run last month, SyFy announced that Warehouse 13‘s fifth season will be its final one – a shortened six-episode arc, to wrap things up.

This season of Warehouse 13 opens with a cliffhanger of monumental proportions – the warehouse has blown up, destroying everything within! A massive bomb blast has vaporized the contents of the cavernous Warehouse 13, a storehouse for several centuries’ worth of artifacts (supernaturally possessed objects, usually connected with a historic figure or event, which have an adverse effect on whomever touches them). A crispy death is spared for Warehouse caretaker Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek) and his agents Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) and Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly), however, thanks to the self-sacrificing efforts of sexy time-traveling agent H. G. Wells (Jaime Murray). Outside the warehouse, other devastating things are happening. New agent Steve Jinks (Aaron Ashmore) has been killed by artifact-wielding interloper Walter Sykes (Anthony Michael Hall). Meanwhile, the Warehouse’s intimidating yet benevolent Regent overseer, Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder), has dissolved into a pile of dust – with hippie-girl innkeeper Leena (Genelle Williams) and cyber-girl agent Claudia (Allison Scagliotti) looking on in horror. All of these situations gets resolved quickly (and absurdly), although Artie’s efforts to un-do the warehouse’s destruction results in him being hounded for several episodes by an evil priest named Brother Adrian (Brent Spiner). Adrian has a way of burrowing himself into Artie’s psyche – eventually causing a shocking tragedy to occur at mid-season – but he’s a paltry excuse for a villain.

Aside from the overreaching, uncharacteristically dark story arc threaded throughout this season, the Warehouse 13 episodes compiled here consists of more of the same stuff you always loved/hated – only much lazier. Perhaps the increased load of seven extra episodes took a tool on the writing staff, but it seems like they’re relying too much on the cliche-ridden aspects of the lead characters without bothering to give them much depth (only Artie gets an opportunity to stretch). Several times, Myka spouts off the most arcane of historic tidbits, as if she were a walking, talking Wikipedia (at least they’re not making her a bizarro-world karate expert as often). The frat-boyish Pete is made to appear even dumber this season, making him the Homer Simpson of the outfit. Claudia’s rapid-fire hipster witticisms are more annoying than ever, as well. The sense of fatigue carries over into the plots themselves, which mostly concern Agents A and B getting assigned to an artifact hunting mission while Agents C and D trek off on a similar trip, split evenly down the middle. There are some good episodes this season, particularly the self-contained ones which allow the cast to loosen up and have some fun (Personal Effects, Parks and Rehabilitation, and The Sky’s the Limit stand out in that regard).

Of course, there’s an elephant in the room when speaking of Warehouse 13‘s fourth season, and that’s the mid-season offing of a regular character. Normally, I’m all for surprise developments that shake up the balance of a long-running series, but this one is handled in a manner that’s both pandering and ineffective. With his brain scrambled under the influence of Brother Adrian, Artie accidentally shoots and kills Leena – who was there to help him through his psychotic episode. Artie’s subsequent guilt over the incident allows for some excellent work from Saul Rubinek, but the whole thing seemed kind of random and unnecessary. That it involved one of the few “normal” characters, one that didn’t have enough to do or much in the way of a back story, stings all the more. Adding insult to injury, the writers quickly replaced sweet Leena with a good looking yet utterly bland psychiatrist, played by actress Kelly Hu. Makes you wonder if there are any shark tanks in the warehouse to be jumped over.

On a more positive note, this particular W-13 season is packed with guest stars, mainly from actors known for other sci-fi television shows. Making return appearances are Faran Tahir, Lindsay Wagner, Rene Auberjonois, Kate Mulgrew, Roger Rees, and Jeri Ryan. Also appearing are Polly Walker (Caprica), James Marsters, and Anthony Head ( both of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as the artifact hunters’ new adversaries, along with enjoyable single-episode turns from Joel Grey, Dee Wallace, Laura Innes, Sam Huntington, Nora Zehetner, Missi Pyle, and Cherie Currie of The Runaways (as herself).

Warehouse 13: Season Four consists of the following episodes, spread over five discs:
Disc 1
4-01 ____ 23/Jul/12 ____ A New Hope
4-02 ____ 30/Jul/12 ____ An Evil Within
4-03 ____ 06/Aug/12 ____ Personal Effects
4-04 ____ 13/Aug/12 ____ There’s Always a Downside
Disc 2
4-05 ____ 20/Aug/12 ____ No Pain, No Gain
4-06 ____ 27/Aug/12 ____ Fractures
4-07 ____ 10/Sep/12 ____ Endless Wonder
4-08 ____ 17/Sep/12 ____ Second Chance
Disc 3
4-09 ____ 24/Sep/12 ____ The Ones You Love
4-10 ____ 01/Oct/12 ____ We All Fall Down
4-11 ____ 29/Apr/13 ____ The Living and the Dead
4-12 ____ 06/May/13 ____ Parks and Rehabilitation
Disc 4
4-13 ____ 13/May/13 ____ The Big Snag
4-14 ____ 20/May/13 ____ The Sky’s the Limit
4-15 ____ 03/Jun/13 ____ Instinct
4-16 ____ 10/Jun/13 ____ Runaway
Disc 5
4-17 ____ 17/Jun/13 ____ What Matters Most
4-18 ____ 24/Jun/13 ____ Lost & Found
4-19 ____ 01/Jul/13 ____ All the Time in the World
4-20 ____ 08/Jul/13 ____ The Truth Hurts

The DVDs:

Video

With twenty episodes spread out over five discs, this season of Warehouse 13 visually fares slightly better than the previous season set. The digitally shot 16×9 widescreen picture is cleanly mastered with a pristine, bright picture. The photography is typical of most made-for-cable fare, but the nicer production on this particular season lends itself to a more polished looking presentation on disc.

Audio

Like the previous season set, Warehouse 13: Season Four contains a good 5.1 Dolby Digital English soundtrack as the only audio option. It’s a clearly mixed, pleasant track with dialogue and sound effects given equal prominence. Optional English subtitles for the hearing impaired are also offered on all of the episodes.

Extras

A generous amount of extras are included on each disc here, although the goods number a little less than what was on the Season Three set. The commentaries on previous seasons have been replaced with similar, descriptive podcasts with lesser-quality audio. All of these casually done tracks have observations from executive producer Jack Kenny, who is joined on certain episodes by Scagliotti, Kelly, McClintock and an assortment of other behind-the-scenes folks. Deleted and/or Extended Scenes are offered on half the episodes here, along with the ever-amusing Gag Reel (3:44) on Disc Five. That disc also contains Grand Designs, a five-part web-only series. Strangely, the Greatest Gift holiday episode from the previous season is not included here, which is a mystery since it was already released on the European third season set. Previews on Disc One round out the bonus content.

Final Thoughts:

Is it time for the agents to hang up their purple gloves Year four of Warehouse 13 expands the SyFy series to more episodes a season (from 13 to 20), which has an exhausting effect on a show that was already struggling with getting a good balance between the goofy and the serious. The artifact hunting format leads to a few worthwhile self-contained episodes, but mostly this season is defined by how sprawling and messy it’s become. Rent It.

Matt Hinrichs is a designer, artist and sometime writer who lives in sunny (and usually too hot) Phoenix, Arizona. Among his loves are oranges, going barefoot and blonde 1930s movie comedienne Joyce Compton. Since 2000, he has been scribbling away at Pop Culture weblog Scrubbles.net. One can also follow him on Twitter @4colorcowboy.

The Series:

Adult Swim’s completely odd but enduringly popular series Superjail! is now back on DVD in its third volume. Produced by Augenblich Studios, the studio that brought us the ultra-twisted Wonder Showzen and the thoroughly enjoyable Nickelodeon Series, Yo Gabba Gabba, this is yet more of the completely unpredictable and random insanity that was spawned in the first two volumes.

The basic ‘formula’ for each episode hasn’t really changed much from the first season, but for those who haven’t seen the show, what the Hell is Superjail! all about Each episode starts off with a running gag (kind of like the first few seasons of Aqua Teen Hunger Force did) where a white trash hillbilly crook named Jackknife (Christy Karacas) commits some sort of crime only to be captured and whisked away to a massive super jail by a robot named Jailbot. Once Jackknife is in the super jail, all bets are off and the episodes don’t generally revolve around him but instead tend to focus on The Warden (David Wain), his right hand man named Jared (Teddy Cohn), and a transvestite prison guard named Alice (Christy Karacas again). There are a few other recurring characters who appear in the series, such as the German Doctor who tends to use the inmates for experiments, and two odd twins (both voiced by Richard Mahler) who have powers all their own and sort of just wander around the jail causing various problems. There are also two gay inmates, a black guy and a white guy, who, along with Jackknife, seem to somehow manage to not get killed by the end of each episode. The rest of the inmates Well, they’re more or less cannon fodder.

There’s a bit more story development this time around compared to the first season, a trend that started in the second season and which obviously continues here. That’s not a bad thing at all, if it tones down the absurdity ever so slightly it results in a little bit of continuity and gives us a bit more to latch onto in some regards. For the most part though, it’s business as usual and fans of the series likely wouldn’t have it any other way.

Superjail! Season Three includes the following episodes:

Stingstress
Superfail!
Uh-Oh, It’s Magic
Sticky Discharge
Special Needs
The Trouble With Triples
Nightshift
Oedipus Mess
Planet Radio
Burn Stoolie Burn

A few stand out episodes from this season Okay, sure. Let’s start with the opener, which takes up where the last season’s final episode left off. Lord Stingray and Mistress have taken over the prison, no co-ed, and The Warden winds up Mistress’ plaything once Stingray dumps her. This is a fine plan until The Warden shows his true colors and instantly turns her off. It’s a fun episode, kinky and chaotic and violent as the best episodes in the show tend to be. The Warden also plays a key role in Superfail. When Jerry knocks him out, he has to takeover running the prison lest it fall into complete chaos. He’s not good at it, and things go from bad to worse very quickly. In Sticky Discharge one of the prisoners, for the first time ever, is let out on parole and the staff of the prison don’t quite know what to do about all of this. In Special Needs The Warden shows his politically correct side when he tries to make the prison more hospitable to those with handicaps and then after that as he tries to set into motion new plans for the prison The Twins get some surprise visitors that once again throws a wrench into his plans. By the time Burn Stoolie Burn hits your screen, if your mind hasn’t melted well, you’ll be treated to an episode in which our friend The Warden learns a little bit about the importance of kindness.

If you’re not already a fan of the series, this isn’t the season that will change your mind. Even with the slightly more involved character development it still feels very much like the two seasons that came before it. So with that said, if you’re already a fan or new to the series and wanting to give it a shot, this should float your boat. Watching each and every episode back to back can be a chore and like most Adult Swim series, it’s best enjoyed in the short doses it’s broadcast on TV in rather than marathon style. The character design is still both disgusting and remarkably detailed, there’s loads of stuff going on in any given set up that the series has a bit more replay value than you might at first think. There’s a lot of great use of color here too, and the music is also a big part in what makes this work. The voice actors all perform with enthusiasm and at this point in the game, they have their character quirks nailed down.

The DVD:

Video:

Superjail! Season Three arrives on DVD in a series of good 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfers that look pretty much exactly the same as the first season episodes did – which is a good thing. The episodes look decent on this set with some noticeably strong color reproduction and black levels. There are no problems with edge enhancement or mpeg compression at all thought some very obvious aliasing and line shimmering is hard not to notice. Aside from that, this is a pretty nice effort and the series looks about as good as the animation style employed will allow. No problems with print damage, dirt or debris are evident and aliasing aside, this material looks nice.

Sound:

The English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix on this set is quite good. Dialogue is clean and clear and there are no problems with hiss or distortion. The music and Cheeseburger’s opening theme song sound great with some very distinct electric guitar noticeable in the track. Everything is properly balanced, the levels are fine. You’ll notice some pretty channel separation in a few of the more chaotic scenes featured in each episode and some rear channel action as well. The directional effects add to the insanity of it all. Subtitles are provided in English only.

Extras:

Extras are a bit on the slim side but we get eleven minutes worth of animatics for two episodes (episodes one and seven). As well as some Rough Cuts which is basically test footage for another two episodes (episodes six and ten). Aside from that, there an Introstring highlight reel which is six minutes long and is a compilation of the ten different sequences that precede the opening credits of each episode in which Jackknife gets arrested. The disc also contains static menus and episode selection. A ‘play all’ button is also there off the main menu for those who want it.

Overall:

It’s a little short on extras compared to seasons past but the audio and video presentation are still pretty solid. As to the show, it’s chaotic and crass and crazy and all over the map, but its unpredictability keeps it fun to watch and the art and use of color is consistently wild. It won’t change your mind if you don’t already dig the show but if you’re a fan of the series consider Superjail! Volume Three recommended.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.

THE PROGRAM

Before “Creepshow,” “Three Extremes,” , the tremendously underrated “Trick ‘r’ Treat,” or “VHS” entertained audiences with an anthology presentation of horror stories, Mario Bava’s 1963 horror classic, “Black Sabbath” was offering audiences three tonally different and incredibly distinct genre shorts. Filmed in Bava’s native Italy, the film found itself edited for US audiences in 1964, moving the order of the films, dropping the very amusing and memorable introduction and conclusion by genre master Boris Karloff, and in the most egregious case of tinkering to “appease” a mass audience, editing the film’s most stylishly and narratively slick stories to remove “risqué” elements for the time. Now, Kino offers “Black Sabbath” uncut and remastered on DVD in its original Italian release format, so American audiences can finally view Mario Bava’s brilliant original vision.

The film begins with the completely supernaturally devoid “The Telephone,” the film’s most beautifully shot sequence, which follows a terrorized woman, Rosy, through her small apartment as she is continually menaced by ominous phone calls that clearly indicate to her that someone can see what she’s doing. The film’s narrative structure is completely utilitarian, allowing Bava’s camerawork to build the level of dread to a fever pitch, only to up the ante even further with a mid-segment plot development that takes an already sinister tone up a notch. Bava never rushes things and the two actresses tasked with carrying the weight of the film do a lovely job of conveying more than just raw fear. Running less than 30-minutes, the segment’s shocking ending sets the bar for the remaining films so high, that I’d almost agree with the original US release’s choice to make it the middle story, however seeing the segment uncut, the changes (focused around a lesbian relationship) are unfathomable to even comprehend and I can’t see how it worked any other way than what is presented here.

Following “The Telephone” is the film’s most sizable segment, running around 35-40 minutes in length. Leaving the posh confines of a swanky apartment behind, “The Wurdulak” sets viewers into 19th century Russia to tell what is essentially tale of a vampire. The film is far less atmospheric than “The Telephone” or the final segment, relying on a more straightforward, traditional narrative. The film mixes a familial relationship quite admirably with the general fear of the unknown, personified by the mysterious Gorcha (Boris Karloff), but the slightly longer runtime ends up offering a final product that feels lacking; slightly more judicious editing would have given us a great short, a little more narrative embellishment, could have provided a brief feature. Karloff’s performance is a huge draw, but more than that, Bava’s directorial skill and the cinematography of Ubaldo Terzano, which radiates atmosphere off the screen, giving a heightened sense of reality to the icy, dark countryside.

Last, but certainly not least is “The Drop of Water,” which stands toe-to-toe with “The Telephone” in my book for one of the best short horror tales committed to celluloid. Considering the element of the supernatural contained within “The Drop of Water,” I’d give it the edge of the straightforward suspense trappings of “The Telephone.” Splitting hairs aside though, “The Drop of Water” is an exercise in pure atmosphere, with beautiful interior cinematography and expert pacing, in a tale of a corpse, a nurse, greed, and revenge. Bava has an obviously fun time building the atmosphere and ratcheting up the suspense to a conclusion that may be obvious but is no less thrilling and ominous. Running right around 20-minutes, “The Drop of Water” is a textbook example of the genre and the short film format and sends “Black Sabbath” as a whole off on an a very high note.

THE DVD

The Video

The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is a very sound technical remastering of a now, five decade old film, with consistently above average detail levels and unfaltering balanced contrast. There is some controversy regarding the color timing and comparing this version with previous versions, I’ll say the film has a much more moody color palette. That said, on a strictly technical level, the color palette heightens the emotional state of each story and is incredibly distinct; stylish, but not terribly realistic. It may not be the intended color scheme, but it’s a technically sound one.

The Audio

The Dolby Digital Italian mono soundtrack has definite signs of age with regular, low-level crackle and minor hiss; high-end distortion is kept to a minimum, but prevalent. For a mono offering, it’s at worst, merely satisfactory. English subtitles are included.

The Extras

The only extras are a gallery of trailers for other Mario Bava films.

Final Thoughts

Controversies surrounding the new transfer aside, this release of “Black Sabbath” is a solid offering, presenting Mario Bava’s masterpiece in anthology horror to a whole new audience, proving you don’t need inane dialogue, pointless titillation, or classless gore to give people a scare. Recommended.

The Show:

The third season of Community found the viewer hearing about the increasing emergence of a character that perhaps not many people had been used to seeing or hearing about before, and that was the show’s creator/executive producer Dan Harmon. This is not to say that Harmon had become suddenly egomaniacal about the show; in fact he may have loved the show more than most and had a radical desire to see it through to its desired six seasons and a movie goal that many of its fans had expressed. It is that Harmon’s passion for the show and his accessibility to said fans had become something that would seemingly have been more prevalent than in prior seasons. Sometimes it was very good, such as the weekly comedy show (later turned podcast) Harmon is the center of. Sometimes not so much in other times, such as when Harmon played an angry voicemail from one of his show’s costars in one installment. Harmon was eventually relieved of his duties before the show’s fourth season , replaced by Moses Port and David Guarascio. It is at this point I recommend reading Lacey Rose’s fabulous interview with Harmon where he discusses said dismissal and much more to gain some additional perspective. But I think it could be unquestionably said that as far as Community goes, the show’s behind the scenes events were just as entertaining and impactful as those that occurred onscreen, perhaps more so.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of the show, it is set at the fictitious Greendale Community College, where a sextet of students hang out and attempt to matriculate. You have the smarmy lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale, The Soup), the idealistic Britta (Gillian Jacobs, The Box), divorcee and single mother Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown, Repo Men), movie geek Abed (Danny Pudi) and his friend and former football player Troy (Donald Glover, The Muppets), and former geek Annie (Alison Brie, Mad Men). Aside from the group but also worth mentioning is Chang (Ken Jeong, The Hangover), the shamed former Spanish teacher and the school’s Dean (Jim Rash, who won an Oscar for co-writing The Descendants), who has a shameless crush on Winger. The last member of the group is the business magnate Pierce (Chevy Chase, Caddyshack), who appears sporadically in the show and eventually leaves it altogether midway through the production (as is Chase’s wont on popular shows I guess). The group finds itself on the verge of graduating from Greendale, with the exception of Jeff, who took some between semester classes to expedite his departure, and while the group tries to rectify this, they also go through some conflicts of their own.

It seems clear that what Port and Guarascio do with the fourth season is an attempt to take any existing story arcs or character motion and make them their own, along with trying to carve out a new foothold with the cast in something that has their voice to it. In the case of the former, using the “darkest timeline” (referred to by Abed in Season Three’s excellent “Remedial Chaos Theory”) as a means of character resolution in this season was familiar in its device, but when it came to execution, evolved into something that Harmon explained somewhat poorly on one podcast episode. To attempt to clear up, the show spends a lot of the fourth season nodding to its past lineage in various overt and subtle manners that it tends to feel a bit on the ‘nudge nudge, wink wink’ side of things. Look, we get it, the elephant in the room is gone but not forgotten, and some people may not like that, but we’ll go with it anyway. But Community’s fourth season does little to get past that point through its twelve-episode run.

There are times of tenderness in the fourth season that make for some nice moments, ones in fact that Harmon should consider extending in his own voice, if he can. The charming relationship that Abed strikes up with the coat check girl (played by a bespectacled Brie Larson, 21 Jump Street) in “Herstory of Dance” shows a side of Abed we do not get to see that often and one that I would like to see more of. Pudi does a fabulous job in the character for it to boot. Pudi and Glover also share some great moments in “Basic Human Anatomy,” when they switch bodies Freaky Friday style in order to deal with a daunting task. These two episodes in particular provide some interesting moments in a season which found itself lost and at times confused.

The decision to replace Harmon with Port and Guarascio seems like an understandable one considering the behavior of the former in the years prior to his dismissal. With the latter pair, both were longtime veterans of television comedy, and both were and are capable of telling stories in their own voice. But the stories in the fourth season of Community lacked a certain complexity that a Harmon-influenced writing team would have provided (perhaps specifically, the Zodiac-esque ‘story circle,’ a story and character evolution consisting of eight points Harmon that almost serves as Harmon’s “raison d’etre” for storytelling). That is the aspect that the show misses most of all in its fourth season, a season where it was different while trying to adhere to the show its fans and creator loved, and this schizophrenia is something that is the second thing that the fourth season is known for, whether Port and Guarascio like it or not.

The Discs:
Video:

The episodes are spread over two discs and are all presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. The episodes look good and juggle a variety of different elements in the source, which is to say the puppets, light animation and humans all look solid. The image does not possess much in the way of edge enhancement and haloing, and the color palette for the show is reproduced accurately and without oversaturation. It is pretty straightforward viewing material for both discs.

Audio:

Dolby Digital 5.1 surround for all episodes, with the results being as expected both compared to previous seasons and for a television show in general. Dialogue is consistent and balanced in the front of the theater and directional effects and channel panning are present and abundant through the season, making for an immersive experience on the whole. There are also moments of subwoofer activity that rounds the low end out nicely. Harmon may have left the show, but technically it continues to both look and sound good for a television comedy.

Extras:

The collective ear of pop culturedom turned its ear when Harmon said Sony approached him about doing a commentary of him watching this season and sharing his reactions but alas, no such feature is included here. So in case this was the only thing you wondered about when deciding to buy the discs, you can stop here I guess

For those still remaining, the extras on the set are ample and are in line with how previous seasons’ supplements have been. The discs all include a commentary track of some type, almost all of which include the cast (save Glover and Chase) and the writer and director of the respective episode. On Disc One, the commentaries include some friendly teasing of the track participants and raving about the guest stars who appear through the season, along with any specific production challenges on an episode or two. The disc also includes an outtake reel (6:28) which like the season itself is funny, though not as much as previous years. “Inspector Spacetime: Inspecticon” (9:43) looks at the Doctor Who-esque character Troy and Abed revere and the Comic-con inspired convention the production designers set up for it. Six deleted scenes (3:03) and three extended/alternate scenes (4:36) are nice but ultimately one could see the reasons for their excision.

Disc Two includes more commentaries, most of which cover most of the same material that previous tracks do with their episodes, but McHale includes a story about how McDowell mildly yelled at Chase in an unrelated episode. Moving along, the disc also includes “Adventures in Advanced Puppetry” (15:36), where Brown hosts a segment on said episode, and the writers discuss the origin of how it came about, and shows the table read with the puppets, how said puppets were built and how the puppeteers approached handling each individual character. This featurette also serves as a spot where the cast talks about their thoughts on the end of the season and who handles it best (or worst, as the case may be). The disc also has three deleted scenes (2:11) and an extended/alternate scene (:45), both of which are pretty forgettable.

Final Thoughts:

The fourth season of Community does have a moment or two when one can harken back and easily confuse a scene or episode with one in the Dan Harmon era. More of the season is spent with the show almost telling itself “Look, we’re doing things Dan Harmon used to do, isn’t it great!” while losing most of what made Dan Harmon-penned characters in the Greendale universe so charming, for better or worse. Technically and from a bonus material perspective the show is good and fairly in line with previous seasons, but from a content aspect is a little harder to pin down. It is certainly not as good as previous seasons, but not worthy of the hyperbole hurled towards it by those who hold it dear. Let us just not speak of it much again and look forward to the fifth season and a return to form by Harmon (minus the Ketel One marinade), okay