...in "Mean Streets and Pastel Houses", [Depp's] hair, pallor, and black leather punk jacket foreshadow his look as Edward Scissorhands.
The show, during the first season at least, had some excellent writing with good internal continuity. The writers routinely took on serious issues of concern to teenagers, from why car insurance is so overpriced for people under the age of 25 (an episode on car thieves), drugs in the high schools (an episode on a young heroin addict who turns to burglary to support his habit), immigration, race tensions, gay-bashing, AIDS, prostitution, child molestation, teens in cults, and teenaged pregnancy. The episodes were never preachy – in the teenage pregnancy episode, for example, we don´t know if she will keep the child or not – but often ended with hotline numbers that troubled teens could call if they recognized themselves on the screen.
Over the years, Depp has distanced himself from the series, especially after the third season (which is when he felt that the scripts were going down hill). However, he is really the reason to see this show, as his dialogue-delivery style and comic gravity usually holds center stage, and it is easy to see the star he would become, especially when he goes undercover as a punk in "Mean Streets and Pastel Houses", where his hair, pallor, and black leather punk jacket foreshadow his look as Edward Scissorhands. (Tim Burton has always said that he casted Depp as Scissorhands because he liked his performance in "21 Jump Street".)
If you want to see some young heartthrobs dressing up and going undercover, then watch this series. Or you could go back to the "21 Jump Street" spinoff show, "Booker", starring Richard Grieco, which featured Holly Robinson and other "Jump Street" stars on occasion. Or you could wait a year or so for the "Jump Street" movie that Stephen Cannell and Douglas Rosen will produce for Paramount Pictures. Patrick Hasburgh is back on writing duty, so the film should be something to look forward to.
Video:
The video is in color and in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio. TV shows were still shot on film in those days so the image holds up really well, although nighttime scenes are sometimes slightly grainy.
Audio:
The audio is in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo English. Some words have been redubbed ("ass" for "tail") in a rather obvious way, with sudden shifts in volume.
Extras:
There are new interviews with Stephen J. Cannell, Holly Robinson-Peete, Dustin Nguyen, and Steven Williams. Cannell tells us that the show won a lot of awards from organizations that help troubled teens. Peter Deluise (who later directed several of the show´s episodes) does an audio commentary over one of the episodes.
--Miscellaneous--
An 8-page booklet with liner notes offers updates on the actors´ later careers and color photos.
Over the years, Depp has distanced himself from the series, especially after the third season (which is when he felt that the scripts were going down hill). However, he is really the reason to see this show, as his dialogue-delivery style and comic gravity usually holds center stage, and it is easy to see the star he would become, especially when he goes undercover as a punk in "Mean Streets and Pastel Houses", where his hair, pallor, and black leather punk jacket foreshadow his look as Edward Scissorhands. (Tim Burton has always said that he casted Depp as Scissorhands because he liked his performance in "21 Jump Street".)
If you want to see some young heartthrobs dressing up and going undercover, then watch this series. Or you could go back to the "21 Jump Street" spinoff show, "Booker", starring Richard Grieco, which featured Holly Robinson and other "Jump Street" stars on occasion. Or you could wait a year or so for the "Jump Street" movie that Stephen Cannell and Douglas Rosen will produce for Paramount Pictures. Patrick Hasburgh is back on writing duty, so the film should be something to look forward to.
Video:
The video is in color and in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio. TV shows were still shot on film in those days so the image holds up really well, although nighttime scenes are sometimes slightly grainy.
Audio:
The audio is in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo English. Some words have been redubbed ("ass" for "tail") in a rather obvious way, with sudden shifts in volume.
Extras:
There are new interviews with Stephen J. Cannell, Holly Robinson-Peete, Dustin Nguyen, and Steven Williams. Cannell tells us that the show won a lot of awards from organizations that help troubled teens. Peter Deluise (who later directed several of the show´s episodes) does an audio commentary over one of the episodes.
--Miscellaneous--
An 8-page booklet with liner notes offers updates on the actors´ later careers and color photos.
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[release]13016[/release]