Michael Osadciw

SILK STALKINGS
THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON
THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON

SEASON TWO Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment Air Date: 1992-1993 U.S. Rating: NR Canadian Rating: NR Total Length: 1002 minutes Genre: Action/Crime/Drama Aspect Ratio:[*] 1.33:1 full screen Colour/B&W: Colour Audio:[*] English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: None Closed Captioned: Yes SLP: US $39.98

SEASON THREE Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment Air Date: 1993-1994 U.S. Rating: NR Canadian Rating: NR Total Length: 1028 minutes Genre: Action/Crime/Drama Aspect Ratio:[*] 1.33:1 full screen Colour/B&W: Colour Audio:[*] English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: None Closed Captioned: Yes SLP: US $39.98

Season Two Release Date: AVAILABLE NOW

Season Three Release Date: July 26, 2005




Show Rating: /

Starring: Rob Estes (Sgt. Chris Lorenzo), Mitzi Kapture (Sgt. Rita Lee Lance), Ben Vereen (Capt. Hutchinson)

Season 2 Guest Stars: Patrick Muldoon, Andrea Thompson, Edward Albert, Roddy Piper, Erin Gray, Andrew Stevens, Tracy Scoggins, Rex Smith, Lana Clarkson

Season 3 Guest Stars: Eric McCormack, Gail O’Grady, Gloria Reuben, Carrie-Anne Moss, Robert Forester, Janet Gunn, Jenny McCarthy, Ginger Lynn

Created by: Steven J. Cannell.


There are many crime shows focus on the middle to lower income members of society where people lie, steal, cheat and murder to survive in the world that seems cruel to them. But as we know even the wealthiest commit crimes too. We’ve seen it in the media. I won’t name those people because you are probably as sick and tired hearing about it like I am, but there have been several over the past few years who have been accused of sexual crimes and murder. Just because they’re rich it doesn’t make them immune to committing crimes. They have guilty minds too. Getting convicted of these crimes is another matter…

I think the problem with these cases is that they’ve had the wrong investigators on the job. Instead of having real people who are prone to making errors and messing up the investigation, the top homicide detectives from Palm Beach, Florida - specifically Rita Lance and Chris Lorenzo – should have been on these cases. They always get their man (or woman) caught with their pants down or with a knife in someone’s back.

Okay, so life isn’t that easy and life isn’t made to be a late-night TV script; but at least you can enjoy a show that is always about high-profile crimes. The television series Silk Stalkings is about the wealthy, the glamorous, and the luxurious resorts where people die in crimes of passion from someone else's lust, greed, or revenge.

The colours, clothes and hairstyles are a little funny to watch today, but this show was a hit in the 1990s as other Stephen J. Cannell cop productions paved the way to its popularity – there was Hunter and 21 Jump Street that aired prior to this series and then the relatively comical The Commish that aired along side it. All of these shows were based on inner-city crimes whereas Silk Stalkings aimed at a different part of society. This series showed that corruption and guilt can also be in the hearts and minds of the rich and famous. That is something we know all too well today.

Season two aired on CBS like the first season, but season three (and all seasons afterwards) played only on the USA Network. Thanks to Anchor Bay, you can now own all 22 episodes of Season Two and Three. Available separately, each season is spread out over six discs and packaged in three slimcases with glossy slipcase. Like the first season, there is no booklet with this set but you can find the episode details on the reverse of each slimcase.

Below are the titles of the episodes in broadcast order. This order is the same on this DVD set.

Episodes for season two include:

Disc One
[*] 29 Oct 92 - Social Call[*] 05 Nov 92 - Wild Card[*] 12 Nov 92 - In Too Deep[*] 19 Nov 92 - Bad Blood

Disc Two
[*] 26 Nov 92 - Hot Rocks[*] 3 Dec 92 - Scorpio Lover[*] 10 Dec 92 - Love - 15[*] 17 Dec 92 - The Queen is Dead

Disc Three
[*] 07 Jan 93 - Irreconcilable Differences[*] 28 Jan 93 - Jasmine[*] 04 Feb 93 - Crush[*] 11 Feb 93 - Was It Good For You Too?

Disc Four
[*] 18 Feb 93 - Dead Weight[*] 25 Feb 93 - Kid Stuff[*] 01 Apr 93 - Night Games[*] 22 Apr 93 - Meat Market

Disc Five
[*] 29 Apr 93 - Giant Steps[*] 06 May 93 - Soul Kiss[*] 13 May 93 - Look the Other Way[*] 20 May 93 - Star Signs

Disc Six
[*] 27 May 93 - Voices[*] 10 Jun 93 - Crime of Love


Episodes for season three include:

Disc One
[*] 26 Sep 93 - Team Spirit[*] 03 Oct 93 - The Perfect Alibi[*] 17 Oct 93 - To Serve And Protect[*] 24 Oct 93 - Tough Love


Disc Two
[*] 31 Oct 93 - Sex, Lies And Yellow Tape[*] 07 Nov 93 - Schemes Like Old Times[*] 14 Nov 93 - Love Never Dies[*] 21 Nov 93 - Daddy Dearest

Disc Three
[*] 05 Dec 93 - Ladies Night Out[*] 12 Dec 93 - The Party's Over[*] 09 Jan 94 - Killer Cop[*] 16 Jan 94 - T.K.O.

Disc Four
[*] 23 Jan 94 - Judas Kiss[*] 30 Jan 94 - Love Bandit[*] 06 Feb 94 - Whore Wars[*] 13 Feb 94 - The Scarlet Shadow

Disc Five
[*] 20 Feb 94 - Head 'N' Tail[*] 27 Feb 94 - Freudian Slip[*] 06 Mar 94 - The Last Campaign[*] 13 Mar 94 - The Deep End

Disc Six
[*] 20 Mar 94 - Mother Love[*] 27 Mar 94 - Dark Heart


VIDEO QUALITY /

All episodes are presented in their original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1. From the random episodes I’ve selected, both seasons look better than the first season. They don’t have the same video artefacts that I thought was distracting. There is still a little film grain to be seen, but for the most part both seasons are acceptable in terms of quality. Skin tones look as fleshy as it should and colours appear a bit dated but never oversaturated. The film is slightly soft so it’s no surprise that a tiny bit of artificial edge sharpening is noticed on occasion.


AUDIO QUALITY /

Both seasons include a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack. They sound very layered: mono dialogue and main effects, stereo effects, and music. For some reason it’s easy to pick apart this while listening to the soundtrack. I think it’s because of the distinct differences between the three. The dialogue and main effects (around the actors) are focussed in the middle of the soundstage and the recording is very limited in terms of dimension and dynamics. Its very flat sounding. This is in contrast to the music; it has a clear and wide soundstage in comparison and it actually has depth and dimension. Then there are the left-right sound effects for the odd bit of ambience for a little more of a stereo effect. These sounds are also limited in dimension. With the characteristics of each "layer," listening to the three in action at the same time is sort of strange feeling for me because it doesn’t sound balanced in terms of dimension; it sounds fine though and I wasn’t truly distracted by it. Thankfully the entire soundtrack covers the whole frequency range so it never sounds weak in the low end or bright in the high end.


SEASON 2: SPECIAL FEATURES /

SEASON 3: SPECIAL FEATURES ZERO /

There is a good amount of time allotted for special features on disc number six of season two. Four segments of interviews are included here with a total running time of almost 84 minutes. There is not a “play all” option so you’ll have to select them one by one. Three of them are with Stephen J. Cannell and one is with Mike Post, who contributed to the original music in the series. The interviews have pictures occasionally highlighting what is being said, but Cannell’s personal interviews are a little more interesting than the others; they are about him from growing up as a boy and then the start of his production studio and how it grew to be what it is today. Like many, it’s a success story with humble beginnings…

While I have not reviewed this next feature, there is a script on DVD-ROM of the “Crush” episode that was written by executive producer David Peckinpah, the nephew of controversial filmmaker Sam Peckinpah.

Also included on this disc is some photos as well as two clips shown internationally; The Queen is Dead is shown in Spanish and Irreconcilable Differences is shown in French. The video quality of both is not near the quality of the episodes on the other discs. They are pretty long too; about 25 minutes each…so if you want to watch the show for 25 minutes in another language that’s great. I couldn’t handle it for much more than a minute. Usually when a feature like this is done, it generally isn’t more than a minute.

There are no special features on any disc on season three.


IN THE END…

Continuing the scene for adult-orientated television crime dramas, Silk Stalkings went on to air for eight seasons. While it went though some cast changes in the mid-1990s, seasons two and three still have the same sex appeal as the first, albeit a bigger budget and a larger fan base. I’m happy to see that there is an improvement in the audio and video department on these discs over the first season and I hope to see this trend for future releases. So as long as there are hot and wealthy exotic cities in the U.S.A., high-profile murders, a.k.a Silk Stalkings, will continue (at least for another five seasons).

Michael Osadciw
05.07.10

Michael Osadciw

In addition:

As much as I’d love to watch every episode on these sets, that would be a virtually impossible task for me. Thus there are episodes I have to skip over when grading the quality of a 1000+ minute TV season box set. Since mistakes happen in the development of discs there could be a chance that any TV show set could have an error on it and I could not have noticed it. If this ever happens, please feel free to report it in this thread.

Now there is a chance that your copy of Season 2, disc 4 may have an shortened version of the episode Dead Weight. This incorrect version has a runtime of just over 38 minutes while the correct version has about a 44 minute runtime. My copy has the 38 minute version. If you find that your copy has the incorrect length you can return your disc to Anchor Bay and they will send you a replacement.

Please check out the recent thread on this and how to exchange your disc here:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...38#post2724938

Happy viewings!
Mike

Keith I

My TV set is properly calibrated but the first couple of episodes of Disc 1 (Season 3) look horrible! Pixelation galore! It almost looks blurry!

I put Season 1 and 2 back in and they look so much better in comparison (but still need improvements).