A Look at the "American Idol" DVD (1 Viewer)

[AaronJB]

Saw this out early in a store last week and thought I'd pick it up to review. While not personally a fan, I figured the show has a following.

As for the releasing studio, I'm not even sure. Several production companies are listed on the back, but they all seem to be the show's producers.

The main piece of the DVD is a 60-minute documentary that basically recaps all of what happened throughout the show, although it feels a bit rushed in trying to do so. Some of the better performances are highlighted and a few of the performers getting booted off are shown.

The supplements are a bit more amusing, as several short featurettes (showing a bit of the ridiculously big house the finalists lived in, the fighting judges, some outtakes, etc.) can be viewed.

Audio/video quality is nothing special (maybe if this was released by a bigger company - Warner/Sony Music - it would have gotten better treatment). Essentially, all the material is in relatively crisp (although there are some artifacts at times) full-frame, with 2.0 audio.

A decent buy for $14.95 for fans of the show, but nothing too thrilling.

 

[David Lambert]

As for the releasing studio, I'm not even sure. Several production companies are listed on the back, but they all seem to be the show's producers.

The folks who produced this DVD are called Respond2 Entertainment (they go by R2 for short).
They authored the excellent Ultimate Carson Collection DVD set and the not-so-good-looking Best of Bob Hope collection.
But R2 tends to do things via online-order only. Ventura Distribution, who makes a living by distributing DVD titles from smaller outfits (folks following the MSCL set sage know about these guys), is getting the American Idol discs into stores.
It looks like Best Buy will be adding in a bonus 2nd disc for the $14.99 price, BTW.