Blu-ray Review: 'Ripper Street: Season Two'

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: 'Ripper Street: Season Two' on Blogcritics.

It is 1890, East London, England. The Victorian era is coming to an end as the residents, fighting recession, unevenly stumble towards the modern age. England’s role in the world is falling and its government is failing. Jack the Ripper is long gone, but that doesn’t mean the Whitechapel district is safe. Detective Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen, Frost/Nixon), Detective Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn, Game of Thrones), and Captain Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg, The Ex List) are the first line of defense for those who would be victims as Ripper Street releases its second season on Blu-ray and DVD.

Season Two brings all new problems to the Metropolitan Police’s H Division. An all-female gang wants revenge on those that would keep them down. A mad scientist looks for freaks in a circus for his eugenics experience. Corruption infuses the force, especially in the form of Detective Inspector Jedediah Shine (Joseph Mawle, The Tunnel), head of K Division, which is dealing with a rapidly-expanding Chinatown. Bombers escape and cults emerge. It’s not a pretty picture, to be sure, and the eight episodes that make up this run are chock full of interesting cases and dangerous challenges.

This is set against an historical backdrop, with real events playing a part in the stories. I don’t know if its entirely realistic that everything covered in Ripper Street makes it down to such a personal level, but it adds a layer of complexity that the War of Currents, matchgirls strike, Baring crisis, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Elephant Man (Joseph Drake, Doctors), and other bits crop up over the season. It helps to define when and where the show takes place, and maybe teaches some viewers a little bit in the process.

The prostitutes of Long Susan’s (MyAnna Buring, Downton Abbey) are back, too. One, Bella (Gillian Saker, Misfits), has married Drake. Another, Rose (Charlene McKenna, Raw) has traded hooking for waitressing, trying to improve her standing. And Long Susan herself is deep in debt to a ruthless man, Silas Duggan (Frank Harper, This is England). So the whore house is undergoing a bit of a shakeup.

Thankfully, Ripper Street is not a simple formulaic case-of-the-week, with all of the above plus aspects of the detectives’ lives that aren’t completely concerned with work explored, too. Reid’s wife, Emily (Amanda Hale, The Crimson Petal and the White), has left him after the events of last year, and there are plenty of lingering emotional threads to be tugged on.  Reid is the leading man of the piece, and this part of him lends layers to his role as he goes through being accused of crimes and trying to stay out of the muck.

Visually, Ripper Street is quite interesting, so I do recommend viewing it in HD. The color palette may not be wholly realistic, but that’s a purposeful artistic choice, rather than a flaw, and it’s rich enough to warrant going to a high quality. In particular, deep blacks and reds are used very effectively, and to best see in the shadows, one will want Blu-ray. Though, admittedly, the tone and setting is not nearly as dark as in season one, so not every scene has that gloomy imagery. The audio takes a serious step up, going from stereo to full 5.1 in the second season, with dialogue, sound effects, and a neat score blending appropriately. Busy city street scenes are excellent in surround, crisp, clear, and layered.

While the first season had a number of extras, Ripper Street: Season Two has only one. It’s a disappointingly short behind-the-scenes full of spoilers you’ll only want to watch after having seen the episodes in the set. It’s more sound-bites than revealing discussions, so I can’t say there is much to be gotten from it.

Still, the series is engrossing and enjoyable. Although canceled by BBC America, it will get a third outing soon through Amazon, so it’s not in immediate danger of going away. As such, I can say it will not be a waste of time to check out Ripper Street: Season Two, available now.

Lack of Imports

 Article first published as Lack of Imports on Blogcritics.

The United States severely lacks the importation of television programs from other countries. We only like our own fare. Why?

It's extremely common for us to remake shows in the American style. Ugly Betty and Homeland are two examples of successful series from lands far away we've remade in our own studios with our own actors. But how many series can you think of that you watch that do not come from America? I expect that is an extremely short list, if you can think of any at all. Why?

One obstacle may be our country's resistance to subtitles. Sure, there is a certain segment that enjoys an occasional foreign film, and occasionally bad reality TV provides words on the screen for those with thick accents or who mumble a lot. But for the most part, we avoid such things.

Dubbing over the shows with American voice actors is worse. Thankfully, that is trend that never took off here.

It could be because people here are lazy. Books, while still popular among some, are shunned by others. Many people sadly do not equate reading with relaxation, and at the end of a long day, don't want to have to think about their television programming. Even if the content is simple, reading subtitles means some thinking is involved.

For others, television still holds that idiot-box reputation, and subtitles are seen as an uppity thing for the elite or over-educated. They assume they won't like anything with words on the screen because they watch TV for mindless entertainment, and think that anything with subtitles won't appeal to their demographic.

However, I do think that the issue goes much deeper than subtitles. Our entertainment industry has an arrogance that, because the rest of the world gobbles up our content, we are the best. They think they can do it better than anyone else, and so decide they want to do their own version, rather than serve us up a foreign package.

This mindset is not completely unjustified. We do have a thriving entertainment industry which is syndicated around the world, and sometimes we do remake things better than the original. Other times, though, we do not. In this case, I really wish there was more importation.

Another reason for remakes, rather than straight airing of other countries' shows, is social disconnect. This is especially relevant in the arena of humor, which often relies on commentary of a certain society or population.

This occurs even with the country we are arguably most closely related to, England. Some people like the British version of The Office, while others don't get it and prefer the American one because they can relate to it. For every Monty Python's Flying Circus, there are dozens of comedies that foreign audiences will just not understand. We love Ricky Gervais and Simon Pegg, but there are many others who experience obscurity here.

This isn't just an American problem. Shows like Everybody Loves Raymond are recast and remade so that viewers in other countries will get the joke, as illustrated in the excellent documentary, Exporting Raymond.

But they are also offered some American fare, as well, as that's where we suffer, because we get the choice for very little of anyone else's content.

While humor is subjective, one would think drama would translate much better. After all, stories of the heart are universal, right, and don't require a certain frame of reference? It's why Shakespeare remains so relevant, more so for his serious plays, rather than his whimsical ones. Then how come we won't sit for the original version of The Killing? Why won't we expend that little bit of effort, or why do studios think we won't?

There are inroads in the world of sci-fi. I think this is because this is the one genre where we expect to look past the surface to relate to characters who aren't like us. Any well-done alien will seem foreign, so who cares which country developed the creature? From Doctor Who to SyFy's broadcast of Canadian hits like Lost Girl, this is the type of show that gets here and finds a home and viewership in the U.S., even if it's not made here.

However, even if the vast majority of people won't watch programs from other countries, there are plenty of niche channels, so why don't we get import networks, too? IFC has a very narrow viewing audience, as I'm sure does Oprah's network. Yet, they have subscribers and still broadcast their thing. Where are the French and German stations?

One could argue that BBC American is the exception. However, BBC America airs very little British programming. Instead, it reruns American shows with British actors, like The X-Files or Star Trek: The Next Generation incessantly. Sure, it gives us lots of Top Gear, but other than that, the list of fresh programs we get every year is pretty short.

Now, BBC America is even getting into the original content game, making shows just for the U.S. With Copper and Ripper Street, they are stepping away from the BBC series American fans may want to see, and giving us things they think we'll like, based on a certain style. Can't they air the second seasons of Friday Night Dinners or Outnumbered instead? Isn't it cheaper to just show the stuff the BBC already makes, and that some American audiences really want to see? I am increasingly more disappointed with that network.

I can't say for certain if satellite TV offers more opportunity; perhaps it does. And Netflix and Hulu have offered a handful of imported shows, such as Skins and Misfits. But for those of us still using cable (which is all TiVo works with, though it does allow Netflix and some of Hulu), we get very little opportunity to expand our horizons.

Considering how much I've enjoyed the handful of foreign shows I have seen, and given the expanding reach of globalization in arenas outside of the entertainment world, it's a trend that should change, even though there have not yet been signs that it will. At least, I hope so.

Ripper Street slashes its way onto Blu-ray

Article first published as Ripper Street slashes its way onto Blu-ray on TheTVKing.

Setting aside my annoyance that BBC America is now spending money on original programming instead of bringing us more than a handful of British shows at a time, and that annoyance is great, their new series, Ripper Street, sort of an old-timey CSI, now out on Blu-ray and DVD, is pretty good. 

Ripper Street is the second such effort the network has made, following closely on the heels of Copper. On the surface, both shows seem pretty similar. They both follow cops more than a century ago, breaking rules because their moral codes are different than our modern ones, and dipping their toes into the early days of forensic science. And they have wonderful looking period costumes and sets.

But Ripper Street is a little different. It isn't as concerned with class separations, and it ventures into more risque territory, with porn being a topic of the very first episode, and tossing in a bit of nudity. Ripper Street is also more structured, with the cops working out of an office, making it look a little more like our current idea of a police drama.

Thankfully, there is more to the series than just a case-of-the-week format. There are longer arcs that take awhile to play out. There are character-driven stories the provide opportunity for the cast to show off their talents. And the whole thing feels slightly steeped in history, given the connection of the story to Jack the Ripper.

Matthew Macfadyen (MI-5, Frost/Nixon) is the lead, Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, who investigated Jack's killing spree, but was unable to bring the perpetrator to justice. Because of this, he has been mentally scarred, which is outwardly reflected by physical wounds, most notably on his shoulder. His daughter is dead, a mystery that slowly plays out, and it's left him on ill terms with his wife, Emily (Amanda Hale, The Crimson Petal and the White), who is throwing herself into helping others as an attempt to help herself.

Macfadyen does well enough in the role, which isn't particularly interesting, mostly due to the fact that his character is like so many others already in television. It really takes him time to try to distinguish the part from other anti-hero cops and come into his own. Yet, there's something about Macfadyen that is inherently engaging, with an especially expressive face, and despite the shortcomings of Reid on paper, the actor makes it work.

Reid is joined on the job by Detective Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn, Game of Thrones), a bad man looking for redemption who has chosen Reid as his role model. Drake has a soft side, and is trying not to use his fists so much on the job. Like Macfadyen, Flynn has talent, and manages to make Drake more interesting than a lesser performer would be able to.

Of course, every good guy needs a bad seed to work against and so Ripper Street provides us Long Susan (MyAnna Buring, White Heat) and Homer Jackson (Adam Rothberg, The Ex List), who have fled from the United States to Britain. A bickering pair, they also manage to be somewhat likeable, even if they frequently don't do the right thing. As Ripper Street begins, Susan runs a whorehouse, where Jackson also stays. Jackson gets chummy with Reid, hoping a friendship will keep the law off of their backs. This works because Jackson has a great mind for science, and so his help is quite beneficial to Reid.

Lest the cast seem too male-dominated, we also have Rose Erskine (Charlene McKenna, Raw), a prostitute working for Long Susan whom Jackson has an interest in, much to Susan's chagrin, since Rose is one of her top earners.

Can Reid figure out who killed his daughter? Will the real Jack the Ripper be caught? Can Rose leave the life of sleeping with men for money? Is Jackson a bad man? These are questions that span the entire eight episode season, and some may or may not be answered by the finale, which is built up to nicely.

Given that this two disc Blu-ray only contains eight installments, there are quite a few bonus features. There are character profiles, "inside looks," a tour of the neighborhood of White Chapel, where the story takes place, and a look back at the Jack the Ripper case using modern forensics. These are all appropriate, and nicely compliment the series.

I do recommend checking out the show in high definition Blu-ray if you can. The level of detail is amazing, with much care going into the production value. There are a lot of dark scenes, and this release captures the shadows and depths that the picture should have. The sound track isn't particularly groundbreaking, but the mix is well done, blending background music with sound effects. The dialogue comes through clearly, too. 

Ripper Street is available now.

Take a walk down Ripper Street

Article first posted as Ripper Street Series Premiere Review on Seat42F

Grade: 88%

BBC America continues to make original series, a fact that may irk those of us wishing they would carry more actual British programming, since they have so few shows delivering fresh episodes on a regular basis. The sad problem is, though, and this divides my opinion, they make good shows. First there was Copper, and now, beginning this week, is RIPPER STREET.

RIPPER STREET has a lot of similarities to Copper. Half of the main characters are policemen. The tale takes place long ago, at the end of the nineteenth century in this latest effort. There are prostitutes. The characters don’t have the luxury of sticking to peaceful moral codes, having to break the rules in the name of their duties. Both look at the early days of forensic science, using new techniques to solve crimes.

Also, like Copper, the sets and costumes are look terrific.

There are differences, too, of course. Copper is set a little bit later, in America. RIPPER STREET is less gritty, mostly staying away from the lowest class of citizen, unlike the class-divided Copper. There is quite a bit of nudity, at least in the screener I had access to. There’s porn, too, in its earliest incarnation, making RIPPER STREET more risque than Copper. The cops actually work in an office, rather than just roaming the streets.

RIPPER STREET stars Matthew Macfadyen (MI-5, Frost/Nixon) as Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, a detective who worked the murders of Jack the Ripper, and eventually gave up the hunt for the serial killer. Like many heroes on television today, he is wounded both physically and mentally. He suffered a terrible tragedy we know nothing about, which has made things very uncomfortable with his now-distant wife, Emily (Amanda Hale, The Crimson Petal and the White). He also has some extensive scarring on his shoulder.

It’s too bad that Reid seems so familiar. He is interesting enough, I guess, but he also comes across as the same as many other characters. He isn’t fresh or original enough to really stand out on his own.

The saving grace is Macfadyen. Even with a rather trite character, he performs the part well enough to keep viewers engaged. He does a fine job balancing the line between nobility and doing what he needs to do, even when that goes against orders. His face is more expressive than most of his peers, and he’s a large part of why RIPPER STREET works.

His partner is Detective Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn, Game of Thrones, Soldier Soldier). Drake is the typical bad egg who has clung onto a good guy, and hopes to remake himself in his mentor’s image. Reid doesn’t treat Drake poorly, but Drake seems to feel a bit bad about using his fists so much, rather than his brain, and aspires to be like Reid. Again, it’s the actor who raises this character over the expectations, since his back story isn’t particularly unique.

Drake’s counter part is Rose Erskine (Charlene McKenna, Raw). Plenty of programs like RIPPER STREET, which are crime-based, wouldn’t take the time to balance out the cast between the genders. Rose is the answer to that, a prostitute that would like to raise her station in life. Unlike some similar characters in other shows, I believe that she can do it, given opportunity.

Then there are the true scoundrels. Captain Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg, The Ex List) and Long Susan (MyAnna Buring, White Heat, Twilight) are on the run from whatever got them into trouble across the pond in the U.S. Susan runs the whore house where Rose works, while Homer befriends Reid, perhaps to protect himself, as much as because he might like the man. Interestingly, Homer is the scientist of the group, making him invaluable to his police friend.

Homer and Susan fight amongst each other as much as they fight others. They are people of deep passions and stubborn attitudes. They will create much of the conflict that should drive RIPPER STREET going forward, and straddle the line between likable and not enough that their actions can be unpredictable at times.

This will definitely be a show that solves cases, but they’ve also set up enough with the various characters to provide plenty of larger arcs and human-driven scenes. It may look like an old-timey CSI, complete with make-shift case boards, but there’s also something a bit more intelligent going on, too.

Plus, tying things to the Jack the Ripper case lend it that bit of history and legend that should draw in an audience, at least to sample the series.

In summary, the premise is slightly dull and done-before, however, the individual elements, each of which is well handled, combine to raise it above what it should be. I’m not saying that it’s my favorite new show, by any means, but it’s certainly one worth tuning into on a regular basis.

RIPPER STREET premieres Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on BBC America.

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