Saturday, December 19, 2009
Blog DVD Review: Kyle XY - The Complete Third Season - The Final Season (12/22)
Kyle XY: The Complete Third Season - The Final Season (Buena Vista, $39.99) brings all 10 episodes from the third and unfortunately final season of the ABC Family Channel original series! As all great men grow into their hero status, they must learn that their special attributes come with a price. In season three of Kyle XY, Kyle is not exempt from this rule and now, as greater forces push him to rise to new levels, he must become a man. And to do so, Kyle may have to sacrifice relationships with those he holds most dear. Kyle XY stars Matt Dallas, Marguerite MacIntyre, Bruce Thomas, April Matson, Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Chris Olivero, Kirsten Prout and Jaimie Alexander.
All 10 episodes from the third season are very good, but the ones that stand out are the season premiere "It Happened One Night," where Kyle awakens inside a Latnok building, where he attempts to escape and rescue Amanda from Latnok's clutches, meanwhile Jessi comes to Kyle's aid when she senses his troubles, but she must abandon Sarah in order to do so. In the episode "Life Support," when Nicole, Kyle and Josh are en route to a psychology conference, but they get into an accident when Kyle (who was driving) becomes distracted and suddenly swerves to avoid hitting another car, which sends the Tragers' vehicle off the road before crashing into a ravine. In "Welcome to Latnok," after Cassidy helps to save Nicole's life, Kyle is a man of his word and begins to pay his debt back to Latnok, but what Kyle finds is a complete surprise -- Latnok is not some dark and scary place, but rather a hip college hangout for brilliant young minds, including Mark. In "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," now that Kyle and Jessi know the true story of Sarah's demise, they're on the hunt to find out what Cassidy really wants from them, but in the effort to do so, Kyle must do something that doesn't come naturally to him -- lie...to make Cassidy trust him and believe that he's on board with Latnok, Kyle invites Cassidy over for dinner. And in the series finale "Bringing Down to House," Kyle gets Cassidy to open up about Latnok's plans for the future of Adam Baylin's experiment and to his horror, Kyle learns that the secret society is going ahead with a production of multiple clones of Kyle, so Kyle and Jessi must find a way to put a stop to it, and he enlists the help of the Tragers, Declan, and Amanda. But with the world thinking Jessi is dead and Kyle trying to keep up with all the lies he has told, will they be able to find the secret test facility in time?
Packaging has a nice outer box with Kyle showing he has no belly-button (again) and also standing next to him are Jessi and Cassidy. The color scheme is orange and blue. The back cover has tons of information on the series & set and a list of special features and some screenshots, along with a nice family photo of the Trager family. Inside the box is the case, with the same artwork as the outer box--I hate that. All three discs are inside on the panels. Disc one is on the left panel, while discs two and three are on the right panel, overlapping each other. Ugh, I hate that. The last set had 6 discs and there was no overlapping whatsoever! So we have a downgrade here. Inside the case, we also have some inserts: Disney Blu-ray DVD and other DVDs catalog such as other ABC Family hits Make It Or Break It & 10 Things I Hate About You. When we remove disc one, on the packaging itself, we get a nice disc-by-disc breakdown of episodes and on the right side when we remove discs two & three we have nice episodic photos on the packaging itself. Disc one holds episodes 1-4 and has artwork same as the cover art, disc two holds episodes 5-8 and has artwork of the Trager family and disc three has the final two episodes & the special features and has artwork of Kyle with Amanda and Jessi.
The menu screen has Play All, Episode Selection, Audio Commentary, Bonus Features, Sneak Peeks, and Set Up. Audio Commentary option is on disc two only (though we do have one more on disc three, but it is listed with the Bonus Features). Sneak Peeks and Bonus Features are only on the last disc. Sneak Peeks has trailers for Greek and much more. Everything else is on each disc. Set Up gives us the option to register your DVD and to turn on subtitles in English, French or Espanol. Episodes menu has a screenshot in a square with episode number and title. The main menu has the Latnok logo then we are into a black-grey room where moving images (screenshots from episodes) on screens are in the background. The closing credits music from the series is playing in the background on the main menu and also on sub-menus. Auto previews are playing before the menu comes on disc three such as for the Make It Or Beak It and Surrogates DVDs.
Each episode runs approx. between 43-44 minutes (highest being 44:14 and lowest being 42:06...with most near 44 minutes), so it seems it is a bit longer than shows on broadcast television, but there are about 1-2 minute "previously on Kyle XY" recaps on each episode. There are about 6 chapter stops per episode. The video and audio is superb, as it should be since it is a series that just aired this past season. The video is in widescreen and for those who watched it on ABC Family, will like it even more this way, if you don't get ABC Family HD! I have HD, but my cable service didn't have ABC Family HD when this season aired, so I had to watch in full-frame, but it is nice watching it in widescreen format on this DVD!
Moving on to the extras. Discs two has an audio commentary on the episode "Life Support" from executive producers David Himelfarb and Eric Tuchman. They give a lot of information and tidbits, and they feel this is one of the best episodes of the entire series. On disc three we have an audio commentary on the series finale "Bringing Down the House," from executive producer David Himelfarb and co-executive producer Julie Plec. By the time they did the commentary they knew this was the last episode. This was not intended to be a series finale, so they were surprised the series was canceled.
As for the rest of the extras, we have 12 deleted scenes with optional audio commentary from executive producers David Himelfarb and Eric Tuchman. I suggest you watch it with the commentary so you know why it was deleted and where the scene was from. Runtimes for each deleted scene: 1:33, 0:33, 0:43, 0:38, 1:00, 1:42, 1:14, 1:59, 1:03, 0:29, 1:02, and 0:45. Then finally we have a very interesting featurette called "Kyle XY: Future Revealed." It runs 12:35 and we are told how it all ends! It is a great wrap-up for fans that you'll want to see for sure! Interviewed are Eric Tuchman, David Himelfarb, Julie Plec, and Matt Dallas.
I of course highly do recommend any fan to pick up this set. And if you never have watched the show, I urge you to get the first two seasons on DVD and then get this DVD because this is the best basic cable series EVER! I was hooked and I disappointed we will not have a fourth season to see what happens from the cliffhanger ending from the third season finale. I wish ABC Family would at least greenlight a two-hour finale movie event to wrap it up, since this was their first original series and it did so well for them. This series has comedy, drama, action, science fiction, and everything you can imagine. It is a perfect show for anyone to watch. Join Kyle and the rest of the gang in season three to find out what is Latnok and who really is Cassidy! Let's change the world with Kyle!
-- Reviewed by Pavan
(4.5/5 stars)
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Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Friday, December 13
Happy's Place - "Dear Jack" (NBC, 9:15PM ET/PT)
When Bobbie catches Isabella doing a slow-fade breakup with her long-distance boyfriend, she convinces her to send a Dear John letter; Steve brings in a review praising Chef Emmett's cooking and acknowledging the tavern's bartender, "Abby."
Lopez vs Lopez - "Lopez vs Dateline" (NBC, 9:45PM ET/PT)
When George's controversial new appliance turns up dead, he mounts a true-crime investigation; Chance tests the bounds of honesty with his family.
Bob Hearts Abishola - "Splitting the Hairs" (The CW, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Bob, Douglas and Christina try to get Dottie to make a will; Abishola and Kemi's friendship is tested after Abishola catches Kemi in a lie.
Bob Hearts Abishola - "There's My Nigerians" (The CW, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
While Bob and Abishola struggle to pull Dottie out of her depression, Auntie Olu and Uncle Tunde come over to lift her spirits.
Children Ruin Everything - "Bedtime" (The CW, 9:00PM ET/PT)
When James finds an old game console, he and Astrid attempt to find free time to play; but a bedtime routine threatens to eat up all the time between when the kids are supposed to be in bed and when Astrid and James have to go to bed themselves.
Children Ruin Everything - "Drama" (The CW, 9:30PM ET/PT)
Astrid and James struggle to hold onto their identities while raising their two young children in the city.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 9)
Friday, December 13
- Kerry Washington (UnPrisoned) - Watch Kerry on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Jimmy O. Yang (Interior Chinatown/Space Force/Silicon Valley) - Jimmy appears on repeats of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC and on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Kristin Chenoweth (Trial & Error/Kristin) - Kristin is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Milana Vayntrub (Other Space), Jessica Lowe (Wrecked) and Jason Ritter (Another Period/The Class) - Milana, Jessica and Jason are guests on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Richard Kind (Curb Your Enthusiasm/Spin City/Mad About You) and Fred Armisen (Los Espookys/Forever/Final Space) - NBC's Today catches up with Richard and Fred in the 9am hour.
- Zosia Mamet (Laid/Girls) - Zosia talks about Laid on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Christian Slater (Breaking In) and Sarah Michelle Gellar (The Crazy Ones) - Christian and Sarah are sitting down with Drew to talk all about working together on Dexter: Original Sin on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
- Lisa Kudrow (No Good Deed/HouseBroken/Web Therapy/The Comeback/Friends/Mad About You) - Lisa talks about chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Tom Selleck (The Closer) and Donnie Wahlberg (Return of the Mac) - Tom and Donnie discuss the series finale of Blue Bloods on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
- Nancy McKeon (The Facts of Life/Can't Hurry Love) - Nancy will be on New York Living on WPIX in New York at 10:05am.
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