Branagh's Shakespeares

We've already taken a look at Henry V, the underrated Love's Labour's Lost and Kenneth Branagh's not-actually-a-Shakespeare-adaptation, but highly adjacent Midwinter's Tale.  It was only a matter of time until I covered the rest.  But not all of them have had particularly extensive lives on home video.  Hell, a couple of them are still, sadly, DVD only.  So I figured why not round them up into one big post?  And what better way to start one big post than with what is still, easily, the biggest Shakespeare adaptation of the silver screen: 1996's Hamlet?

Branagh's is hardly the first Hamlet to hit the silver screen - they did it first in 1921 with Asta Nielsen as the titular prince(ss!), and Olivier's Best Picture winner had been the reigning version for decades - but clocking in at over four hours, his was the first to finally adapt the entire play, rather than an abridgement.  However, the BBC came pretty close to doing it first with their 1980 television version starring Derek Jacobi (at three and a half hours, it did cut out a little).  And it may be a nod to this that Jacobi co-stars here as Hamlet's nemesis uncle king.

But of course, even if the BBC had managed to present the complete play, there's no way they could have managed anything as grand - dare I say ostentatious - than Branagh has.  From it's massive sets to not just great RSC actors but Branagh's first case of major stunt casting.  Besides Branagh himself in the lead and the aforementioned Jacobi, we see no less than Judi Dench, Kate Winslet, Jack Lemon, Robin Williams, Charlton Heston, John Gielguld, Billy Crystal, Rufus Sewell, Timothy Spall, the great Brian Blessed, Julie Christie, Richard Attenborough, John Mills and even Gérard Depardieu.  It's like he picked up an issue of Entertainment Weekly and commanded, bring me all of them!  But in the interests of bringing Shakespeare to a wider, mainstream audience, I daresay it was as commendable as it was impressive a feat.  Is it a little showy?  Oh yes, but it's still the definitive Hamlet to view to this day (sorry, Mel Gibson).

It took Warner Bros a while to release Hamlet on DVD.  We had to hold onto our laserdiscs until 2007, when they finally issued it as a pretty impressive 2-disc special edition.  It was just a couple years, then, until they issued it on blu in 2010, as a fancy mediabook edition.  You might've noticed, though, by the ugly green ratings icon up there, that I have their German edition, which comes in just a traditional amary case.  The discs are the same.  The only reason I imported is because Hamlet's gone out of print here in the states, and gotten a little pricey.  So if you're looking for a way to save a little, Warners has released the same disc, just with different packaging, all around the world.

2007 WB DVD top; 2010 WB BD bottom.

2010's pretty old for a blu-ray, and it does show.  Especially with squeezing a four-hour film and a bunch of extras on a single disc, the encode's a little rough in a soft "where's the grain?" kind of way.  And it's clearly taken from the same master as the DVD, with identical color timing, etc.  Still, the AR does shift slightly from 2.18:1 to 2.21, with the blu revealing slightly more around the edges.  Yes, 2.20 is apparently the correct aspect ratio, despite it being unusual.  Hamlet is one of those rare 70mm films, which partially explains the smaller and thus harder to render grain, meaning it would be a great candidate for 4k (hint, hint, Warner Bros!).  But even as old as it is, the blu-ray is a distinct improvement on the DVD, being noticeably sharper, and revealing detail like Jacobi's eyeballs, which are blurred out on the DVD in the first set of shots.  So, while it could definitely look better, at least we've got it in HD, which is more than we can say for some of the following films.

WB's DVD includes the original, and rather impressive, 5.1 track with optional English, Spanish and French subtitles.  The blu-ray bumps that track up to DTS-HD and a whole slew of additional foreign dubs and subs.  Nothing to complain about there.

And Warner Bros supplies a very satisfying collection of special features.  Both the DVD and BD include a fully engaged audio commentary by Branagh, along with a Shakespeare scholar, who manage to stay informative and enthusiastic for the entire four hours.  There's also a brief introduction by Branagh, a nice behind-the-scenes making of featurette that lasts for almost half an hour, a shorter promo featurette and the original trailer.  The DVD also includes a bunch of bonus trailers for other Shakespeare adaptations from Warners, and the US blu (though not the German) includes a 38-page booklet with notes and an interview with Branagh.

Now, let's take it back to Branagh's first ever Shakespeare film adaptation, although technically one he didn't direct.  It's a British television production of his stage production (which he did direct) of Twelfth Night from 1988.  He went right from this in '88 to the impressive Henry V film production in '89, then soon to Much Ado and Hamlet - an amazing trajectory.  And so yes, in terms of scale, this is quite small.  It's all filmed on one tiny set, though it is shot like a proper film, with close-ups, editing and moving cameras.  But it looks like the play, not a fleshed out, realistic movie.

And we don't have the big, movie star cast we've come to expect from Branagh either.  But it's no less an impressive work once you sit down and let yourself get absorbed.  It may take a little while, admittedly, but that's more to do with Shakespeare's writing than Branagh's direction.  This is a comedy with an awful lot of set-up that doesn't really get rollicking until the pins start to fall down.  Twelfth Night requires a bit of pay-off, but it's impressive that Shakespeare's comedy still works just as well as any modern work once you're properly invested.

Branagh's said that there are generally two ways to view and present Twelfth Night, ultimately melancholy or comic.  Branagh goes for the melancholy, which is not to say the humor is lost.  Ultimately, the contrast makes some of the scenes all the funnier.  But you can see the difference if you compare this to Trevor Nunn's 1996 film, which adds full cinematic production (they really do up the ship wreck in the opening!), movie stars including Helena Bonham Carter, Richard E Grant and Ben Kingsley and the carefree, light-hearted tone.  I absolutely recommend both; they compliment each other and together give you a better appreciation of the source material than either could on their own.  Some performances are better in one, some in the other.  Even the final song, sung by the fool, are fascinatingly different, despite of course, the same lyrics.  Here, Branagh definitely has an edge, both for the more soulful take of his actor and the fact that none other than Paul McCartney created the melody for this version.

Twelfth Night originally only came out in the UK, which is why I have the barebones 2004 Fremantle DVD.  But when it A&E put it out a year later in the US, I had to double-dip, because it includes an exclusive interview with Kenneth Branagh.  But is the presentation any better on one disc or the other?  Honestly, I'm about to learn that right now along with you guys.

2004 Fremantle DVD top; 2005 A&E DVD bottom.

Nope, for all intents and purposes, they're identical.  Not that anyone would've expected a different master or anything, but even down to the interlacing, it's the same.  Surprisingly, there's not even an NTSC/ PAL speed difference.  Both are full-frame (naturally, for 1980s television) at 1.30:1.  The only technical difference is that Fremantle very slightly windowboxed their picture, by about 3-4 pixels wide around in the overscan area.

Both just have your basic Dolby stereo audio tracks and neither provide subtitles of any kind.

Again, the one thing that sets the two discs apart is the extra.  Fremantle has nothing and A&E has just the one: a twenty+ minute interview with Kenneth Branagh.  There's not a lot of info out there about this one, so the interview is very helpful, and he has a lot of keen insight into the play and his own production of it, so it's absolutely worth getting the US disc for rather than the UK.

So now let's roll into one of Branagh's most popular productions, especially today as modern viewers seem to keep rediscovering it, 1993's Much Ado About Nothing.  This reunites (then) married couple Branagh and Emma Thompson, who got to conclude Henry V, but now have the entire film focused on their romance.  It's the film that proved Denzel Washington was born for Shakespeare and that Keanu Reeves... is popular.

It's another packed cast.  Besides everyone I just named, there's Kate Beckinsale, Imelda Staunton, Robert Sean Leonard, Michael Keaton and Brian Blessed yet again stealing every scene he's in.  This film works so well because most of the cast is great, and those who aren't are still charming enough to bleed into the flight of fancy romance of this free-spirited endeavor.  Is Leonard wooden?  So what?  They just embrace it and make it part of the pretty artifice!  Is Reeves unconvincing?  So what?  We all knew his villainous plotting was bound for failure from the very beginning.  Everyone's running around throwing flowers into the air and singing "hey, nonny nonny!"  All our male leads pump their fists in unison as they ride their horses towards camera set to a lavish orchestra.  Sure, it can get a little eye-rollingly cringey, but come on, it's a joyous celebration of life and love that's endured over five hundred years.  You just have to go in with the right temperament.  It's practically Bollywood.

MGM picked this title up from Columbia Tri-Star/ Sony.  So Columbia first put out a flipper disc in 1998, then MGM reissued it in 2003 with an additional little making of featurette and ditching the fullscreen version.  And in 2011, they released it on blu.

2003 MGM DVD top; 2011 MGM BD bottom.

This is the most obviously improved of the lot.  Yes, both discs are anamorphic widescreen, but the AR is corrected from 1.81:1 to 1.84:1, and the colors are greatly improved, with distinct separation and removing the light pink hue cast over the DVD.  The DVD also features some unpleasant edge enhancement, which the BD thankfully gets rid of while also sharpening the image and resolving better detail.  Even the film grain is pretty thoroughly rendered for an older 2011 BD.  I'm not saying I wouldn't like to see a UHD of this some day, but it's not screaming upgrade like every other Branagh Shakespeare is.

MGM's DVD offered a nice Dolby Stereo Surround track with optional English subtitles, as well as French and Spanish dubs and subs.  The blu is the same, but bumps the audio up to DTS-HD and throws in several more dub and sub translations as well.

Now, did I say "little" featurette?  Yes, both the DVD and BD have the same extras, which just consist of the one promo featurette and the trailer.  And it's nice to get, but it's just six minutes long including multiple clips from the film.  So it's more like an expanded trailer with on-set soundbites from the cast.  I'd rather have it than not, but if there's one area this film could use an upgrade in, it's the extras.

And finally we come to a film that has sadly yet to be discovered, Branagh's final Shakespeare film to date, 2006's As You Like It, which was released as a TV movie here in the US on HBO.  Once again, Branagh rather defiantly opts to tackle one of the lesser known Shakespeare plays (I mean, I'm not saying it's super obscure, but it's not exactly King Lear or Macbeth, with a more mainstream draw).  And this time he makes the potentially vaguely offensive choice to set it in Japan.  Of course, setting Shakespeare in alternate milieu is a tradition almost as popular as setting it where it was originally intended.  But the possible offense coming from keeping it an English story with an almost entirely English cast, and just the trappings of traditional Japanese culture.  He does throw one or two bones to Japanese actors in minor supporting roles, but that almost makes it worse, like he's not even doing this out of a genuine commitment to an alternate history take.

But if you can lay that aside, this is another intelligent, beautifully crafted production with another all-star cast.  We've got Bryce Dallas Howard (who's actually not bad), David Oyelowo, Kevin Kline, Alfred Molina, Adrian Lester and Brian Blessed in two roles!  It's also the only one that Branagh doesn't take a role for himself, except for a brief voice over.  It's more separated twins and lovers wooing others in cross-dressed disguise, welcome to Shakespeare comedy, folks.  But Branagh is able to pull it off in the 2000s with great costumes, music and production design.

There's just the one 2007 DVD from HBO, although it was reissued by Warner Archives in 2013, so at least it's super easy to obtain.

2007 HBO DVD.

For a DVD-only release, at least it's a fine one.  Anamorphic widescreen 2.32:1 ("2.35:1" on the back of the case), non-interlaced and relatively problem free.  The slightly dim, brownish look is surely an intentional design choice on the part of the filmmakers.  It is soft and would obviously benefit from an HD disc - there appears to be some edge enhancement which could be removed in the process - but what do want from a DVD?

It's got a clean 5.1 mix and optional English subtitles, as well as a Spanish dub and Spanish and French subtitles.

And it's even got an extra.  It's actually even shorter than Much Ado About Nothing's, but it's still better than nothing.  It's a making of featurette with your standard mix of B-roll and on set interview soundbites, but it has less film clips, so it's at least worth the very short amount of time it takes to watch it.  Obviously, more would've been appreciated.

So there you have it: we've now covered six Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare adaptations to date.  And since it's been sixteen years now, possibly all six ever.  I guess he struggles to find the financing for these like he used to, so he's moved on to other things, which is a shame, since they're generally his best work.  Pretty much all of them could stand an upgrade, to varying degrees of desperation.  We'll probably never see a nice boxed set, since they're all owned by different studios.  Admittedly, he might have better luck if he tried more of a crowd-pleaser like Richard III; but it's going to take a big change in motion picture audiences before we see him get the chance to make glorious Shakespearian epics like he was able to in the 90s.  And I can live with that; there are so many other great films of the bard's work out there already.  I'll be happy just to get all the best ones in HD with a couple bonus features.  Let's work towards that.

Terry Gilliam Week Day #5: Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python's Flying Circus is, of course, the original BBC sketch comedy series that ran for four seasons, from 1969-1974.  Each season is ran for 13 episodes, except the final one, when John Cleese left, and it ran for an abridged 6 episodes.  It was first released on DVD here in the United States in 1999, in a rather massive "14-Pack DVD Mega Set" from A&E Home Video.  Those DVDs, also available in individual seasons, are really the only versions we've had on DVD.  Yes, in 2005, A&E released their "16-Ton Megaset"[left], but that's actually the exact same set of 14 discs (albeit in new, slimmer cases) just with two additional bonus discs of extras live performances and television specials.  And also yes, in 2008, A&E released a 21-disc "Complete Monty Python Collector's Edition," but that's just the "16-Ton Megaset" in a newer box, with five more bonus discs, including two retrospective documentaries and the six Personal Best greatest hits specials.  But the actual series' discs have been the same for twenty years, until 2019, when Network restored the full series in HD and released it in their 7-disc "Norwegian Blu-ray Edition."  That set has also been broken down into individual seasons and repackaged in a slimmer 2020 standard edition, but the disc content is all the same.  The only difference on-disc distinction is that the "Norwegian" set was released in the United Kingdom as 50i BD discs, but they also created North American 60i BD discs.  For the record, I have the 60 frame-rate discs, which is what we'll being screenshots of here.

A brief, restored scene from season 4, only on the BD.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about Network's restorations is that they're not just restoring the picture and audio quality for HD, they're actually restoring lost footage.  I would refer you to movie-censorship.com's reliably thorough break-down of every difference, episode by episode.  But in brief, there are instances of gags that were censored, or bits that were trimmed or removed seemingly for pacing.  It runs the gamut from a brief, alternate shot or word to an entire sketch that have been put back into the episodes.  Less compelling, but still interesting: each episode also tends to run 30 seconds longer because they've included the pre-broadcast intros, not meant to be aired, but which include some interesting behind-the-scenes audio over shots of a clock counting down the final seconds.  The BDs are also full of supplemental outtakes and other excised material, sometimes with subtitles where the audio was missing.  So this is the series really uncut for the first time, and with more unseen footage in the extras.

1999 A&E DVD top; 2019 Network BD bottom.

Network's booklet explains that the show, "was produced on 2" Quad tape... The basis for this restoration were the earliest generation tapes - or direct copies of them... Once restored, the programme then was up-scaled to High Definition."  As you can see, the framing is the same, but the AR has been corrected from a too tall 1.29:1 to 1.32:1.  There's not really any new detail pulled out of the image, but the interlacing lines are considerably slimmer in HD, giving a more coherent, natural picture.  And the black levels are subtly deepened, making everything look a little less muddy and washed out.  This is the tape portion of the series, which is most of the show but not all of it.

1999 A&E DVD top; 2019 Network BD bottom.

Some segments, mostly exteriors, were shot in 16mm.  The improvements in these sections get much more distinct.  Again, the blacks are deepened and the AR is adjusted, but as you can see above, there is much more clarity.  The image is sharper, and there really is fine detail to see (just look at the grass in the foreground) that was a soft haze before.  It's much more satisfying, and feels like the kind of upgrade you expect jumping from DVD to Blu.  And then there's Terry Gilliam's animated sequences.

1999 A&E DVD top; 2019 Network BD bottom.

Of these, we're told, "there was more 16mm footage available on negative (as well as print) and these were scanned in HD, graded and restored before being dropped into the episode timeline to replace the archive transfers used for the original broadcast."  This is where the most stark difference lays, wow!  The color correction is probably what grabs you first, but the distinct boost in clarity and the cleaned up damage are not far behind.  Compression smudging is replaced with fine lines.  You know, with the video portions of the show, there's a bit of a "well, this is the best it's going to ever look" side to the new transfers.  The film portions are better; but the animations really look gorgeous now.

1999 A&E DVD top; 2019 Network BD bottom.

And while we're still going from 1.29 to 1.32 (you wouldn't expect the AR to shift around mid-episode, would you?), you'll notice the animated sequences are zoomed further out, revealing more image around all four sides on the BD.  This is cool, but maybe a bit of a mistake on Network's part.  Notice, for instance, in this set of shots that we see below the edge of the foreground animated statue.  It reminds me of Arrow's Creepshow 2 blu, which revealed edges that should have been cropped/ matted out.  But considering how beautiful they are here, I sure wouldn't trade these restorations for what was on the DVDs!

Both discs just offer the original English mono track in 2.0, but of course it's lossless on the BDs' LPCM.  Both discs also offer optional English subtitles, the timing of which has been slightly adjusted on the BDs, and Network also throws in French, German, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.

Live At the Hollywood Bowl

As for extras, A&E's 1999 set is surprisingly light for a "Mega Set."  Each disc just has two or three short clips on them, which are basically just sketches taken from the episodes - in other words entirely redundant.  But they do include a few live ones, which are taken from their 1982 Live At the Hollywood Bowl special, which was a fun way to see alternate versions of the same sketches.  But these became redundant, too, in 2005 when the entire Hollywood Bowl special was included in the 16 Ton set.  The video quality's a little rough, but it's a nice treat.  There's also an hour-long Live At Aspen special, which is an on-stage reunion chat with Robert Klein, Parrot Sketch Not Included: 20 Years of Python, which is a made-for-television greatest hits clip show (as in what you've already got in full on discs 1-14) hosted by Steve Martin, and best of all, one of the famous German episodes of Fliegender Zirkus.  There were two total, made to air in Germany, and yes, entirely produced in German language with mostly all new content.  English subtitles are burnt in.

the German episode

As I mentioned before, The Complete Collector's Edition has all of that and adds the six Personal Bests specials I've mentioned before.  These are just more greatest hits clips shows, so not too valuable, each focused on a different Python.  They at least include brief, new wrap-around segments; but as a whole, they're pretty worthless if you've already got the full series, which you do when you own this box.  But they also add two feature-length documentaries, Before the Flying Circus and Monty Python Conquers America.  Before is better, but both are pretty darn good and well worth the time of any Python fan.

So it's a shame Network doesn't have any of that stuff.  None of the specials, documentaries or even the German episodes.  And if you were hoping they'd bring in the Pythons for commentaries and new interviews and stuff, nope.  Actually, this set is surprisingly light on extras, mostly just including the outtakes and left overs they restored that weren't actually cut back into the episodes.  Not that there isn't anything else.  There are a few vintage goodies, including a BBC interview with the Pythons from the 70s, a short behind-the-scenes film, an old interview with Python producer Ian McNaughton and a featurette with Gilliam on the restoration work.  These are great, but it all feels awfully light considering these Network sets sold for roughly $200, and so much was dropped from the DVDs.  It's especially disappointing they didn't restore the German episodes along with the rest of the series.

But they sure delivered on swag.  The Norwegian set comes in a wild, fold-out box with a lid that houses four digipacks in slipboxes, one for each season.   Each season also includes a massive 176-page book (yes, four 176-page books total), with written histories and extensive details on every sketch.  Unfortunately, the books added so much weight, they wound up destroying most of the fancy boxes in shipping; but if you managed to get one undemolished, they were pretty sweet.  They also included another mini-booklet that lists the details and extras of each series set and includes the transfer notes.

I heard Network lost money on these sets, due to the packaging fiasco and fans being underwhelmed by the lack of special features.  But hopefully they're still recouping, what with the standard editions and anywhere else they can license their restorations in future.  Because theirs is unquestionably the definitive way to watch Monty Python's Flying Circus now.  They did great work, which is why it's so frustrating they didn't get to the German episodes, too - they've rendered the DVDs and any other editions quite obsolete.  You should definitely double-dip for these.  But you'll want to hang onto whatever DVD bonus discs you have, too.

A Watchable Vanity Fair?

I've had some surprisingly good luck upgrading to these Mapetac blus recently, so I thought I'd roll the dice one more time.  This time it's for one of my absolute personal favorites: 1998's Vanity Fair.  Yes, it's the Andrew Davies version, but even most of his other work falls short of this epic miniseries, especially if you're expecting just another delicate comedy of manners about a 17th century woman who narrowly avoids marrying the wrong man instead of the right one.  Thackeray is quite a sharp turn from Jane Austen.  And speaking of sharp turns, well, we all know the reputation these Llamentol discs have; but when it's the only BD option, and the DVD is fairly borked, well... like I said, we're rolling the dice.

This is the best of all the Vanity Fairs.  It's a true marriage of society's elegance and grotesqueries in every aspect, from its photography to the brilliant soundtrack.  The more recent version has some strengths: adding Michael Palin as narrator lets them include some of Thackeray's non-dialogue text, but it tries way too hard to appeal to modern sensibilities.  It feels like it was made for high school students who couldn't be expected to wrap their heads around a different time period with alternate sensibilities and values so it takes all kind of silly liberties.  At my old job, people always used to ask me about the Reese Witherspoon Vanity Fair, and I would try to warn them against going that route.  It's alright, don't get me wrong.  The production values are admittedly higher, Reese isn't the problem and some of the supporting cast, like Jim Broadbent, are first class.  But chopping the story down to two hours is such an abridgement it loses so many great scenes and consequently cuts the wit and humanity out of those that remain.  It's the same problem all the 1930's versions had, though at least Mira Nair successfully recreated the period.

Actually, I used to be a pretty big proponent of the BBC's 1967 version, which certainly was at one time the definitive VF going, but now comparing the two, I see how much of the heart and subtext has been thrown away compared to the 90s version, almost as harshly as the Witherspoon despite being substantially longer.  Original Masterpiece Theater darling Susan Hampshire and the rest of the cast are all quite smart, and the drama does still build to a beguiling boil by the second half.  It's been a while since I've seen the 80's version (also a BBC miniseries, with Freddie Jones as Sir Pitt Crawley), but I remember feeling it was pretty stiff following this one, which was fairly tied for faithfulness to the novel, but possessed more of the spirit.

If you're looking for a quick way to judge Vanity Fair adaptations, the dictionary scene early on makes it easy.  A number of versions throw it away, quickly depicting the moment without conveying its delicious spirit or the necessary set-up.  Becky Sharp over-did it, adding a hokey little "let this speak volumes" speech to it.  The 2018 version shows us they're determined to botch the Amelia character, and thus the film's central relationship, by changing the scene so they both throw their dictionaries and scream "viva la Napoleon!"  The 90s version remains the only one to get it right.  Plus, the home video situation for this one is pretty dreary.  In the US, it's only ever been released on VHS... at least in the UK, there's a 2-disc DVD set from Acorn.

2004 Acorn DVD.

I assume this was shot on video, so there are no negatives to go back to.  But the interlacing is out of control; it's not intermittent frames like usual, but every frame.  And I gather that's some kind of edge enhancement making their collars flair out in the second shot - it certainly looks like it - but their are so many potential flaws in SD transfers of broadcasts from tape I can't say for sure.  It's murky, the colors are bleeding, really the only thing that seems to have gone right is that the 1.32 AR is probably about right, although as you can see, there's some unusual dead space along the top.  The audio has some background hiss but is reasonably clear.  There are no subtitles and the only extra is a nice behind-the-scenes photo gallery.

But we're not here for that Vanity Fair; we're here for THIS Vanity Fair.  So let us move on. A&E Home Video released the 90's Vanity Fair here on DVD in 2003 as a 2-disc set, in two amaray cases and a slipbox.  Looking at it now, it doesn't hold up (as we'll detail below), but the only blu-ray option is the infamous Llamentol disc released in Spain in 2013, and repackaged as a Mapetac in 2016.  I've bought the latter.

2003 A&E DVD top; 2016 Mapetac BD bottom.

Yes, once again this is the 2011 Llamentol disc, right down to the old label, housed inside the newer 2016 sleeve.  I was initially encouraged by the fact that this is a pressed disc (dual-layer even), not a BDR, like Middlemarch.  On the other hand, I was skeptical of the 16x9 aspect ratio; would this made for television series be widescreen?  In 1998, it's on the bubble.  But comparing the shots, no, this 1.74:1 is correct... or at least close to it.  The fullscreen DVD not only brusquely chops off the sides, and a sliver along the top and bottom, but I caught it doing some ghastly pan and scanning to try and preserve key characters who had been cropped out of shot.  So yeah, this is a big fix of the 1.32, though ideally, sure, we probably want it to be 1.78, or maybe even 1.85:1, without that weird left-hand pillarbox (return of the unusual dead space!).  In fact, we briefly get a glimpse of it.

For one shot early in the final episode, the edges flicker, the left-hand bar disappears and the resulting framing corrects itself to unmatted widescreen, and then snaps right back in the next shot.  During this brief glimpse, there's only very slight negative space along the overscan area, the most being about 7 pixels along the top, opening the shot to 1.79:1.  Oh well.  The 1.74 will do.  Especially when there are other improvements as well.  Most notably: the interlacing is gone!  It was really bad on the DVD, again not intermittent but every frame.  It's hard to say if the blu's HD is any natural improvement in terms of clarity or detail - the patterns on that soft, say - because the interlacing ruins the DVD's picture too much to judge.  But what that means, practically speaking, is that the BD's a huge improvement because we finally get a non-distorted look at the image.  Of course there's no pan & scanning here, and the colors are also cooler, seemingly to correct for an overly pink hue to the DVD, which I'd call another mild improvement, though I suspect a proper restoration could do an even better job of the colors.

Both discs feature the same decent but lossy stereo mix.  The blu also has a stereo Spanish dub.  The one thing the DVD had going for it was optional English subtitles, which the blu predictably replaces with Spanish ones.  So that's a small step backwards.  Neither release has any special features at all, though, so that's a draw.

It's the same story: a low-quality (and quite possibly unlicensed) blu as predicted; but it's all I was hoping for given my expectations.  I knew this wasn't going to look "blu-ray quality," but it did turn out to be a substantial upgrade.  Granted, that's not due to any great qualities of the blu's so much as the DVD having such poor ones, but I've finally got a watchable copy on my shelf that I can live with.  That's a win in my book, and I'm both happy and relieved.