I love the idea of DVD commentary tracks, which makes the disappointment all the worse when the vast majority of them turn out to be utterly terrible.
At their best, commentaries add new insight to a work; outlining the thought processes that went into it, spotlighting important information that may have been lost in the shuffle, or just making you feel like you're having a great chat at the pub with the creators of something you love.
At their worst, commentaries are boring lists of sundry facts told with little personality and punctuated by long, awkward silences.
Thinking about the commentaries I enjoy, it's obviously similar to the list of shows I enjoy. That makes sense, as they're the ones I seek out, seeking to prolong the experience. Commentaries are a considerable time sink, and if I didn't enjoy something all that much, I probably never listened to the commentary at all.
With that in mind, and with much of my impressions reduced to 'that one was good' by the passage of time, here's some commentaries I've enjoyed.
Futurama
With a lot of the creators and actors involved, and commentaries on a majority of episodes, these are great. The speakers are obviously funny people and factoids are sprinkled through a steady stream of jokes. Entertaining and illuminating.
Buffy/Angel/Firefly
I always enjoy Joss Whedon's commentaries. Given his deep involvement in his shows he has a lot to say about all aspects of the work, from plot points to camera angles. Director commentaries are often dull as they include a lot of technical exposition such as "we used lens X to get that shot" and that's not my bag. Whedon, however, gives details such as that on the way to explaining what it was trying to achieve in the mind and heart of viewer, and I dig that. He's funny too, and that helps.
Spaced
The series set of Spaced includes two commentaries for each episode. There is one set of commentaries recorded by the stars/writers and director, who discuss the show in-depth and pointing out the myriad pop-culture references at play. A second set sees them joined by guests such as Diablo Cody, Trey Parker and Kevin Smith, and are really freeform conversations about the series and its impacts. Both are good, and while there's some anecdote overlap, together they are great,
The Wire
This show - the best ever created - continues to rattle around in my brain even after completion. Anything that prolongs the viewing experience is a godsend, and with creator David Simon discussing the underlying issues and real-world source material, these commentaries are excellent.
Special mention goes to the commentary over the Transformers movie provided by Director Michael Bay. My chief complaint with the film was that it devolved into military hardware porn at the expense of the Transformers themselves. About 20 minutes into the commentary Bay waxes lyrical about being able to film some particular plane or something, and if I recall correctly expresses his view that they are vastly integral to the film. At that point I was able to turn it off with full confidence that I would never have to watch it again.
Anybody else seen any notable commentaries I can hook into, or do you find them tedious beyond measure?
Stefan tells stories, writes about stories and tells stories about stories.
1 comment:
The only commentary I can recall watching all the way through was "Monsters Inc". That was years back when I lived alone. Like all alone and all my family were far away, and I'd eat two large pizzas in one night by myself, and I smelled of dirty laundry and loneliness.
So this isn't actually a recommendation. -_-'
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