Tremors: The Complete Series

I've been waiting six years for this come out on DVD since it was tragically cancelled after only 13 episodes on the Sci-Fi channel and I was only left with my lo-fi VHS recordings. Sure I could have done the digital download from the Amazon store but I collect DVDs so that medium doesn't appeal to me. If you love Burt Gummer and the films then this a real treat. The show picks up after the third movie when El Blanco (the great white Graboid) is the only thing keeping Perfection, NV from being scooped up by land developers under eminent domain and introduces some new faces who have connections to the people killed in the films. The show has some hilarious moments and often times pits one stereotype of crazy IE: Burt Gummer against another stereotype of crazy IE: environmentalists, government bureaucrats, alien hunters, etc. all while monsters from the films make an appearance and creatures that are the product of compound made in a top secret abandoned lab start popping up. The show at the time was the highest rated show on the Sci-Fi channel and it really made me mad when I found out it was cancelled just because it didn't appeal to the target demographic of Farscape which the show replaced. I don't want to spoil too much but you'll also love Christopher Lloyd as the mad scientist/hermit and how he resembles his role from Back to the Future including a nod at this in one episode but I'm saying too much just buy it you won't be disappointed. :)

P.S. be on the lookout for Tremors 5 when it comes out on DVD this year.

Perfection, NV: A tiny western town of dust, sand... and giant carnivorous graboids burrowing underground.

And after three movies of battling the graboids, shriekers and ass-blasters, fans of the "Tremors" series finally got a (tragically short-lived) TV spinoff. "Tremors: The Complete Series" takes everything fun about the movies tacks in some conspiracies and freaky mutants -- there are a few mildly grating characters, but it's still deliciously fun and strange.

A new guy named Tyler Reed (Victor Browne) rolls into Perfection, intending to take over the Desert Jack Graboid Tours... just in time for El Blanco to go on a berserk feeding frenzy.

It isn't the last graboid-related problem -- Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) and the other Perfectionites must deal with a gourmet assblaster, a scientist training shriekers to be rescue animals, a graboid attacking a town of UFO-fanatics, graboid-rights activists who claim the Perfectionites are killing El Blanco, and a pair of mob thugs who run afoul of El Blanco and lost a very important key.

And pretty soon there are even worse problems. Burt finds that a strange substance called MixMaster, leaked out of a secret laboratory, begins to infect the valley and turns the creatures into bizarre hybrids -- giant shrimps, omnivorous termite/maggots, a mineshaft "ghost," or an acid-spitting reptilian plant.

"Tremors: The Complete Series" was cancelled after only thirteen episodes, but those episodes are brilliant from beginning to end. And they have everything you'd expect from a Tremors series -- lots of big guns, explosions, orange goop, and highly imaginative ways to kill various monsters (including with weather balloons and tar).

For the record: the MixMaster, the secret lab and the eccentric old scientist all seem rather hokey, but soon they mesh nicely into the existing "Tremors" mythology. Think a funnier, lighter "X-Files" vibe. And the writers do an excellent job, weaving clever plots with plenty of action, a bit of tragedy (Cletus and Project 4-12), and lots of hilarious dry humor, especially regarding Burt ("Somebody get up on the wrong side of the bunker today?").

Gross is, as always, brilliant as the endearing survivalist Burt -- he has to start a survival school, wrangle with a hard-headed government rep, and deal with a town of hostile UFO-fanatics. Browne is decent as the new "everyman lead," and there are some solid supporting performances by Lela Lee, Marcia Strassman, Sarah Rafferty, and especially Christopher Lloyd as a wonderfully eccentric scientist-turned-desert-hermit.

Two of the cast aren't quite as endearing -- J.D. Walsh's pushy ubernerd just ends up being annoying. And Gladys Jimenez's Rosalita is a fun character (an ex-showgirl with a shady history) but sometimes it feels like she's there to run around in filmy shirts.

"Tremors: The Complete Series" has a couple bumps in the road, but overall it's a brilliant spinoff to the classic B-movie series. A must-see... or if you're a graboid, a must-eat.

I've been a fan of the Tremors movies for years. Progressively the special effects got less sophisticated & there was less graphic violence, etc. (mainly due to budget issues I'm sure which is also why they made the rest PG-13 to make them available to a wider audience, so they could make as much money as possible) While the 4th movie was being made, they started filming this series as well. From what I read, this series was meant to be a replacement for Farscape, but didn't quite live up to expectations. The ratings were pretty good, but not Farscape good, so unfortunately they canceled it. This has happened to many good TV series that just start to get off the ground, but are canceled after the first or second season due to ratings, budget issues, stupid executive decisions, etc. (The Blade Series, Firefly, Reaper, etc.) The one consistent character that's been throughout the movies and the TV series is Burt Gummer (Michael Gross). Even since the first movie, I'd have to say that he has always been my favorite character. I suppose since he was the most memorable, the one that stood out the most.

I really liked this TV series and have wanted to get it on DVD for awhile now. Well, here it is, finally out...and to be honest I'm a bit disappointed. The series itself I'd give 4 out of 5 stars, but this review isn't just about the series, it's about the medium it's presented on. The DVD quality is lousy, barely passable as viewable. I have NO idea why they would release it in full frame (1:33-1) when it was filmed and shown in widescreen, but since when has the film and TV industry made since? Because of this, shots are cut off and you don't get the whole picture, not to mention the graininess of the picture too. I have a widescreen LCD HDTV, so this just makes it worse. Not even upscaling helps much. It's still watchable though, but I expected better. I mean, if this was an old TV series from 20 or more years ago, maybe then I could understand and be more tolerable of the poor quality, but this show is barely 7 years old! So for that, I have to knock off a couple stars and give the DVD quality itself 3 out of 5. Another thing that I am disappointed about is the lack of special features. And when I say lack, I mean non-existent! There is nothing! Not even a trailer! Have to knock off another 1/2 star for this.

So lets total this up shall we. That's 4 stars for the series and 2.5 for the DVD's themselves which gives an average of 3.25, so 3 stars overall. I wish I could give better, but with what I've been given to work with, that's the best this DVD set can get. At least the one thing they did do right when releasing this series was to put the episodes in "proper chronological-story order" so the series story would make since. I remember when first watching these on Sci-Fi and in some of the episodes they'd be talking about "Mix-master" or some other thing or person that hadn't been introduced yet and I'd be like, "What the HELL are they talking about!?". So for the people that have been complaining that these episodes are out of "proper air-date" order, they did that for our benefit, so stop complaining!

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 26 reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars