Profiler: Season One

Mr. Shannon attempts to review not the DVD itself, but what he *thinks* are the behind-the-scenes truths of the Profiler production. One, he refers to the DVD commentary of Ally Walker - suggesting that she is in fact giving the reason why she left after only "two" seasons. (Psssst, Jeff... it was after THREE seasons - not to mention she headlines the opener of the fourth season).

Then he gives more of his "insight" when he suggests that NBC was troubled by the "miscasting" of Ally Walker. Well, not that I believe Mr. Shannon has any reliable inside information, but what does that have to do with reviewing this DVD? I tend to think that Shannon was insinuating his own feelings about Walker, and trying to use the NBC network - based on rumor - as a way to reinforce them. A more candid review would have read, "I wasn't terribly impressed with Walker, and felt she was miscast in the role."

But that probably wouldn't have held-up against the enormous fan-following of Walker on this show (or as Shannon understated in his review, "growing popularity"), nor would it have stood up well against the fact that after Walker left and was replaced by Jamie Luner, the ratings pretty much tanked.

Make no mistake about it: this is a GREAT show. You will esecially enjoy this Season I DVD. The isolated, episodic stories are each fantastic in their own right, and the Jack thread is very addictive. Ally Walker's performance is compelling, and she leads a solid cast - notably Robert Davi, Peter Frechette, Julian McMahon, and Roma Maffia. You'll watch Season I, and you will RUN to grab Season II.

Things I liked:

1. Samantha's character and her relationship with her friend Angel in the first couple of episodes. Ally Walker did a great job with this character.

2. Some of the cinematography-- the way the pilot was shot was very good.

3. The way Samantha's flashes of insight where dealt with in the story.

4. The sexual zing between Samantha and Coop, especially when they first met on the series.

Things I found distracting or unfortunate:

1. A lot of scenes are played out in the dark but with glints of light off eyeballs and teeth. The watcher may not know what else is going on but is never in doubt as to where the eyeballs and teeth are in these scenes.

2. Angel was shoved from an artist who created metal sculpture with a blow torch to a baby sitter-- ok, she was teaching art to inner city kids or something, but she was seen most of th time watching Samantha's kid. Really a waste of a good character.

3. Icky saliva sounds that went with all of the love scenes.

Just as a side note the commentaries from Ally Walker and Robert Davi on the pilot are unintentionally hilarious. Unlike a lot of these tracks, these were recorded separately so there is no intereaction between the commentors. Ally tells us things like Robert Davi's infatuation with hair spray and a stetson hat. Robert Davi seems really upset that the series didn't last longer or at least that they didn't do a made for TV movie spin off because NBC owned the whole package.

My final impression was that this was a good idea, that it had some good characters involved but all of the really good ideas were used early or muted down for one reason or another.