Wild Palms (1993) coming from Kino

[dunkrag]

My copy arrived from WowHD this morning.

Watched this a few times when it aired and had the VHS tapes as I was a huge Twin Peaks fan and was starved for oddball TV drama when it ended. And also a huge Oliver Stone fan. Sadly it's no where near TP standard but still weird enough that it kept my interest enough to rewatch.

Great cast....
Belushi, Dana Delany, Angie Dickinson, David Warner, Bob Gunton, Kim Cattrall, Ben Savage, Robert Loggia, Brad Dourif - the list goes on really..

The BD is region A locked if anyone is thinking of purchasing from the UK - make sure you're region free.

The titles look like trash and I suspect from video source, but once they are out of the way it looks like the film transfer kicks in and then nice to see it in HD for the first time.

[dissention]

There are a good number of jarring SD inserts (and the aforementioned main titles), but c'est la vie. The commentaries on this are great. Belushi is just as confused as his performance and Bruce Wagner is practically hate-watching it at times. Kino did good.

[peschi]

really glad this arrives on Bluray, love some 90's TV shows. Next up, On the Air?

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by peschi

Next up, On the Air?

I wish.

[Lastyear]

Watching this now. Not the best transfer I have ever seen but nice to have it available. I had actually forgotten all about it. Worth watching just for Kim Cattrall who never looked hotter.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by Lastyear

Watching this now. Not the best transfer I have ever seen but nice to have it available. I had actually forgotten all about it. Worth watching just for Kim Cattrall who never looked hotter.

She was the main selling point for me wanting to blind buy this. However, I've held off and decided to give it a watch first since the trailer for this series just looked too damn strange for my taste. Hopefully it's just a case of the trailer not doing the series any justice.

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by Lastyear

Watching this now. Not the best transfer I have ever seen but nice to have it available. I had actually forgotten all about it. Worth watching just for Kim Cattrall who never looked hotter.

MASQUERADE says hello.....

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

Just got the WP Blu set from Amazon. Haven't had a chance to see this yet, but really like the cover -with just the woman's back tattoo; very iconic, especially to those of us who remember the show when it was originally on TV back in 1993. It's far superior to the DVD cover with the same picture - but which is too "crowded" with the four actors' heads on the bottom.

Sometimes Blu covers are worse than DVD covers, so it's nice to see the opposite being true once in a while.

[jimmybearlondon]

Yep seems like any times the subtitles kick in for Japanese dialogue, the pic switches back to blurry SD which is a shame - but the rest of the picture quality is pretty damn good. Pity they couldn't source any HD segments - or just redo the subs over an HD print - for those sections, but I guess (or hope) they must have tried.

Originally Posted by dissention

There are a good number of jarring SD inserts (and the aforementioned main titles), but c'est la vie. The commentaries on this are great. Belushi is just as confused as his performance and Bruce Wagner is practically hate-watching it at times. Kino did good.

[tehthomas]

Really enjoyed this. Off the wall sci-fi neo-noir set in 2007 LA -- that for being filmed in the early 90s that nails some of the themes and even aesthetic (nostalgic fetishism for one) that would play out in the later-aughts. As someone who could just never get into the original Twin Peaks (I've tried, twice), I found Wild Palms to be way for more fun. blu-ray presentation is pretty strong, considering the source (tv).

[WeatherUnderground]

Originally Posted by peschi

really glad this arrives on Bluray, love some 90's TV shows. Next up, On the Air?

Never gonna happen but I'd love a set with On the Air and Hotel Room

[Metalbeast]

Curious about getting this since i've haven't seen it in a long time, Is any new or interesting information about the making of the series revealed in any of the commentary tracks?

[beamish13]

Originally Posted by Metalbeast

Curious about getting this since i've haven't seen it in a long time, Is any new or interesting information about the making of the series revealed in any of the commentary tracks?

All of the commentary tracks are wonderful. Keith Gordon and Phil Joanou are always a joy to listen to.

I wish the serialized Wild Palms sequential art from Details magazine that this miniseries is based on was back in print. I have a collection of it in German, and even that is a bit challenging to locate.

[magnusbe]

I watched this when it aired on TV in Norway, which was in 1996. Back in those days we could wait years for movies and TV shows from other countries, and often we didn't even know about them until they showed up here. I don't recall anyone else talking about the series back then, but I have thought about it now and again. Today I received the blu-ray set, and am looking forward to rewatching this for the first time in 25 years!

[Monterey Jack]

Finished watching it this morning. Back in the day, I abandoned this after the first episode (I remember grousing that "It didn't make sense...!" to my brother), but toughing it out to the end now, I appreciate it more. James Belushi's blank, wooden performance at the core mars it, but it's otherwise a sleek, engrossing thriller that gathers narrative and dramatic momentum as it rolls along, with some terrific performances (especially a wonderfully hard-boiled Angie Dickinson ). Just a shame that any shot involving title cards or subtitles looks horrible, like a YouTube rip of a 30-year-old VHS source. It's particularly jarring in scenes that alternate between subtitles and none, watching the picture quality jump from VHS to crisp HD and back.

Otherwise, i'm pretty happy with this semi-blind purchase of a series that's obviously dated in many aspects, but still retains a certain early-90s charm. Looking forward to listening to the commentary tracks, especially the ones with the tremendously ingratiating Keith Gordon (who gives himself an amusing cameo in one of the two eps he directed).

BTW, the camera operator on the series was future Christopher Nolan DP Wally Pfister!

[Monterey Jack]

Listened to the commentaries, which are a mixed bag. The two Keith Gordon ones are the best, simply because he's always fun to listen to. The Phil Joanou one is worthless, basically him ripping himself a new one about all of the technical gaffes and early-90s TV censorship. the two Bruce Wagner ones are uneven...the one with Jim Belushi is little more than the two laughing sporadically (and Belushi sounds like he had a stroke, or else he currently weighs 350 lbs.). The one with Dana Delany is better because Delany is a lot sharper and keeps asking astute questions (and I loooooooooove her voice...she was a wonderful Lois Lane ), but during the shootout in the hotel room towards the end of the ep, her and Wagner start getting drowned out by the soundtrack to an annoying degree.

I just wanted more on the genesis of the project.

[BluBonnet]

I've been meaning to watch this since 1993.....

[trustno1]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

Listened to the commentaries, which are a mixed bag. The two Keith Gordon ones are the best, simply because he's always fun to listen to. The Phil Joanou one is worthless, basically him ripping himself a new one about all of the technical gaffes and early-90s TV censorship. the two Bruce Wagner ones are uneven...the one with Jim Belushi is little more than the two laughing sporadically (and Belushi sounds like he had a stroke, or else he currently weighs 350 lbs.). The one with Dana Delany is better because Delany is a lot sharper and keeps asking astute questions (and I loooooooooove her voice...she was a wonderful Lois Lane ), but during the shootout in the hotel room towards the end of the ep, her and Wagner start getting drowned out by the soundtrack to an annoying degree.

I just wanted more on the genesis of the project.

Belushi was more likely

[Show spoiler] high as a kite when he recorded the commentary. Just look at his twitter.

[beamish13]

Originally Posted by anephric

I watched this at the time (when there were a lot of offbeat network shows like Bakersfield PD - needs a release - and Key West riding the coattails of Twin Peaks) and I remember it being... okay. It has a few arresting sequences - there's the one it's most 'famous' for, and I remember Keith Gordon's episode being one of the better ones, but I imagine it's dated horribly.

GodDAMN is Bakersfield P.D. just stunning. Ranks with Night Stand with Dick Dietrick as the absolute best American shows of the 90’s to never get DVD releases

[beamish13]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

BTW, the camera operator on the series was future Christopher Nolan DP Wally Pfister!

The Roger Corman production Streets (Katt Shea, 1990), employed Pfister, Phedon Papamichael (Nebraska) AND Janusz Kaminski. Three Oscar-nominated/winning DP’s on one low-budget film


Getting back to Wild Palms, I’m just in awe of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s gorgeous score. “Harry in the Hospital” is such a great cue