7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
As Det. Kevin Corcoran seeks to rebuild his shattered life, President Abraham Lincoln's second term begins and the Civil War draws to a close. Meanwhile, Tammany Hall's ward boss, General Donovan, exerts increasing power over the daily affairs and the future of New York City's Five Points district.
Starring: Tom Weston-Jones, Kyle Schmid, Anastasia Griffith, Ato Essandoh, Kevin Ryan (XXVII)Period | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
After the critical and popular success of its first season, BBC America's Copper roared back with an expanded thirteen-episode second season that premiered on June 23, 2013. But something was different. Creators Tom Fontana and Will Rokos decided to expand the series' canvas beyond the rough-and-tumble origins of New York's Finest amidst the crowded immigrant streets of the Lower Manhattan neighborhood known as Five Points. Even the Civil War, never far from the characters' minds in Season One, which culminated with a Confederate plot to burn New York to the ground, receded into the background in Season Two. Fontana and Rokos were looking toward the future. They wanted to examine the social, economic and political forces that were already organizing to reshape the city into something like its present form and, in the process, erase Five Points from the map. Copper's creators can be admired for the boldness of their ambition, but it took them too far away from the show's core strengths, as substantial time was devoted to major new characters and story lines, while those that had won the show its original audience were given short shrift (or, worse, repurposed for Copper's new aspirations). By mid-season, the fan base was abandoning the show, uncertain of where it was headed or what it was about. Those who stayed to the end saw some, but not all, of the new storylines resolved in the twelfth episode, only to be treated to a coda in the final installment that was stylistically and tonally at odds with everything that had gone before. The last episode ended with what was obviously intended as a foundation for a third season, but by then it was too late. Poor ratings prompted BBCA to cancel the series just three days before the season finale aired on June 23, 2013. Despite the change in focus, much of Copper's second season deals with events that occurred in Season One. The following discussion assumes that the reader is familiar with Season One; anyone who is new to Copper should stop here and turn to the Season One review to avoid spoilers.
Copper changed both cinematographers and visual style for Season Two. Pierre Gill (The Colony) shot most of the episodes, and the imagery was considerably less dark, as if the production team were responding to complaints by BBCA viewers that the show was too hard to follow in broadcast format (a point noted in my Season One review). The image is still dark, but faces are more clearly illuminated, and contrast levels have been enhanced in the original photography. Copper was easier to watch on TV, but its visuals lost some of the distinctive character that set the show apart from the many other period dramas produced by the BBC and American cable networks. It didn't help that the production design, costumes and makeup were subtly (and not so subtly) changed to clean up the main characters, so that their enhanced visibility would not damage their good looks. When it comes to historical drama, vanity is too often the enemy of authenticity. Still, these changes represent artistic decisions by the creative team, not any fault in the image on BBC Home Video's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-rays, which is every bit the equal of the image for Season One. The digitally originated picture remains finely detailed, noiseless and almost filmlike in its texture. Colors are muted and dull in Five Points, but they can become vivid and saturated when specific scenes demand it, e.g., the bedrooms in Eva's Paradise, the Morehouse home and especially the green forests of the journey south in the final episode. Scenes relating to the wedding between Robert and Elizabeth provide opportunities for a wide array of rich colors, which only serves to highlight the dinginess of the grime and corruption just a few miles south. By spreading the thirteen episodes over three discs, BBC has ensured sufficient space and average bitrates (which vary from episode to episode, but are all around 25 Mbps) to avoid any compression issues.
Unlike Season One, which was limited to a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, Season Two offers lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 sound. The result improves on what was already a satisfying audio accompaniment to Copper's recreation of Five Points. The focus of the series may have shifted thematically in Season Two, but the sound designers remained committed to their original mission of creating a layered mix intended to reproduce the texture of life in a crowded immigrant district. The uptown district where the Morehouse family resides has a gentler sound, where the genteel clip-clop of horse-drawn carriages can usually be heard outside. There are several sequences involving major exchanges of gunfire in Copper's second season, and the discharges of the 19th Century weapons are loud and powerful. A visit to a Chinese opium den provides an eerie environment of sighs and troubled sleep, and various scenes in the jail cells are full of clanging doors and the constant noise of other inmates. Brian Keane's folk-flavored score provides a steady reminder that Copper is about the rise of New York's Irish, whether on the NYPD or in Tammany Hall.
Probably because of the show's cancellation, the extras for Season Two are limited to promotional spots created prior to the season's airing. They are entertaining, but nothing compared to the historical material provided with Season One.
Let us hold a proper Irish wake for Copper. It lived an adventurous life and died too young, but that was the fate of many a Five Points inhabitant. For fans who gave up on Season Two, I recommend a second look. The story lines work better when you don't have to wait a week in between episodes. Even if some of them remain unresolved in the end, a number are conclusively wound up, and there are episodes in Season Two where Copper still crackles with its former intensity. Episode 5 ("A Morning Song") depicts an assault on police headquarters itself by a vicious gang known as the Druids. In Episode 12 ("Beautiful Dreamer"), Corcoran is forced to become a fugitive, pursued by both his fellow coppers and a deadly gang of mercenaries. Copper never again reached the heights of Season One, but it still had potential. Although light on extras, Season Two's image and sound quality are excellent; the set is recommended on that basis.
2012
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1973
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2002
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