Rating summary
Movie | | 4.5 |
Video | | 4.5 |
Audio | | 4.0 |
Extras | | 4.5 |
Overall | | 4.5 |
Holliston: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie Review
Back to the Market BasKET
Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 23, 2014
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the Season 2 Blu-ray of Holliston, FEARnet's original
horror sitcom, is that it exists at all. Season 2 concluded its ten-episode run on August 6, 2013,
but creator, writer and star Adam Green and his cast and crew weren't given the green light to record commentaries until the
following year, when the decision was finally made to release a Blu-ray. In the disc's
commentaries, Green repeatedly notes the industry trend toward streaming
and away from physical media, and there's a strong hint that the Blu-ray wouldn't exist if Green
and co-star Joe Lynch weren't such fans of the format. Indeed, as Green notes several times, Image
Entertainment is not releasing Season 2 on DVD. (In "The Christmas Special" that aired between
Seasons 1 and 2, the gift of a Blu-ray player is used as a sign of true devotion between friends.)
For an introduction to Holliston, a history of its lengthy development and an overview of its
world, please see the review of Season
1. The discussion after the first screenshot assumes that
the reader has seen the entire first season and contains spoilers for anyone who hasn't. Season 2
continues the exploration of the comically frustrating world of Adam and Joe (Green and Lynch,
playing alternate versions of themselves) as they struggle to break into the horror film industry,
and Adam keeps looking for love. The only difference is that both the writing and the
performances are more accomplished and inventive. Having connected with a loyal and growing
fan base, Green and his creative team could proceed with confidence, as they broke new ground
for their horror sitcom. The actors relaxed into their alter egos, and their
natural chemistry added further shades of humor to the bizarre situations into which Green
delights in placing them. The show also grew more technically daring in its use of both practical
and digital effects.
One of the running jokes on
Holliston is that main characters can be killed off during an episode,
only to return in the next show as if nothing had happened. At the conclusion of Season 1, Adam,
Joe, Corri (Corri English) and Laura (Laura Ortiz) were gunned down by a maniac, but both the
maniac and his murder spree were forgotten by the time the hour-long "Christmas Special" aired
on December 18, 2012. Ignoring media reports of a dangerous escaped lunatic with a grudge
against Yuletide celebrations—gee, do you think the maniac will appear by the end of the
episode?—and also coping with a lack of heat and power, due to Joe's failure to pay the bills, the
four main characters reminisce about old times. In the process, Green gets to fill in the "origin
stories" of his characters (shot in black-and-white, with all four playing themselves as children)
and launch a few key themes that will develop over the course of Season 2.
Adam remains hopelessly in love with Corri, despite their breakup, but in Season 2 he tries his
luck with other women. One of them is horror star Danielle Harris, who appeared briefly in the
finale of Season 1 and volunteered to return for Season 2, but only if Green wrote her
Holliston
alter ego to be
worse than the one he wrote for
Candyman's Tony Todd in Season 1. Green
obliged by writing Harris as a drug-addled diva who shows up to appear in
Shinpads (Joe's and
Adam's fictitious horror project) and seduces Adam while stealing everything he has (Episode 2,
"Halloween Girl"). Later in the season, Adam suddenly acquires a charming girlfriend named
Bailee (Bailee Madison,
Don't Be Afraid of the
Dark), but only a horrified Corri seems to notice
that she's a child. In an obvious
homage to
Orphan, the sweet-natured tot pulls Corri aside and
threatens her life if the former girlfriend doesn't quit interfering. (Episode 5, "Rock the Cradle").
Later, Adam is stunned to find himself dating a "perfect 10" named Rachael (Caite Upton), but
she turns out to have serious issues. How convenient, then, that the gang needs an appropriate
victim to whom they can pass a
Ring-like video they've
been tricked into watching. (Episode 8,
"Cursed".)
By the end of the season, Adam may finally have met the right woman, Dana (Rileah Vanderbilt,
Green's real-life wife). Unfortunately, since the season ends with several types of apocalypse,
one psychological and one that is typically
Holliston, the future of that relationship is uncertain at
best. (Episode 10, "Farm Festival".)
On Corri's side, things look much different than they did in Season 1, when she was confident
about her feelings toward Adam. All that confidence is gone in Season 2; as actress Corri English
describes her character, she's "a mess". Unwilling to reunite with Adam but unable to walk away
entirely, Corri reacts like a jealous girlfriend whenever anyone new enters Adam's life. She's so
unsettled that, when another ex-boyfriend named Kevin (Nick Ballard) announces his marriage,
she acts like a jilted lover and makes a spectacle of herself at the wedding. (Episode 9, "Kevin's
Wedding".)
Joe and Laura continue to fulfill their role as
Holliston's stable (if not "normal") couple, but even
they hit bumps in the road. When Laura's parents arrive from Colombia for a visit, it turns out
that Laura hasn't been completely honest about her boyfriend. (Episode 4, "Honesty".) This
classic sitcom setup gets run through the
Holliston formula with hilarious results. Just the
parents' reaction to the horror memorabilia in the apartment is worth the episode. And then
there's the sight (and sound) of Joe trying to pass for a Colombian, which is unique. Laura's
artwork also causes problems, especially when one of her paint mixtures creates a creature that
turns everyone into an animated figure and then proceeds to destroy much of the town of
Holliston. (Episode 7, "Blobby".) By the end of Season 2, Joe and Laura stand at a crossroads.
Adam and Joe continue to eke out a living working for the local cable station managed by Lance
Rockett (Dee Snider), who gets his own surprise when a love child from his touring days named
Valentino Foxx tracks him down and wants to bond. (Episode 5, "Rock the Cradle".) In a hall-of-mirrors bit of casting, Valentino is played by Dee
Snider's son, Cody Blue Snider, whose own
impression of his father was the original basis for Snider's characterization of Lance Rockett.
(Think about that as you watch the two of them rock out together.) Lance has bigger issues on his
mind, however, and so do Adam and Joe, as the station's owners decide to shutter the place
because it's losing money. Without the station's equipment, how will they complete their dream
project,
Shinpads? In their desperation to make something quick and cheap, the duo tries their
hand at a "found video" horror film based on a made-up legend, the "Holliston Hobgoblin", with
predictably disastrous results. (Episode 3, "Hobgoblin".)
Holliston's second season continued to attract interesting guest stars. In addition to the
aforementioned Danielle Harris and Bailee Madison, horror icon Kane Hodder returns as a
parody of himself: depressed, suicidal, crumpling at the mere mention of the film
Jason X, in
which Hodder was replaced as the hockey-masked killer. (Episode 1, "Suicidal Tendencies".)
One of the later Jasons, Derek Mears, appears several times as Officer Duffy of the Holliston
Police. Seth Green reprises his role as Gustavo, the makeup artist afflicted with multiple
personality disorder, and director James Gunn (
Slither) has
a darkly comic turn as a high school
bully from Adam's and Joe's past. Sid Haig (
The Devil's
Rejects) plays himself as a celebrity
attendee at the film festival that Adam and Joe invent as a showcase for their own project. And
when Corri is bitten by a maniac patient at the hospital where she works as a nurse, he turns out
to be none other than David Naughton, star of
An American Werewolf in London.
Oderus Urungus, the imaginary friend who lives in Adam's closet, remains a vital and
consistently hilarious part of the show, but watching him in these episodes is a bittersweet
experience, because the performer who plays him, vocalist Dave Brockie of the heavy metal band Gwar, died suddenly at age 50
this past March. (There is no reference to this event in the commentaries or extras, all of which
were created before Brockie's death.) If
Holliston is eventually renewed for a third season, filling
the void left by Brockie will provide a major challenge for Green and his creative team. He was
one of a kind.
Holliston: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Cinematographer (and producer) Will Barratt returned for Season 2 of Holliston, which has the
same well-lit, sitcom visual style as Season
1 and looks just as good in Image's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray. If anything, I would say that the image has improved slightly, but this has more
to do with lighting and production design than with any change in Blu-ray mastering (especially
since Holliston is a digitally originated project). With the show's success, the production design
appears to have been somewhat spruced up, and the wardrobe favors brighter colors. Otherwise,
fans can expect the same crisp, detailed and noise-free image that they enjoyed while watching
the first season on Blu-ray.
Holliston: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Like its visuals, Season 2's DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is comparable to that of Season 1, with its
front-oriented focus on dialogue and occasional use of specific and distinctive rear-channel
effects. The dialogue remains clear, and the simulated audience reaction track has been mixed to
provide an appropriate sitcom "feel" without becoming intrusive. Bear McCreary's scoring is
used sparingly but effectively.
Holliston: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Commentaries: Except for Episode 7, every episode (including the Christmas Special)
has a commentary with Adam Green, Joe Lynch, Laura Ortiz and Sean Becker, who split
directing duties with Green in Season 2. The commentaries were recorded in January
2014, as much as a year after the episodes were shot. Green and Lynch do most of the
talking, but Ortiz has some of the best zingers. The commentaries provide a wealth of
information about the production of the series, the background of the guest stars, alternate
versions of scenes, editing choices, contributions by the crew and cast, experiences at fan
conventions—indeed, anything and everything relating to Holliston.
- Deleted Scenes: Deleted scenes are included separately with Episodes 2, 4, 5, 9, 10 and
the Christmas Special. Adam Green provides an introduction to the deletions for each
episode.
- Behind the Scenes (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 14:22): This section consists of three
featurettes. The first covers Lance Rockett's wardrobe, most of which came straight from
the closet of Dee Snider and was overseen by his wife, Suzanne Snider; Cody Blue Snider
also discusses the music video for "Love It Down Your Throat". The second featurette
deals with the plotting of Season 2 in general. The third featurette covers the Season 2
premiere in Hollywood.
- Bloopers (1080p; 1.78:1; 5:18): I suspect there are plenty more where these came from.
- Table Read (1080p; 1.78:1; 29:14): This episode was written specifically for the Rock
and Shock Convention held on Oct. 13, 2012 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Several
members of the audience were chosen to read key parts, and several surprise guest stars
appeared. The cast has since repeated this experience at other fan conventions, each time
with an episode specifically written for the occasion.
- Music Videos
- Can You Hear (720p; 1.78:1; 4:16): The full title of the song is "Can You Hear
Me", performed by Corri English's band, Brokedown Cadillac. Corri performs a
portion of the song in the season finale.
- Love (1080p; 1.78:1; 3:11): The full title of the song is "Love It Down Your
Throat", allegedly performed by the band known as "Dyver Down", which is
Lance Rockett's band, from their album entitled Original Van Halen Covers. The
video credits list the director as Lance Rockett; in fact, it was directed by Cody
Blue Snider.
- Road (1080p; 1.78:1; 5:40): Episode 7, "Blobby", opens with Adam rocking out
in his bedroom as he pretends to perform Gwar's song "The Road Behind". This extra
contains a complete run-through of that performance, with titles indicating which
portion was used in "Blobby".
Holliston: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
As of this writing, FEARnet has yet to renew Holliston for a third season. The main participants
are all involved in other projects, their careers propelled in part by the exposure that Holliston
has given them through conventions, word-of-mouth and fan sites. It remains to be seen whether
FEARnet is willing to continue funding this type of original programming and, if so, whether
Holliston's creative team can recover from the loss of a major cast member. In the meantime,
Season 2 is available in a first-rate Blu-ray presentation. Highly recommended.