Matador: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Matador: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

He spies.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 30, 2015

One of the kind of sad byproducts of the already inherently sad scandal enveloping Bill Cosby is the fact that some of Cosby’s work as an actor is getting shunted into a kind of netherworld where it’s unlikely it will be seen again anytime soon (if ever, in fact). While this may actually be good news when considering lackluster efforts like Leonard Part 6 or Mother, Jugs & Speed , other properties like Cosby’s revered The Cosby Show sitcom centered around the Huxtable family might seem to be more unfortunate victims of the story. While The Cosby Show may be the first television outing featuring the star which will pop into many viewers’ minds, especially relatively younger ones, older folks may have a similar nostalgia for the series which in fact first made Cosby a major, marketable media presence outside of his stand up and comedy recording career, namely the 1965-68 espionage entry I Spy (remade none too successfully as I Spy with Eddie Murphy in the Cosby role). I Spy in its initial television formulation was a whimsical action adventure outing that traded on the then current James Bond craze by positing two undercover agents who toured the world righting wrongs and bringing bad guys to justice—while also proceeding with their “cover” employment revolving around professional tennis. The combination of a professional sports career dovetailing with that of an undercover espionage agent is also front and center in Matador, a series which seemed to be doing quite well for the newly launched El Rey Network, but which for whatever reason has had its own career cut short after only one season (hence that The Complete Series soubriquet in this release's title). The show is often goofily enjoyable, in fact quite like I Spy was, with a silly sense of humor informing some of the goings on, while also offering lots of soccer related footage (the professional sport in question this time), as well as more traditional action-adventure elements as CIA recruit Tony “Matador” Bravo (Gabriel Luna) goes about several businesses simultaneously.

El Rey is the brainchild of Robert Rodriguez, who not so coincidentally is a part of the producing team behind Matador, but the series has less of a Grindhouse ambience and more of a, say, Spy Kids demeanor, at least in terms of its often playful qualities and a certain reliance on high tech gizmos. There are occasional grindhouse (or at least grindhouse-y) moments, as in a kind of funny if shocking turn of events in an early episode where a nervous drug runner gets a meat cleaver ensconced firmly in his cranium.

Part of what made I Spy so successful, aside from its wonderful global location work and banter between co-stars Cosby and Robert Culp, was the fact that its tennis “cover story” actually made sense, at least in the often nonsensical world of mid-sixties’ espionage outings. Matador struggles at times to artfully interweave its soccer and spy angles, despite the fact that the entire raison d'être of the spy aspect is so that Tony can investigate supposedly nefarious goings on having to do with Andrés Galan (Alfred Molina), the owner of the (fictional) L.A. Riot. The whole conceit of Tony being recruited to infiltrate a team in order to uncover villainy on the part of an owner (an owner that most players would probably not have that much occasion to interact with) seems wobbly at best, and preposterous at worst.

The show perhaps does a bit better in overall tone than it does in basic logic, and there’s a certain winking quality to both some of the action elements (which are perhaps more sparse than some might expect) and the soccer side of things. In fact, there’s a kind of hazing ritual that Tony undergoes as he makes his way onto the Riot (you didn’t think he wasn’t going to make it, did you?), and the way he earns his “Matador” nickname is relatively amusing. Also notable, if perhaps strangely understated given the show’s status as a “featured original” on El Rey, is Tony’s home life, which seems to be a near perfect depiction of a first or second generation immigrant family learning to assimilate into an “American norm”. (The late, great Elizabeth Peña plays Tony’s mother.)

The show has a kind of goofy retro quality, especially in some of its CIA accoutrements which are a bit reminiscent of I Spy’s NBC stablemate during the 1960s, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. Some of the kind of quasi-USA network humor of the series is derived from Tony's CIA handlers, Annie Mason (Nicky Whelan) and Noah Peacott (Neil Hopkins). Matador is probably best appreciated as a slightly spicy flavored popcorn munching entertainment, one that coasts by on a relatively palatable if not overly nutritious combination of humor, professional sports and a bit of undercover espionage.

Matador: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Matador: The Complete Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. When it's out and about in brightly lit environments, this series pops very well, despite the occasional tendency to play with various bells and whistles in post, like desaturation (for some flashback sequences) or relatively nuanced color grading (ostensibly to set a mood). Close-ups reveal nice detail and fine detail even in some of the graded sequences, and offer especially good precision in scenes that exploit a more natural looking palette. The series does tend to exploit a few overly dark sequences, where detail is understandably less apparent at times. There are no issues with image instability, and no problematic compression anomalies.

Matador: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Matador: The Complete Series features a nicely vivid DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, one which provides good immersion in some of the sporting sequences, as well as little flourishes like eruptions of Spanish guitar for underscoring. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly, and there's some good, inventive use of sound effects in some of the high tech scenes in the CIA's monitoring facilities. Fidelity is fine throughout the presentation, and there are no problems of any kind to warrant concern.

Matador: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One:

• Audio Commentaries:

  Episode 1 Audio Commentary with Gabriel Luna (Tony Bravo), Dan Dworkin (Executive Producer and Writer) and Jay Beattie (Executive Producer and Writer)

  
  

  Episode 4 Audio Commentary with Evan Bleiweiss (Writer), Dan Dworkin (Executive Producer and Writer), Jay Beattie (Executive Producer and Writer), Gabriel Luna (Tony Bravo) and Louis Ozawa Changchien (Samuel)

Disc Two:

• Audio Commentaries:

  Episode 7 Audio Commentary with Neil Hopkins (Noah Peacott), Joy Blake (Producer and Writer), Joseph E. Gallagher (Director), Dan Dworkin (Executive Producer and Writer) and Jay Beattie (Executive Producer and Writer)

  
  

  Episode 8 Audio Commentary with James Callis (Lucien Sayer), Chris Cousins (Llewyn Smith), Dan Dworkin (Executive Producer and Writer) and Jay Beattie (Executive Producer and Writer)

(There are no special features on Disc Three.)

Disc Four:

• Audio Commentary:

  Episode 13 Audio Commentary with Dan Dworkin (Executive Producer and Writer), Jay Beattie (Executive Producer and Writer) and Gabriel Luna (Tony Bravo)

• Making of Matador (1080i; 22:03) is pretty standard EPK fare with interviews, behind the scenes footage and snippets from the series. Some of the soccer footage is fun.


• Bad Boys of Soccer Featurettes (1080p; 19:49) is an assemblage of four pieces that look at the sport, or at least this show's version of it.


• Gabriel Chevy Commercial (1080i; 00:32) is evidently for those who needed more than just Heineken product placement (once you watch the series, you'll understand).


• Nicky Chevy Commercial (1080i; 00:32)

Matador: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If there's a problem with Matador, it's probably with regard to its kind of odd specificity. The series would seem to have a short "shelf life" (as perhaps evidenced by its ultimate fate) based on the fact that there's only so much drama that can be wrung from Tony infiltrating a professional sports team to get to the owner. That leaves the series struggling at times to fill in the background with sidebars like the bantering between the CIA operatives or Tony's home life. Still, for those wanting an undemanding show that's generally genial and has a rather distinctive flavor, Matador provides a modicum of entertainment with a minimum of (sorry) bull. Recommended.