5.0 out of 5 stars
Plays on my MacBook just fine, December 4, 2011
This review is from: Press Gang - Complete Series 8-DVD Boxset [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ] (DVD)
There's a really good review on this series on Amazon already. Suffice it to say that if you are a Dexter Fletcher fan (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; Hotel Babylon) or a Julia Sawalha fan (Absolutely Fabulous; Lark Rise to Candleford) you must see this series. If you are a fan of Steven Moffat's writing (Coupling; Dr. Who; he also wrote the script for the Tintin movie that was just released in 11/2011) you will love this series. This set comes with a short documentary about making Season Two, and also there is commentary on four episodes with Julia Sawalha (who can't remember much at first, but her memory is jogged while watching the episodes, and she is quite charming and candid in her recollections) and Steven Moffat. This series is dated in some minor ways-- it's from 1989-1993 so there are no computers at first, or cell phones, and eventually these items do show up but the cell phones are large-- but just give the series a chance and I think you will be hooked. It's about a group of students who have been given the chance to create a commercial newspaper. The story progresses with each episode. Dexter Fletcher plays Spike, an American living in England, where the series is set. [His American accent is quite good. It's a New York accent. By the way, he also makes good use of it in Episode 28 of Hotel Babylon, when he has a dual role as his usual character plus the character's American doppelganger.] He's a bit of a juvenile delinquent and the newspaper is staffed in part by overachievers and in part by kids like Spike who are given the assignment as a last chance to shape up. Paul Reynolds's character, Colin, is an incorrigible wheeler-dealer who provides comic relief but also shines in a dramatic episode concerning the sexual abuse of a younger schoolmate by her father. (The series episodes vary from comedic to very suspenseful and dark.)
On arrival at the newsroom, Spike is determined not to lift a finger, until the editor, Lynda Day (Sawalha) is pointed out to him and it's love at first sight. Fletcher is a wonderful actor, the chemistry is real (he and Sawalha had an offscreen relationship; I think they met onset) and although you never really see him typing up stories (in fact, you get the feeling that spelling and grammar aren't his thing) the series works very well. This box set was made for the Australian market, which means it won't play in a regular USA DVD player; however, it plays on my MacBook computer just fine (I'm in the USA.)
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