“Sliders” is a
90’s Sci-fi themed TV show that follows the adventures of four
explorers as they attempt to make their way home. Quinn (Jerry
O’Connell), Wade (Sabrina Lloyd), Arturo (John Rhys-Davies) and
Rembrandt Brown (Cleavant Derricks) travel through alternate
versions of the earth encountering everything you can imagine. Now
that we got that out of the way lets see if this DVD set deserves
to make it into your home.
CRITIQUE
I must admit this
right off the bat, I’m not the biggest fan of this show. Don’t take
this to mean that I’m going to slam this show in my review. It simply
means that I’ve only seen a few episodes prior to viewing this DVD
set. The good thing about “Sliders” is that it’s unpredictable in a
way. The first episode of this DVD set titled “Rules of the Game”
illustrates my point. The episode begins with our adventurers on an
airplane in mid-flight, things suddenly go haywire and you think that
the plane is about to crash. Soon you see that the plane is just a
simulator and our adventurers have become participants in a dangerous
game.
Each episode begins
like this, with the explorers having to quickly adapt to their new
surroundings, again this is a good thing. If you’re like me then you
won’t recognize most of the cast, but you will remember John
Rhys-Davies who plays physics professor Arturo. You might remember him
also from the Indiana Jones Trilogy, but you will definitely
remember him as Gimli from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. John
Rhys-Davies and the rest of the cast all do a good job in their
respective roles.
Unfortunately the
special effects in “Sliders” look really cheesy, and have the same
quality as many of the fan films that are currently flooding the
internet. Fans of the series will already be running to pick up this
DVD set. If you’re like me and you can get past the cheesy special
effects then you may find yourself liking “Sliders”.
THE VIDEO
Universal Studios
Home Entertainment presents “Sliders” in the full frame format with an
aspect ratio of 1.33:1 which is the way it originally presented on TV.
The subtitle options are Spanish and French. There is also an option
to display captions in English. The video quality of this show is
exactly the same as before, which is to say adequate at best.
THE AUDIO
Universal Studios
Home Entertainment presents “Sliders” in English Dolby Digital 2.0.
While I’m not surprised that this is not presented in 5.1 surround
sound, I’m shocked that this isn’t even in stereo. The audio in the
series is fine; just don’t expect it to show off your sound system.
THE EXTRAS
Bonus Episodes:
One
episode from the show “Cleopatra 2025” and an episode from “Earth2”.
These episodes don’t feel like extras at all, but merely previews for
these two DVD sets.
Gag Reel: Exactly as
advertised, a 5-minute series of clips showing bloopers from the show.
Gag reels are usually very funny and the one presented here is no
different.
FINAL THOUGHT
The most
disappointing thing about this set is the lack of extra features. A
Gag reel and episodes from two other TV shows will not cut it. I’ll
make this very simple, if you already own the previous “Sliders” set
(Seasons 1 & 2) then you should go ahead and pick this season up.
Everyone else which includes me will be better served by renting
“Sliders” and seeing if this is worth a future purchase.
