World Famous Comics: Gabrielle Union Stuart Townsend Night Stalker - The Complete Series
Gabrielle Union Stuart Townsend Night Stalker - The Complete Series
Starring: Gabrielle Union Stuart Townsend Directed By: Tony Wharmby, Daniel Sackheim Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC Label: Buena Vista Home Entertainment Number of Items: 2 Region Code: 1 Release Date: May 30, 2006 Running Time: 426 minutes Theatrical Release Date: September 29, 2005
Description: Carl Kolchak returns in a new series of spine-tingling adventures. Produced by the X-FILES' Frank Spotnitz and based on the original '70s suspense drama, NIGHT STALKER updates the chilling classic in a startling new way. "There's something stylishly scary at work here," says The New York Times. Caught up in an obsessive hunt for his own wife's murderer, Kolchak (Stuart Townsend) discovers that his imagination is no match for the evil that truly lurks in the dark. Paired with skeptic Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union), television's favorite crime reporter will stop at nothing to uncover the supernatural side of the night. Featuring four episodes never seen on TV that complete the series and a host of exclusive bonus material, this 2-disc DVD set is so good it's scary.
Amazon.com: If Night Stalker had been given a chance to establish its own identity, this "reimagining" of the popular early '70s TV movies might have thrived. Instead, many viewers perceived the short-lived series as a thinly disguised X-Files spinoff, with former X-Files producer Frank Spotnitz apparently hired to recycle X-Files plots in a slightly different format. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since the series boasts superior production values and dark, sometimes violent horror plots as effectively creepy as anything seen on X-Files. But fans of the original (both TV movies and 1974 series) bristled at ABC's obvious youth-market makeover that turned Darren McGavin's original "Carl Kolchak" from a cynical, sarcastic middle-aged reporter on the fringes of journalism into a hip, handsome, Mustang-driving young reporter (played by Irish actor Stuart Townsend) who's literally marked for death in what was intended (if the series had survived) to be an epic battle of good vs. evil. By pairing Kolchak with an equally young, attractive, and skeptical colleague named Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union), the series struggled to find its place among such popular shows as Medium and the CSI juggernaut, and there just wasn't enough originality to keep viewers interested. Ratings plummeted after the pilot premiered on September 29, 2005, and of the ten episodes produced and included here, only six were broadcast before the show's inevitable cancellation.
As Spotnitz conceived it (with several X-Files veterans serving as directors or consulting producers), Night Stalker revolved around an epic "mythology" that would've emerged had the series continued. Spotnitz outlines these broader details in his smart, informative DVD commentaries, allowing viewers a greater appreciation of how the series was being planned. As it stands, the new Kolchak is striving to solve the violent, monstrous attack that killed his wife, and his ongoing investigations draw him deeper into supernatural events, mostly explored in episodes so similar to X-Files that you could easily exchange Kolchak and Reed for agents Mulder and Scully and barely notice the difference. From their high-rise offices at the Los Angeles Beacon (beautifully filmed in high-def digital video), Kolchak and Reed solve brutal murders, bizarre deaths, and other mysteries with the help of photographer Jain McManus (Eric Jungman) and editor Tony Vincenzo (Cotter Smith), while a cynical FBI agent (semi-regular cast member John Pyper-Ferguson) suspects Kolchak of killing his wealthy wife to inherit her estate. As these 10 episodes demonstrate, the hard-won trust between Kolchak and Reed would become the series' emotional anchor, with Townsend and Union establishing an appealing chemistry that served the series well.
Unfortunately, Night Stalker was doomed from the start. The series was cancelled in the midst of a two-part episode, leaving viewers with an unresolved cliffhanger and unanswered questions about the mysterious "four horsemen of the apocalypse" biker gang that's been a looming threat throughout these episodes. Thanks to Spotnitz's detailed commentaries and video interview included on this two-disc set (along with printable DVD-ROM scripts from unproduced episodes), these and other mysteries are tantalizingly explained, and these ten Night Stalker episodes stand as testament to a high-quality series that never had a chance to prove its long-term potential. --Jeff Shannon
The best show of 2005 that never got a chance. NS was the best inheritor of the X-Files legacy to date, but it never got a chance to get off the ground as it was negatively scheduled and canceled not even half way through the first season. Watch the unaired episodes and you will see how the show was just starting to develop the type of mythos and series-arc that made X-Files and Millennium such compelling shows season after season.
Included is the script of an unproduced Darin Morgan episode! Morgan stories are guaranteed award winners. This series was killed way too soon.
Also, this is the only way to hear the extended version of the unpublished theme music by Philip Glass (it plays over the end credits).
They Saved the Best for Last I remember seeing commericials and "trailers" for the show and recall thinking: this show will never last. Shows that center around giving unorthodox, non ordinary but oddly plausible and vastly more entertaining answers to seemingly mundane questions never seem to do well on network TV. Save the X-Files of course. I remember thinking the same thing about the similiarly short lived show on ABC entitled Mircales. And wouldn't you know it, both shows got cut at about the 6th episode. (Anyone hear the twilight zone music playing in the background?) The writers and producers do a great job of shining a black light on a crime and revealing it to be much more than what was readily apparent. Perri and Jain were my favorite actors in the show. I love Gabrielle's ability to deliver quick, wit filled dialogue. (She would have been soooo great as a regular on West Wing). And while Stuart Townsend was perfect in that he looked every bit the part of the typical guy next door who worked as an eager beaver journalist by day and mourned the loss of his wife, his dark, brooding persona definitely gave one the impression that he very easily could have been the one that killed her. That being said this series was not perfect. For instance, the pilot episode could have ended much better. Also the way the episodes were arranged could have been more effective. The episode "5 People You Meet In Hell," which I think is one of the best ones, should have been placed closer to the end when they could have more readily explained why that psycho, Damon, was able to "persuade" Kolchak to kill Perri. (Was that just a spoiler?) All in all, I was in agony when I watched the last episode, because I knew that there would be no more to follow. A good series and a great buy.
A poor copy If this DVD had a different name, and they gave the charters different names it might be ok. Since they chose to change the basic premise of the series and the way Kolchak thought and worked it is a whole different and disappointing show that really isn't worth watching if you are a night Stalker fan.
This is amazing. I began watching this show when it started on T.V. in 2005. I didn't figure out that it was cancelled until after it stopped appearing, and I was really sad. I very much enjoyed the series. I had been looking in local stores to see if anyone carried it as a DVD, but I couldn't find it. I thought they just never released it until I saw it online. I was ECSTATIC!!! I bought it that same day. I watched all the episodes within a couple of days, and later read some very disparaging reviews online. I couldn't believe that anyone would think of this as anything other than extremely creepy and ultimately addictive!!! I really wish that it had been allowed to continue on. The last episode on the DVDs, "What's the Frequency, Kolchak?" was absolutely, jaw-droppingly AMAZING. It is one of my favorite episodes. There's a lot of drama and passion in the acting. I really wish that they had been allowed to continue the series. If you have the time, watch episodes "Pilot" and "The Sea" with the commentary, because they're very revealing, and they tell a lot about what would have happened, had the series finished, and the producers have a chance to say what untimately contributed to the demise of the series. All in all, this DVD set is absolutely a must-have, must-see. I love it.
Not another X-Files clone Back when "The X-Files" was at the height of its popularity there was a wave of "X-Files" clones, all with the same central message: the truth is out there, but the Government is trying to hide it. "The Night Stalker" is one such series. Unfortunately, it is not one of the better ones. "The Night Stalker" was cancelled after six episodes (ten were made and all are included in this 2-disc set) and rightly so. The scripts are full of holes, the acting is mediocre and none of the main characters are remotely interesting.
The story revolves around Carl Kolchak (Stuart Townsend), a journalist whose wife was murdered by some sort of monster and Kolchak is now out to discover exactly what happened (and in the process, discovers the truth about a lot of other strange events). This is a remake of a 1970's TV series ("The Night Stalker/The Night Strangler" and "Kolchak: The Night Stalker"), which admittedly didn't run for much longer than this series (only 2 tele-movies and 20 episodes), but which is far superior to this show. Buy the original series instead.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
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