Point Pleasant - DVD Review

Looking at the massive success of The O.C. and trying to find a way to spin that successful formula not too far but into another success led Fox to the small town of Point Pleasant, where beautiful people get to sing their soap opera while the Devil fights for their very soul. It's "Beverly Hills 90666," as the new girl in town (Elizabeth Harnois) may not just sleep with your boyfriend, she may bring about the apocalypse on her way home. Point Pleasant didn't catch on with audiences, but in the land of TV on DVD nothing ever dies, so the only existing episodes of the series, including five that never aired, have already risen from the ashes and you can see for yourself what worked, what didn't, and what was downright scary.

Point Pleasant gets the standard pretty package from Fox, with a catchy cover and the slick new standard slip case design (remember when all TV on DVD sets took up half of your shelf space?) The video and audio transfer is a small step down from recent Fox television, with the widescreen transfer of the series (in 1.78:1 aspect ratio) surprisingly grainy in the dark recesses of Point Pleasant. The daylight scenes sparkle, but when the sun falls, Point Pleasant doesn't look quite as good as it should. Fox doesn't quite bring the chills home in the audio realm either, with a decent Dolby Digital 2.0 track that sounds good enough for TV but won't bring you back to the show just to show off your stereo system.

And with no real technical reasons to pop in the DVD and one lonely "making-of" featurette to fill the extras department, the show is forced to stand alone as the draw for new fans. Considering it came from the incredibly creative mind of Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel), fans of supernatural horror were expecting more from Point Pleasant and couldn't quite find a way to catch on to the show. Even watching the episodes in this set back to back, the show feels crowded and unfocused, not sure of what it's supposed to be. There's definitely worse fare on the dial right now, but it's no surprise that the sleepy town of Point Pleasant got demolished.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Point Pleasant set is how quickly these kind of pop culture flame-outs are being given another chance to find an audience before the embers die. Point Pleasant is entirely a 2005 phenomenon, having its entire run earlier this year and now coming out on DVD. This is the kind of show that, just a few years ago, would merely have been a footnote on its actors resumes, not something still sitting on the store shelf the next time they tried to get a gig. The window of time between premiere, cancellation, and DVD grows smaller by the day. We're quickly going to reach the point where, especially if there are no extras to release, "complete series" sets will be out before you even know your favorite show has been canceled.

Of course, the timing of this release is no coincidence, as there's no better part of the year to catch on to a creepy show like Point Pleasant than the fall, as the pumpkins rot and the leaves drops. In the last few months of the year, audiences are more forgiving of bad writing, as long as they get the hairs to stand up on the back of their necks just right. If you're in just the right spooky mood, Point Pleasant might be just the town for you. It's a nice place to visit, but you don't want to move there.