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Night Stalker - The Complete Series
List Price: $27.99Our Price: $20.99 You Save: $7.00 (25%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
EAN: 0786936703832
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Item Dimensions: 100
Label: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Languages: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1English (Subtitled),
Manufacturer: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
MPN: 05053100
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Release Date: May 30, 2006
Running Time: 426 minutes
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: September 29, 2005
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Editorial Review:
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 three unaired unrated episodes to complete the series and a host of exclusive bonus material this 2-disc DVD set is so good it's scary.System Requirements:Running Time 426 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: TV-14 UPC: 786936703832 Manufacturer No: 05053100
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - 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 ... Read More
Rating:  - 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 ... Read More
Rating:  - 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.
Rating: - 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. ... Read More
Rating:  - 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 ... Read More
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