Home :: DVD :: Television :: A&E Home Video  

A&E Home Video

BBC
Classic TV
Discovery Channel
Fox TV
General
HBO
History Channel
Miniseries
MTV
National Geographic
Nickelodeon
PBS
Star Trek
TV Series
WGBH Boston
Upstairs, Downstairs - The Complete Second Season

Upstairs, Downstairs - The Complete Second Season

List Price: $79.95
Your Price: $71.96
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 >>

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great show...lousy DVD transfer
Review: A&E have done it again I'm afraid. Yet another Upstairs Downstairs DVD collection that has been sourced from dreadful master tapes. The color is all over the place and some episodes judder for their entire length.

Some episodes are not too bad quality-wise, but there have to better copies of this show tucked away in a vault somewhere - surely. It would really be a shame if this is the best that remains of this timeless series.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great show...lousy DVD transfer
Review: A&E have done it again I'm afraid. Yet another Upstairs Downstairs DVD collection that has been sourced from dreadful master tapes. The color is all over the place and some episodes judder for their entire length.

Some episodes are not too bad quality-wise, but there have to better copies of this show tucked away in a vault somewhere - surely. It would really be a shame if this is the best that remains of this timeless series.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A&E continues on with shoddy quality
Review: Don't mean to be so critical. But people should know that quality is a word that should be synonymous with DVD. I own many of A&E's products. MOST of them are good to excellent. I don't know what has happened to the transfer of this most excellent story to DVD. Most of the episodes are fine, but there a couple of episodes on this second collection that fail in the quality control area. I live in HOPE and will be ordering the third in the series, then the fourth, and finally the fifth. Please let's get it right the next time.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A&E continues on with shoddy quality
Review: Don't mean to be so critical. But people should know that quality is a word that should be synonymous with DVD. I own many of A&E's products. MOST of them are good to excellent. I don't know what has happened to the transfer of this most excellent story to DVD. Most of the episodes are fine, but there a couple of episodes on this second collection that fail in the quality control area. I live in HOPE and will be ordering the third in the series, then the fourth, and finally the fifth. Please let's get it right the next time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Upstairs Downstairs: The Second Season
Review: Here we are again at 165 Eaton Place, the home of the Bellamy family and their servants. This boxed set includes all thirteen episodes of the second season of Upstairs Downstairs. I give this a 4 rating because of the storylines involved. Elizabeth Bellamy Kirbridge almost steals the season, and one grows tired of her whining about her unhappiness. After going through an impotent husband, an illegitamate baby, a lover, and joining the suffragettes, no wonder she left for America between the end of this season and season three. Her exit gave James Bellamy more screen time. This is still a wonderful season, though. My personal favorite episodes are THE NEW MAN, MARRIED LOVE, A PAIR OF EXILES, YOUR OBEDIANT SERVANT, and THE WAGES OF SIN. First rate entertainment.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great series, poor DVD
Review: I love the series, but the DVD quality is really bad. I'm only on the 3rd of 4 disks and one episode was so bad I could only listen to the sound. Trying to watch the screen gave me a headache. The last episode I watched had large yellow bands across the screen. It was just like watching it on a bad color TV set back when the series was released. Since I also purchased the First season and thought the video quality on it was very good, this Second season is a particular disappointment. Stay away unless you are a hardcore fan who has to have it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great series, poor DVD
Review: I love the series, but the DVD quality is really bad. I'm only on the 3rd of 4 disks and one episode was so bad I could only listen to the sound. Trying to watch the screen gave me a headache. The last episode I watched had large yellow bands across the screen. It was just like watching it on a bad color TV set back when the series was released. Since I also purchased the First season and thought the video quality on it was very good, this Second season is a particular disappointment. Stay away unless you are a hardcore fan who has to have it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Second Time Around, Just as Good
Review: In the second season of Upstairs Downstairs most of the main characters return. Once again Sarah and Elizabeth are the main players. Elizabeth is unhappily married to an aesthete who shudders at every day things like sex, which leads eventually to her humiliating return to Eaton Place with a baby in tow. Sarah renews her romance with James, the wastrel son of the house, but eventually finds love and true happiness below stairs. James continues on his rackety course and eventually gets packed off to India. Through it all Lady Marjorie remains serene and unflappable. The high light episode of this series is Guest of Honor, which depicts a visit to 165 Eaton Place by King Edward VII. Of course Sarah has to show up and nearly ruin things! This series ends in 1910 with the death of King Edward and the Bellamys and their staff hoping for calmer days ahead. (Boy were they wrong!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Second Time Around, Just as Good
Review: In the second season of Upstairs Downstairs most of the main characters return. Once again Sarah and Elizabeth are the main players. Elizabeth is unhappily married to an aesthete who shudders at every day things like sex, which leads eventually to her humiliating return to Eaton Place with a baby in tow. Sarah renews her romance with James, the wastrel son of the house, but eventually finds love and true happiness below stairs. James continues on his rackety course and eventually gets packed off to India. Through it all Lady Marjorie remains serene and unflappable. The high light episode of this series is Guest of Honor, which depicts a visit to 165 Eaton Place by King Edward VII. Of course Sarah has to show up and nearly ruin things! This series ends in 1910 with the death of King Edward and the Bellamys and their staff hoping for calmer days ahead. (Boy were they wrong!)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Upstairs Downstairs 1,2,3 Seasons
Review: Short and sweet here. This is an incredible screen play and I very much looked forward to the release on DVD. All three seasons have some type of problem be it audio, shadowing, discoloration untimely skips and pauses. The 3rd season is the best in video transfer, however during certain episodes the above information I listed still applies. I have contacted the distributor and they offered to replace all 3 seasons. I was told there is a recall from the first person then a supervisor told me they had no knowledge of any recall. The story line is priceless to bad the copies are not. I am betting down the road in a year or two they will release all new copies leaving us folk to fork out another bundle. My rating is not based on the story I can only give it 3 stars because A&E New Video should be ashamed of themselves.


<< 1 2 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates