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20 March With DVD quickly moving into the realms of TV show publishing, each movie house is quickly jumping on board with whatever TV licenses they have. Fox has probably maintained the highest degree of excellence in their season boxsets, both in quality and quantity. As network TV goes further and further downhill into the pits of advertising hell, I�ve often found that normal TV broadcasts are practically unwatchable. Boxsets of 24, Band of Brothers, Sopranos and Simpsons (among many examples) are at the forefront of showing what DVD can do for the way people watch their television shows. With so many shows to move onto DVD, I find it extremely curious that Artisan picked up such an unknown relic as Tropical Heat (also known as Sweating Bullets), a forgettable cop show in the spirit of Miami Vice that had a three season run from 1991 to �93 and was promptly cancelled. It does have a small but rabid underground fan base (for what reason I can�t discern). Artisan and TV have not gotten along very well. They magically managed to stretch the first season of Twin Peaks, which is only a few episodes long, across four discs and here they make equally foolish move � releasing the series a single disc at a time with two episodes per disc. Even though that�s a respectable hour and a half running time per disc, it would be far easier and more convenient to just release Tropical Heat in a season boxset and be done with it. For those unfamiliar with Tropical Heat, I don�t blame you. As I said, it�s in the spirit of Miami Vice - sunny locales, Hawaiian shirts everywhere and a slightly risqu� (but still inoffensive) set of humor. The basic plot is that Nick Slaughter heads to the island of Key Mariah, a tropical paradise, in order to enjoy his forced retirement from the force. He used to be on the Drug Enforcement Agency but was fired for rebellious behavior, and decides to setup shop with a detective agency in Key Mariah. He teams up with a local travel agent who has both brains and a body, and together they form a detective tag-team that leaves the criminals in shock. Or something. Rob Stewart plays Nick Slaughter and also directed the series, one of the few accomplishments he�s had since then. The show is really� well, dated. It has that �surfer look� that was popular at the time, with bright hot pants everywhere and pink articles of clothing popular with the guys. Nick Slaughter also sports a greasy ponytail, and his best friend (this British surfer dude) has a full mullet going on. The fashion, cars and locales are all dated, which gives Tropical Heat the feeling of being a relic. The first disc contains episodes one and two, which are rather unremarkable. If this is how the rest of the series pans out, then I am starkly unimpressed. The first episode has Nick and his partner Sylvie tracking down a swimsuit model�s alleged blackmailer, a simple assignment that of course has more hiding beneath the surface. Confronted by an extensive extortion scheme that leads to murder, Nick Slaughter and Co. are forced to track down the mastermind behind the plan and bring them to justice before the model is killed. It�s a simple cop show formula with predictable twists and turns, certainly nothing separates it from the hundreds of other cop shows � not even its choice of locale. Nick Slaughter is still a renegade cop, and that�s a role that�s been done and will continue to be done long after Tropical Heat left the airwaves. The second episode is slightly more interesting, although still generic. It�s a flashback episode that shows the origins of the odd partnership between ex-DEA cop and a travel agent, and how the duo become a private investigation super-team. It has to do with a yacht that is stolen with money on board, and the victim happens to be a client of Sylvie�s. She is desperate to get the money back and hires Nick to help her, but the two soon find that they are better off working together. Again, standard procedure for a police/PI pulp show, and of average quality. Nothing in Tropical Heat blew me away, and there were acting and dialog problems that I consider sub-par. I can�t see exactly where a cult following for the show is coming from � is it the ponytail or the mullet that drives the obsession? While it�s not terrible TV, there are so many more important shows hitting our favorite format to bother with something like this. Heck, the first season of NYPD Blue just hit the stands, and that�s a better police show than I think Tropical Heat will ever be. The video transfer has some defects; scratches and dust marks make their appearances, but the quality is pretty good. The colors are bright and sharp, and the show lacks the problems that plagued other early 90�s TV shows like The X-Files. So I guess Tropical Heat wins one here. The sound is standard stereo, crisp and clear. It also sports a soundtrack of surf-rock, wailing guitar riffs and synthesized butt-rock� not exactly a highbrow selection of music. It fits the show well though, since anyone who takes the show too seriously is purely mad. The show gets only chapter selections for its extras slate, an unfortunate occurrence considering the special features-laden releases of other TV shows. Commentaries, trailers/commercials for the episodes and a brief introduction from the creator are pretty much standard nowadays. Of course, if you�re the kind of person who wants to own Tropical Heat, then you�re no doubt overly pleased that Artisan brought such an obscure item to market at all. The disc does carry the low price point of $8 online, making it a more reasonable purchase than the Star Trek TV show discs, which hit for a heavy $15 a pop with only two episodes per disc. So I suppose Tropical Heat has some value, but the show isn�t as good as the old Star Trek, that�s for sure. Overall, Tropical Heat (aka Sweating Bullets) is only worth a purchase if you�re a prior fan of the series and actually want to own it. Newcomers will be put off by a merely average show, and rentals of the first two episodes won�t help anything. So it�s either buy or forget it, and all but the true fans will want to forget it. WRITER: Dave Jesteadt �Gameniki |