by Gord Lacey 3/19/2003
After DEA agent Nick Slaughter (Rob Stewart) gets the boot from the department he settles down in beautiful Key Mariah. While the Key may look beautiful, it creates enough work for Nick to run a somewhat successful investigation business with the help of his partner Sylvie Gerard (Carolyn Dunn). Truth be told; it's Sylvie that keeps the place running and the money coming in. The Key is full of dead bodies, drug runners and beach women, perfect for Nick.
This disc contains episode 6 of the second season and episode 3 from the first:
This Year's Model The tropical paradise of Key Mariah is a perfect location for a bikini lover's photo session. Nick is hired by a beautiful swimsuit model to find a blackmailer and some scandalous photos that could ruin her career. She claims they're nude sunbathing photos shot on a deserted beach. It starts as a small case of extortion and leads into murder, greed and betrayal. The trail to the killer leads Nick and his partner, Sylvie, on a cliff-hanging adventure through the mountains of the island.
Death's a Beach This episode recalls the first assignment with Nick Slaughter and his future partner, Sylvie Gerard. Sylvie is working as a travel agent dealing with some high end clients and soon runs into some trouble. Nick is employed to find a missing yacht and some stolen money. The two soon discover the reward for the missing money includes murder and some explosive action. Their first case together is a true test of the chemistry between this wisecracking detective and his sharp-witted counterpartner.
I must say I was really surprised when I discovered what Tropical Heat was. In Canada we knew the show as Sweating Bullets, and I have no idea why it was renamed for the US. This is a typical Canadian "action" show; totally cheesy. I watched a few episodes when it aired on TV, but never really got into the show.
Video
Simply put; this isn't good video. The reds are too bright, and the picture contains much edge enhancement. It's obviously the show was transferred from some tape source for this DVD because it's too soft to have come from film. It's far from a beautiful picture, but looks slightly better than VHS. Each episode features 12 chapters.
Audio
The audio on the release compliments the video; it's not great either. The disc contains a 2.0 Dolby Stereo Surround audio track, but I only heard audio coming from the center speaker. If you accept the mono-sounding track on the release, it's not all that bad. The dialog is easy to understand, and sound effects and music sound good. The release is Closed Captioned for the hearing impaired.
Extras
Nothing at all on this disc, just the two episodes. Interactive Menus isn't an extra!
Summary
I'm a little surprised that Artisan Entertainment released this show. They haven't put much TV product out, so for them to release a Canadian show that isn't well-known, it caught me off guard a bit. I wish the quality of the release was better, but hey, with a list price of $14.98, I wasn't expecting all that much. Fans of the series will be happy to have something on DVD, even if it just replaces some worn out tapes.
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