Product Description

Jay R. Ferguson, Lake Bell, Carter Jenkins, Leighton MeesterDirectors: Felix Enriques Alcala

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11713 in DVD
• Brand: DVD Boxsets
• Released on: 2007-03-26
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: .64 pounds
• Running time: 656 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Surface lasted one season on NBC before cancellation, but Surface: The Complete Series on DVD will keep the show's exciting, Spielbergian suspense around for a long while. The primetime drama, involving several characters--in different parts of the world--all having similar brushes with fantastic creatures, instantly draws comparisons to Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Add a government conspiracy (complete with a cover story to force one community's evacuation) to prevent the public from learning of the existence of a previously unknown life form, and the parallels with Close Encounters grow thick. But it's not a problem: the many twists and turns in Surface's far-ranging storyline, and the nature of the species that slowly becomes a factor in the survival of the human race, are compelling on their own terms.

Created by twin brothers and television writers-producers-directors Josh and Jonas Pate (L.A. Dragnet), Surface stars rangy beauty Lake Bell as oceanographer and single mom Dr. Laura "Dee" Daughtery. While doing some research in a submersible at the bottom of the sea, Dee discovers a seemingly bottomless pit leading to astonishing depths in the Earth. But she also bumps into a sea monster that emanates electrical charges strong enough to wreak havoc with her vessel. Meanwhile, a Louisiana-based insurance salesman, Rich (Jay R. Ferguson), is traumatized when he sees his brother dragged away by a similar creature, and a 14-year-old boy, Miles (Carter Jenkins), raises one of the beasts after it hatches from an egg. Throughout all this, a scientist (Rade Sherbedgia) and a heavy-handed national security agent (Ian Anthony Dale) are trying to unlock the mystery of the species, which appears to be growing in number at the same time strange forces are affecting the oceans. Naturally, there's a story behind the story--government and corporate shenanigans and all that. That stuff gets a little tedious and, truth be told, a couple of the show's protagonists are among the most unlikable people seen in series television in a long while. But despite its premature end after a mere 15 episodes, Surface finally offers an original, unsettling, and even surreal vision of the world going through apocalyptic transformations. The final image of the final show lingers in the imagination a long time. --Tom Keogh

Synopsis
After ambitious oceanographer Laura Dougherty (Lake Bell) comes across an enormous creature underwater, she will not be satisfied until she has answers. Embarking against her better judgment on a complex search for this animal's origins, Laura and her team set off to find truths more shocking than they ever could of imagined.

Customer Reviews

AMBITIOUS, PROMISING BUT ULTIMATELY FLAWED
"Surface" is a science fiction TV series that was aired on NBC during 2005. It follows three main characters in three different parts of the US, Dr Laura Daughtery a marine biologist, Rich Connelly an insurance salesman and Miles a teen-aged boy who all find their lives fundamentally affected by the discovery of a new and dangerous species that dwells in the sea.

`Surface' is a patchwork. The storyline is obviously borrowed from many other films and TV series such as E.T.,Close encounter, X-files, The Abyss, The island etc...While watching the series it felt like an initially ambitious project which showed some promise but eventually suffers at times from bad writing and rather poor CGI special effects in general. Some are great but most look rather average. If only more money had been allocated to the monsters effects I suspect it would have contributed to make the entire series more believable and as a result more successful. The acting is fine but not great.

It must be said that the show was cancelled after 15 episodes due to low audience ratings and it shows during the finale episode. Everything seems rushed and while some kind of conclusion is given, many questions are left unanswered. It all ends on a rather ambiguous if somewhat interesting way.

Despite its flaws, the show is still fun to watch and has its good moments with real tension, adventure and great action.

You might want to rent this series but should you be interested in buying it, I suggest that you go for the R1 edition from amazon.com. Unfortunately this UK region 2 edition is stripped of its original 5.1 Dolby soundtrack (you get a 2.0 stereo) and the original widescreen aspect ratio has been reduced from 1.78 to 4.3!!! What's worse is that the image has been panned but does not appear to have been scanned so you often get the feeling that something is happening off screen.

Shame it has a 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
One has to wonder why ' they ' { whoever they are } take the Region 1 version with a Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 but reduce it down to a Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1.

A little message to America - At least in the UK most people own widescreen TV's and most Viewers would prefer a a Aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

Although the DVD has the title ' Surface - Series 1 - Complete ' this may lead you to believe there is a second series but in fact it was cancelled so there will not be a second series.

If you are fast you can buy from Amazon markertplace for under £ 8
{ including delivery } which is what I did .

Its far better than I was expecting and with that bargain price its a offer you should not miss.

Starts off OK but soon spins off in all sorts of directions.
This series is a real oddity, there are 2 specific plot strands with the creatures in this story and lots of confusing, not always very smart plot twists.
The smaller creatures appear to be an attempt to throw in human interest and appeal to the younger audience. One becomes a pet for one of the main teen characters. The background story with the smaller creatures slowly turns into a monster hunt as people start dying and the local townfolk go for their guns.
The more interesting larger ocean dwelling creatures are what sparked my initial interest. They attack boats and eat people, what more do you want of a sea-monster? They are even spotted laying their eggs thousands of feet down in a deep-sea trench by the 2 main adult characters in a homemade bathysphere. These creatures look pretty impressive and do partially tie in with the revelation that someone is using Liopleurodon DNA. Liopleurodons, however, grew to 75/80 feet, these creatures are shown to be about 200 feet long though, this is partially explained by the claim they are being genetically produced. Although this seems to fly in the face of previous evidence strands from earlier episodes of an alien origin when they are seen living in undersea volcanic vents at high temperatures as well as the strange meteor shower hitting the sea in an earlier episode.
In the end it moves from what would have been a great tale involving living dinosaurs to an interesting tale involving genetically created sea-monsters then degenerating into cloning conspiracies that may involve the Government or some shadow agencies and lots of soap opera style background stories. Ludicrously, the sea-monsters are seen to be "creating" earthquakes by attacking weak points along tectonic plates, and yes a giant tsunami ensues. The uniting of the main characters at the end does make some sense but the ending itself leaves every single thread still unravelled.
It feels like it wanted to be something to everyone and that may have led to its early demise with the series being cancelled after only 15 episodes. Maybe there was more to this that never had a chance to be revealed. Maybe it is because the "cute" Nimrod style creatures had too much screen time early on. The electrical discharges from these creatures does seems a little trite, why would a creature so powerful need such a second line of defence? Unless they were genetically engineered that way, but for what reason? And what the hell was it about those strange flowers?
The short documentary included here unfortunately does not answer any of the questions I wanted to ask as it is only a "coming soon" advertising promo show. It will remain, in my eyes, one of the nearly great TV shows. The main question will still remain, just what the hell was it about?. This box set was an ideal opportunity for someone to actually explain all the loose, and often contradictory, threads and this was one of the main reasons I bought it. Sadly that opportunity was not taken, if it was then I could have easily given it 4 stars.