Unlike many of the other recent TV shows/series to find their way to DVD from CBS/Paramount, Sidney Sheldon‘s Master Of The Game hasn’t received a glorious upgrade to High Def or been digitally remastered — and it shows, too. The standard 1.33:1 image is a bit dark, grainy, and some portions of the transfer appear to have been culled directly from a video master. The English mono stereo sound on the other hand fared a lot better with me. Granted, it isn't the greatest mono stereo sound ever encoded onto a piece of plastic (read: don’t expect it to knock your socks off), but it didn't disappoint me nearly as much as the video transfer did. No subtitles are offered up with this release, but you are more than welcome to switch on the ol' closed captioning should you need help deciphering Donald Pleasence's patented mumbling.
Sorry, Master Of The Game fans, but there are no special features to be found adorning this release that are specifically related to the mini-series. The only extras that are included are a few promos at the beginning of Disc 1 which are for other CBS/Paramount titles. (Which seems to be the norm for CBS/Paramount as of late, really — remember when they used to produce the occasional featurette or two? Ah, those were the days.)
So what have we learned here today, kiddies? Sidney Sheldon’s Master Of The Game may not have been the most memorable mini-series ever produced for the small screen, but it isn’t a bad one, either — and it’s just the thing if you have seven hours to kill.
Article comments
1 - Luigi
You neglected to say what a horrible job the manufacturers did with the 2nd part of the 1st disc. They cover about many years in 15 miuntes with choppy dialogue as well as bad picture quality