Dream On - Season 1 & 2 DVD Review:

Dream On seasons 1 and 2

Founded on a gimmick, but turning into somewhat of a golden child, Dream On provided HBO with its first of many Emmy’s to come. It’s the story of a book editor, Martin Tupper, trying to survive in New York in the early 90’s, while raising a son, dealing with an ex-wife, and attempting to tackle the
dating scene. The catch of the show is that interspersed within scenes, Martin remembers old film and television clips that go along with what is
happening. It’s a brilliant idea, allowing us to see what Martin is thinking without any voice over, and it provides some of the strongest humor in the
show at the same time.

Since the show was originally on HBO it took full advantage of being able to contain material which could not be shown on most channels. While it may seem tame these days, at the time I can imagine that it must have created some buzz. When the show started critics loved it, and in many ways it still holds up today. Some of the topics and most of the clothes seem a bit strange, but human nature doesn’t change and the show relies upon the
humanity of its characters.

The most successful plots in the show are the ones that carry through from one episode (or season) to the next. The pilot starts with Martin’s ex-wife,
played by Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me), asking him to sign the divorce papers to make it final. She has been dating Dr. Richard Stone and wants to
marry him. We never see Richard Stone, which is great because he has been built up to look like the perfect man, capable of anything from singing the
national anthem at a baseball game to saving a bus full of children in South America, still finding time to spend with his new step-son. In one episode
they are making a movie based on Richard’s life, and Martin goes on set only to see that he is being portrayed as a loser.

Although the show is only in half hour format it isn’t done in front of a live audience and there are no laugh tracks. There haven’t been many shows
that have successfully pulled off this kind of format, but leave it to HBO to pull it off fairly early on.

What saves the show from getting old into the second season is the development of the characters. We see Martin go through many painful
relationships, many of them ending sadly, but necessarily. We also watch the relationship between Martin and his secretary grow, until it becomes the primary plot at the end of the second season. If the writers had attempted to keep doing the same things, never straying from the “sex in the city” concept, the show may have fallen flat before long, but instead they are able to adapt and switch focus from one episode to the next.

The DVD package has all twenty-nine episodes from seasons one and two, on five discs. There are absolutely no special features, but unless you’re a
junky for that kind of stuff, it doesn’t really matter. It’s all about the episodes anyways, and they are what shine. I did have one problem with the
set-up of the disc after watching all twenty-nine episodes. There is no chapter break after the opening theme credits, which means that I was forced to either watch them twenty-nine times, or skip them that many as well. I make a plea to Universal to continue releasing great DVD’s such as this one, but help me avoid this dilemma in the future.

Ryan Izay

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