Cheap MI-5, Volume 1 (DVD) (Antonia Bird, Andy Wilson (IV), Gary Wicks, Bharat Nalluri, Omar Madha, Cilla Ware, Ciaran Donnelly (II), Jonny Campbell, Julian Simpson, Rob Bailey) Price

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Customer Reviews of MI-5, Volume 1

Really Good Show, Really Difficult DVD
MI-5 [or Spooks as it known everywhere it seems but here in the States] is a great combination of 24/Alias/James Bond with a brutal streak that might make some queasy. There is a scene in the 2nd episode that became one of the most controversial scenes in British television history, and with good reason. It is a visceral, indellible shocker that makes you want to reach for the antacid. If you can stomach it, the show is exciting, smart and engaging. The real problem - as someone already pointed out in another review - is the DVD menu. You almost have to be a Spook to figure out how to traverse the complicated menu universe you enter in MI-5. I was apparently too stupid to figure it all out the first few times because I ended up starting the 1st episode over and over until I finally figured out that I was in the wrong 'dosier'. Dumb me. While it is clever, I still would prefer not to have to have government clearance to skip to the next episode. I like the SHOW to make me think and challenge me, not the MENU.

Great Show - annoying DVD
I am commenting mainly about the DVD, not the show. This is an example of one of the worst DVD intros and menus designed. First, you have to sit through an opening intro depicting someone in a dark hood sneaking into an office. Then, very cheesy production values abound as we have to continue and watch this intruder find a desk! Finally, at the very normal and dull looking desk, we are given scratchy audio in prim English telling us what menu options are available. Not paying attention? Sound down too low? Sorry. There is no text on the main menu. <
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>What do I click? <
>The mouse arrow goes over the PC screen, rolodex, audio tapes, cds, and a phone. If you press the phone, you get another garbled announcement, which yells at you if don't press a button. I still haven't figured out what it is. If you fiddle around enough, you figure out that the DVDs labelled "Program File" are the episodes. Click the DVD case and you have to once again wait as another very uncompelling video plays of the masked man taking the DVD out of the stack (ooooh!), open it, and...put it into the DVD drive in the computer! (aaaah!). Finally, you get what looks like real buttons. Press "Sector Selection" and get chapter selections with no image or title. Where you go in the program - your guess is as good as mine. <
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>What I am complaining about is how DVD designers get way too complicated in their quest to make a clever DVD menu system. In the process, especially for Americans trying understand fast spoken accented English, don't deliberately try to make the audio hard to understand, and don't deliberately remove any visual clues as to how to play an episode. <
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>I give the show itself, a well written thriller - a 6 out of 10. <
>I give the DVD menu design - a 2 out of 10.