“Private” DVD Review
With the uptick in web-series being a potential source of real income, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing more and more adaptations being put into the medium. While some web-series are so successful they later make it onto air on TV in some cases, the vast majority just fade away into oblivion…until they get a DVD release for some inexplicable reason. Imagine my utter surprise and excitement when Private, a series from the executive producers of Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries, arrived at my doorstep. That’s a lie of course—I was neither surprised nor excited…more just confused and angry I’d have to spend over two hours watching this.
Synopsis
From the executive producers of Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries comes PRIVATE, a thrilling mystery based on the New York Times best-selling novels by Kate Brian. Reed Brennan can’t believe her good luck when she’s accepted to exclusive Easton Academy. Life on campus is an endless parade of cute boys, parties, and special privileges—but nothing at Easton is quite what it seems. With a dangerous romance, shocking discoveries and dark secrets ahead of her, Reed will be lucky if she survives her first semester.
This may be the first series based off of novels that were made into a web series…if it wasn’t then I don’t know what the first one. I won’t say that this wasn’t a fairly well produced series, but I…well let’s just say I had issues getting through something as well-written as Mean Girls and wading through this series was a real chore. Not only that but I’m about as far away as possible from the demographic that would watch this series, let alone have even heard of the series of novels that its based off of. I won’t endlessly harp on this series for the simple reason that I have no idea how faithfully it was adapted and whether they actually hired the right people for the job.
I will, however, remark about how dull and boring I found the series. Though, again, I make it a point to not review shows made for five year olds for the same reason I didn’t enjoy this one—I’ve no real business watching it. It’s not something I could ever relate to or ever find entertaining, so it’s kind of like spending hours at a car dealer driving a car you’re too small and don’t want just to torture yourself. That’s the best analogy I could come up with because after watching this set I think the rest of my brain is fried.
Overall if you’re part of the demographic and enjoyed the web series then…well, watch it online first and see if you want to own it, I guess.
The DVD
The series arrives on a single DVD inside of a standard amaray DVD case. Solid video accompanies the series and the included DD2.0 audio is more than enough to deliver every scandalous glee. According to the DVD extras there’s a “prequel” coming which I’m just absolutely thrilled about. The full extras roster breaks down as follows:
PRIVATE: The Casting Call
Meet the PRIVATE Cast
Our PRIVATE Crushes
Meet the Billings Girls
Meet the Screenwriters
Life of a Hollywood Writer
Secrets of the Script
Sneak Peek at the PRIVATE Prequel
It’s a fairly healthy list but they don’t add up to much in the end. Overall it’s a release strictly for those who enjoy the series. I’m going to abstain from giving this release any kind of rating simply because I cannot possibly do so without being incredibly biased as I truly didn’t enjoy a single second of this.
Private is now available on DVD.