Commentary Tracks

The cool thing about DVDs — well, one of the cool things — is commentary tracks on the movies or episodes.  Some of these are faboo, others not so much.  If anyone in Hollywood is listening …

1. Great commentary tracks:  These increase your knowledge of the video being watched.  The participants talk about how the story changed over time, and mention deleted material.  The commentary fills in background, and improves your understanding of the creative process both on this video and in general.  It gives you tidbits about the tale (or the production) to share with your friends.  When you’re done, you’re glad you ran through the movie yet again, and are tempted
   to see it once more.  Good commentary tracks make the video better.
   
2. Fair commentary tracks:  These don’t add a lot, but are interesting in and of themselves.  Lots of personal anecdotes about running into actor X at a bar, or gushing about how actress Y is splendid or director Z is brilliant (lose points if X, Y, and/or Z aren’t actually in the video).  At the end, you’re not sorry you listened to the commentary, but it hasn’t made you want to go back and watch the movie (with or without commentary) right away.  Fair commentary tracks
   neither add nor detract from the video.
   
3. Bad commentary tracks:  These have someone nattering on about what you’re seeing.  Literally.  Scene by scene, line by line.  Or the people just don’t say much, or just comment about “Oh, this scene is great.”  These have people who really don’t remember much about the production, or people who want to talk about something besides the movie.  When you’re done listening to this — if you get all the way through it — you really have no desire to see the movie
   ever again, especially since it’s associated with such dolts.  Bad commentary tracks taint the video.

Now, that’s just me.  Some folks never listen to commentary. Some folks prefer story-oriented commentary, while others are more interested in production details, or even talking about the personalities involved.  Some DVDs have multiple commentary tracks for the movie, focused on different elements, which is nice. 

The Doctor Who DVDs I’m watching now (which engendered this post) have commentary on every episode — and it’s a different mix of people (actors, directors, writers, technical leads, etc.) for each one, which makes for nice variety, though also has led to at least one clunker (the director literally describing, continuously, what was happening on-screen, as though telling someone on the telephone a play-by-play).