Run Time: 16 Hours 16 Minutes, with the pilot episode 2 hours 16 minutes in length and the remaining 18 episodes approximately 47 minutes in length

In Resurrection BLVD, boxing is more than a way of life for the Santiago family. Three generations of Santiagos have engaged in boxing professionally. When the Santiago family first moved to East Los Angeles, Roberto Santiago's (Tony Plana) father made his living by boxing. Following in his stead, Roberto continued to provide for his family by boxing professionally. Now with children of his own, Roberto vigorously works to train one of his sons to be a middleweight champion.

Season 1 of Resurrection BLVD introduces the cast, a closely tied and supportive Mexican-American family. After the introduction and setup of the cast, the series proceeds to focus on the individual hardships that each family member must endure and the stories that revolve around them. Some of these hardships span across multiple episodes and others are over in a single episode. One of the most interesting and gripping hardships in this show is first introduced in the 2 hour "Pilot" episode. In the "Pilot" episode, we watch Carlos (Michael DeLorenzo) a would-be-champion-boxer rise and fall. Carlos is engaged in a severe accident that almost kills him. With his boxing career ruined, he turns to a life of drinking and self-pity. The gripping story of Carlos continues in later episodes like "Comenzando De Nuevo", when Carlos rejoins the world as a boxer, despite the doctor's orders. As a result of Carlos's decision to ignore his doctor, he is nearly rendered incapacitated. The story of Carlos is very entertaining, as we watch him grapple with his greatest fear, defeat. His character is very dark at first, but later as he learns to accept his life, he becomes a much brighter person.

The main plot of the show features some very entertaining material. Carlos's younger brother Alex (Nicholas Gonzalez) drops out of medical school to take on the family tradition. Alex quickly rises in fame and success. In "El Regreso de Paco", Alex's fame attracts a new boxing promoter, Jack Mornet. This proves to be very exciting, because Mornet deviously manipulates the Santiago family for his own benefit. Mornet accomplishes this by blinding Alex with promises of material wealth. Soon Alex is a different person, without the same care and concern for his family. He gradually becomes a self-centered egotistic. The new Alex produces a character that resembles a spoiled brat, one that you most likely wouldn't mind being set in his place.

There are other hardships that are featured as subplots in the show. However, some hold very little entertainment value. Early in the show, Victoria (Marisol Nichols), the youngest daughter of Roberto, made it clear that she doesn't always make the right life choices. In the "Pilot" episode, Victoria gets in a lot of trouble when she gets too involved with a low-life scumbag. She continuously puts herself in very dangerous situations that a normal person would try to avoid. Later in "Cholitas" and "Mascaras", Victoria takes it upon herself to stop a pregnant high school girl from joining a gang. The hardships that Victoria endures aren't extremely entertaining, nor do they correlate to the main plot. In the end, Victoria's character feels very young and naive, as she continuously makes poor decisions that makes you feel frustrated that she didn't learn from the first mistake.

The hardships that each member of the Santiago family must endure and the stories that follow make up the entirety of the show. In the beginning, some of these hardships are very gripping and you'll demand to see what happens next. After a while, these hardships gradually start to feel repetitive. Some of the characters will repeatedly make the same mistake over and over again. As well, while one family member just went through some big ordeal, another will go through something very similar.

Realistically, how many life changing hardships can one person go through? Even more so, how can each person of a family be plagued with so many hardships over and over again? This feeling is similar to my impressions of Kiefer Sutherland in 24. Just really, what is the likely probability of a single individual having a day like Jack Bauer? Or even multiple days? While I love 24, I really do not foresee the show lasting as long as a series like Law & Order. After a while, stuff just gets old and repetitive. I had the same feeling with Resurrection BLVD. For this reason I clearly understand why the show did not last past its third season. Season 1 of Resurrection BLVD is a good show to check out, but really, it's not a keeper.

Episode List

The DVD

Video:
Season 1 of Resurrection BLVD is presented in its original television aspect of 1.33:1 ratio full frame color. The quality is fairly good with a very hard to notice grain in the picture and minor color defects.

Sound:
The audio is presented in the English and Spanish languages, with a 2.0 Dolby digital stereo audio track. The English dialogue in this feature is given with a mix of English and Spanish. Throughout the entire show, there are many phrases integrated into the spoken dialogue, which are given in Spanish. For some this may cause a slight issue of locality, as not all of the Spanish phrases are immediately intuitive. There are no subtitles in the feature, nor is the feature closed caption enabled. This can add to a slight difficulty in understanding what is being expressed. However, the majority of Spanish phrases integrated into the English dialogue are fairly intuitive. Other than the difficulty associated with locality, the sound quality of this feature is fairly good, with a clear and crisp audio track. However, at some points the audio sounds somewhat flat.

Extras:
There are no extras presented with this release.

Final Thoughts:
While I found season 1 of Resurrection BLVD to be very entertaining, I can see why the show didn't make it past a third season. This is due to the limited concept of the show, focusing upon the individual hardships of the casts' lives. The repetitiveness of the harden trials makes the show seem somewhat dull after a while. Needless to say, season 1 was highly dramatic and entertaining enough to warrant a rental.