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Rating:  - The best show of 2005 that never got a chance.
NS was the best inheritor of the X-Files legacy to date, but it never got a chance to get off the ground as it was negatively scheduled and canceled not even half way through the first season. Watch the unaired episodes and you will see how the show was just starting to develop the type of mythos and series-arc that made X-Files and Millennium such compelling shows season after season.
Included is the script of an unproduced Darin Morgan episode! Morgan stories are guaranteed award winners. This series was killed way too soon.
Also, this is the only way to hear the extended version of the unpublished theme music by Philip Glass (it plays over the end credits).
Rating:  - They Saved the Best for Last
I remember seeing commericials and "trailers" for the show and recall thinking: this show will never last. Shows that center around giving unorthodox, non ordinary but oddly plausible and vastly more entertaining answers to seemingly mundane questions never seem to do well on network TV. Save the X-Files of course. I remember thinking the same thing about the similiarly short lived show on ABC entitled Mircales. And wouldn't you know it, both shows got cut at about the 6th episode. (Anyone hear the twilight zone music playing in the background?) The writers and producers do a great job of shining a black light on a crime and revealing it to be much more than what was readily apparent. Perri and Jain were my favorite actors in the show. I love Gabrielle's ability to deliver quick, wit filled dialogue. (She would have been soooo great as a regular on West Wing). And while Stuart Townsend was perfect in that he looked every bit the part of the typical guy next door who worked as an eager beaver journalist by day and mourned the loss of his wife, his dark, brooding persona definitely gave one the impression that he very easily could have been the one that killed her. That being said this series was not perfect. For instance, the pilot episode could have ended much better. Also the way the episodes were arranged could have been more effective. The episode "5 People You Meet In Hell," which I think is one of the best ones, should have been placed closer to the end when they could have more readily explained why that psycho, Damon, was able to "persuade" Kolchak to kill Perri. (Was that just a spoiler?) All in all, I was in agony when I watched the last episode, because I knew that there would be no more to follow. A good series and a great buy.
Rating:  - A poor copy
If this DVD had a different name, and they gave the charters different names it might be ok. Since they chose to change the basic premise of the series and the way Kolchak thought and worked it is a whole different and disappointing show that really isn't worth watching if you are a night Stalker fan.
Rating: - This is amazing.
I began watching this show when it started on T.V. in 2005. I didn't figure out that it was cancelled until after it stopped appearing, and I was really sad. I very much enjoyed the series. I had been looking in local stores to see if anyone carried it as a DVD, but I couldn't find it. I thought they just never released it until I saw it online. I was ECSTATIC!!! I bought it that same day. I watched all the episodes within a couple of days, and later read some very disparaging reviews online. I couldn't believe that anyone would think of this as anything other than extremely creepy and ultimately addictive!!! I really wish that it had been allowed to continue on. The last episode on the DVDs, "What's the Frequency, Kolchak?" was absolutely, jaw-droppingly AMAZING. It is one of my favorite episodes. There's a lot of drama and passion in the acting. I really wish that they had been allowed to continue the series. If you have the time, watch episodes "Pilot" and "The Sea" with the commentary, because they're very revealing, and they tell a lot about what would have happened, had the series finished, and the producers have a chance to say what untimately contributed to the demise of the series. All in all, this DVD set is absolutely a must-have, must-see. I love it.
Rating:  - Not another X-Files clone
Back when "The X-Files" was at the height of its popularity there was a wave of "X-Files" clones, all with the same central message: the truth is out there, but the Government is trying to hide it. "The Night Stalker" is one such series. Unfortunately, it is not one of the better ones. "The Night Stalker" was cancelled after six episodes (ten were made and all are included in this 2-disc set) and rightly so. The scripts are full of holes, the acting is mediocre and none of the main characters are remotely interesting.
The story revolves around Carl Kolchak (Stuart Townsend), a journalist whose wife was murdered by some sort of monster and Kolchak is now out to discover exactly what happened (and in the process, discovers the truth about a lot of other strange events). This is a remake of a 1970's TV series ("The Night Stalker/The Night Strangler" and "Kolchak: The Night Stalker"), which admittedly didn't run for much longer than this series (only 2 tele-movies and 20 episodes), but which is far superior to this show. Buy the original series instead.
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