Pawn Stars:Volume 4

Amazon.com These installments of the History Channel’s proto-series about average joes selling their stuff to a crew of pedigreed pawnbrokers are taken from seasons three and four, in keeping with the release strategy of other episodes. Though it seems an insignificant detail, it should be made clear to the many Pawn Stars fanatics out there that these discs don’t represent seasons four and five, but rather are a selection of 16 “fan favorites.” To quote a review of other DVD volumes, Pawn Stars is sort of like Antiques Roadshow in Vegas, or Antiques Roadshow on crack. People come in to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop with treasure or trash from their closets or garages and hope to walk away with wads of cash. How much they get is usually a lot less than what they expect. That’s because the shop is run with tight iron fists by the Harrison clan, three generations of wheeler-dealers who drive hard bargains. The boss is Rick Harrison, a burly, take-no-prisoners type who is the Pawn Stars equivalent of Paul Teutul Sr. on the long-running Discovery Channel reality show American Chopper. Rick’s father Richard Benjamin Harrison–a.k.a. “the Old Man”–cofounded the shop with his son and conveys the aura of godfather to the operation in many ways. Rick’s son Corey goes by the moniker “Big Hoss” and plays an important role in business operations that was like Paul Jr.’s on American Chopper. The fourth key staff member and the one who takes on dramatic duties similar to one of Shakespeare’s fools is the knuckleheaded yet lovable lardo Austin “Chumlee” Russell, who was Corey’s childhood friend. The tension in the show is often built to overheated levels when the haggling sets in, and it relies heavily on the opportunistic placement of commercial breaks as cliffhangers. The device makes DVD viewing feel somewhat repetitive, but the show is as creatively paced as any reality series that focuses on a family dynamic or a similar concept. Storage Wars certainly comes to mind, as does the quasi Pawn Stars spinoffs Auction Hunters, Counting Cars, Auction Kings, and Cajun Pawn Stars. Each episode is fairly predictable, but that doesn’t mean there’s no cause for addictive or binge viewing. Some of the items that are brought in for the Harrisons’ review on these two two-disc volumes are life-sized Darth Maul and Jar Jar Binks figures, a possible Stradivarius violin, a check signed by mob boss Carlo Gambino, a pair of mint-condition 1990 Air Jordan V sneakers, a blackjack table from the defunct Stardust Casino, a 1936 Rolex watch once owned by Bernie Madoff, and a hat supposedly worn by John Wayne. That barely scratches the surface of the variety of objects brought in for appraisal. The Harrisons know a lot about pretty much everything, but when they don’t, they bring in a revolving cast of experts to provide details about provenance and worth. But an item is only valuable to the Pawn Stars if someone else wants to buy it. Observing the calculating eye and the haggling skills on display is all part of the fun. The other part of the fun is the interplay between the shop’s staff, which is played almost entirely for laughs and rarely feels extemporaneous. But even though some moments may be scripted, the Harrisons have been at it long enough to make it work–for the cameras and their wallets. –Ted Fry Product Description Long before banks, ATMS and check-cashing services, there were pawn shops. Pawning was the leading form of consumer credit in the United States until the 1950s, and pawn shops are still helping everyday people make ends meet. Pawn Stars takes you inside the colorful world of the pawn business. At the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on the outskirts of Las Vegas, three generations of the Harrison family-grandfather Richard, son Rick and grandson Corey-jointly run the family business, and there’s clashing and camaraderie every step of the way. The three men use their sharp eyes and skills to assess the value of items from the commonplace to the truly historic, including a 16th-century samurai sword, a Super Bowl ring, a Picasso painting and a 17th-century stay of execution. It’s up to them to determine what’s real and what’s fake, as they reveal the often surprising answer to the questions on everyone’s mind, “What’s the story behind it”? and “What’s it worth?”

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• Factory sealed DVD