Customer Reviews

21 Jump Street - The Complete Fourth Season

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As much as I enjoyed season 4, I was extremely disappointed to find some scenes cut from the dvd. Actually scenes were also cut from the other 3. One episode in particular that really stood out was "Old Haunts in the New Age." There's a scene in this episode where Ioki, Penhall, and Hoffs hire a medium to channel the spirit of a man who's body was found in the basement of the chapel. While the medium invokes the spirit (pretends to), Hanson comes in and sits down. He listens to the farce and jumps up and pretends the spirit is coming thru him. Penhall remarks with amazement that Hanson's channeling Jim Morrison from The Doors. Afterward, Hanson sits down and tells the medium to give his coworkers back their money. In the dvd, You see Hanson come in, sit down, and tell the medium to return the money. The original scene that Johnny Depp performed was so excellent, it was memorable. It really aggravated me that it was cut from the dvd, as were other scenes in the whole dvd series. Yes! There were other scenes cut. This one stood out. I'm glad I taped the original series. Even though the scenes were cut, the show was still done very well. And the music. They made a mess out of that! They should have left the original music in. What they replaced it with was awful. It didn't fit the time period and you can tell. They should have left the music alone.
I've read in some of the reviews that Johnny Depp put in a lackluster performance in the 4th season because he wanted to leave the show. In spite of his desire to move on I found his performances to be no less stellar than the other seasons. I doubt very much if any actor of his caliber would jeopardize the potential to be offered other roles. If he hadn't moved on, we wouldn't be watching the films he's made since then. Regardless of the cut scenes and music changes, I'd recommend this dvd. The show was very well done.

this is from tvshowsondvd.com

We've received a number of emails from fans upset that 21 Jump Street season 4 is missing the final episode, "Blackout." We contacted Anchor Bay and were told that the episode would be part of the 5th season set, not the fourth. The episode aired between the end of the fourth season, and the start of the fifth, but Cannell considers it part of the fifth season.

Hopefully that clears up some confusion.

When at the end of third season,Harry Ioki was shot and Hansen was in jail. Season four starts off when season three left off. Dennis Booker and Doug Penhall try to get the guy who framed hansen and get him released-it seem almost like a 48 hours clone.

Depp tried to get out of his contract on jumpstreet to do movies, it did not happen. However his preformances on this season shows were less than stellar... and it shows.

There is a Booker spin-off with this season's episode (the 2 part Wheels & Deals) which set up a Booker spin off which lasted one season.

This was Jump street's last season, the fifth season was with out Nguyen and Depp). This was the shows winding down, there was good story lines with Holly Robinson and Peter DeLuise.

One of the best episodes in the futuristic clip show called Back from the Future. The highlight of this show is watching the cast in old age make up...trying to act 50 years older. Most of the makeup work look tacky. It is a cute clip show, directed bvy DeLuise, BUT Penhall as a priest..oh C'mon, someone make it more believeable!

This Jump Street season is the Jump the shark that TV shows are made of. BUT It is worth it? YES, as bad as it is at times, it better than most stuff out there today

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

I love the show and was pumped to see the fourth season. Unforturnately, it lacks something. It could be that it was Depp's last season on the show and his heart just wasn't in it. Perhaps the story lines were forced, rather than natural. Who knows? It is disappointing that the very last episode Depp was in, isn't on this collection.

If you are a 21 Jump Street fan, you'll want it for your dvd collection, but not for the entertainment value.

Overall very good season, isn't as good as season 3 due to the lack of effort on Depp's part. The one thing that they did with the dvd that disappointed me was that they removed the song With or Without You by U2 from the episode La Bizca, and replaced it with some generic song. That song really made the scenes in this episode very emotional, this new generic song, however, doesn't do that at all. I was very disappointed as I have been waiting for the episode for a while. Oh well what can you do. This dvd claims to have every episode from season 4, but in reality they only have 25. They put in Wheels and Deals part 1 which was actually an episode from the spinoff show Booker (Dennis). They also axed the last episode of season 4 (though not the last episode filmed in order) Blackout, which was also Depp's last show. I'm guessing that they are gonna put it in the season 5 dvd to capitalize on Depp. Oh well. All in all a good set just wish they hadn't made those pointless changes.

This is one of the best seasons of the series of 21 Jump Street.

It had very moving storylines - such as Doug and Martya (who was sent back to El Salvador and disappeared) to Judy being made detective and then raped. Ioki also had to deal with coming out of the coma and Tom - he was just the same as always.

This is also one of my favourite seasons as it is the last one before a couple of episodes in the next that Tom leaves the series unexplained.

I have already sat down and had a marathon to watch it all and I just can't get enough of it - if only TV shows were still as great as this! Go and buy it!!!

As long as we continue to rave about Johnny Depp's performances here, I will add his exposition from the episode, "How I Saved the Senator". If anyone can carry the works of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton, you know Depp has it covered. He did it in Benny and Joon, so why not in one of these episodes? In How I Saved the Senator, Depp tells his version of his heroism in hopes it would be made into a film. "Words...can't describe." he says as the story turns into an old silent film with Depp dressed in Chaplin costume. He's got the art of comedy and drama expressed in his eyes; without saying a word. It's awesome.

Ok, now the one thing that bothered me about the DVD is how a tiny part of one scene was cut out in "Old Haunts in the New Age". If anyone remembers this at all, the JumpStreet crew performs a seance in the chapel when they believed it was being haunted. When a spritual medium pretends to be possessed, Hansen also acts like his body was taken over by the soul of Jim Morrison. In this DVD, Morrison's monologue was completely cut. How disappointing. I bought this Season 4 thinking that I would be able to see that scene again. What a let down.
That's all, just wanted you to know.

that "Blackout" is being held for the season 5 release so all of the Johnny Depp die-hards will by it. Nice marketing strategy. 21 Jumpstreet has always been one of my favorites!

This review is really for all the box set seasons of the show and not limited to season 4, though I do have a few thoughts on that particular season. I'm assuming if you are buying season 4, then you already own the previous 3 seasons. After marathon watching seasons 1-4 and finally the Blackout episode of season 5 (via the internet, just so I could see Johnny Depp's last performance as Tom Hanson) I have to say that the show should have ended after season 3. The first three seasons were great as was Johnny Depp. He made the show, for the most part. You can tell that he was extremely talented so early in his career, gifted in both in drama and subtle comedy. Reading other reviews here, I agree with some and disagree with others. I admit that I watched the show purely because I'm a Johnny Depp fan so naturally I was very disappointed with the fact that season 4 barely had him in it and when he was in an episode, his performance was, for the most part, weak and almost painful to watch. He seemed so depressed-both in character and out. I did develop an appreciation for Peter Deluise who was also great to watch but couldn't carry the episodes alone. The other actors contributed a lot as well. I think what was great about the show was the chemistry Depp and Deluise showed onscreen. They were really funny together and even when situations between or involving them were a little more dramatic than comedic, they still pulled it off well. However, as I said before, Johnny Depp is hardly in season 4 and even when he does appear in an episode, his performances were either too brief or too lacking in effort. Even season 3 makes it apparent that Depp was ready to get out but at least we had the Dennis Booker (Richard Grieco) character to fill his shoes a little. I think this started out as a great show and it is a shame that many scenes were cut when it was put on dvd. I don't know why that happened. I can understand not being able to use the original music since it is expensive to get the licensing rights but there should be no excuse for cutting scenes. If anything, they should've added deleted scenes to the dvd as well as other bonus features like a blooper/ gag reel etc. They did at least show some of that during the closing credits of "Back From the Future." I like that they also got the Peter Deluise commentary on a couple of episodes (not on season 4) but I could not access the interviews with the other actors on my dvd player (again this is in reference to a different season.) Another problem is that some of the episodes are out of order. This is evident at the end of season 3 when Harry is shot, then the next episode he's fine, then the beginning of season 4 he's back in the hospital. I know other reviewers have already commented on this but I thought I would bring it up again because that really shows a lack of respect for such a great show that they didn't take the time to make these box sets good and complete. Also, when they just inserted the Booker episode in there without any warning I thought there was some error on the disc! They didn't even show the opening sequence to let the viewers know we were watching a Booker episode instead of a 21 Jump St. episode. They even used the 21 Jump St. opening credit instead. And finally the really tacky trick they pulled was to leave out the last episode Blackout and put it on the season 5 box set in an effort to get people to buy it since it was Depp's last appearance on the show. If you are interested in this show purely for Johnny Depp, then I'd recommend just downloading the season 4 episodes in which he appears- there aren't that many- plus the Blackout episode from season 5 which was not a very good episode by the way. As far as rating season 4, I have to say that overall, by then the show had lost its luster. Most of the episodes were silly and poorly written. It's almost like Johnny Depp's apathy was contagious- the writers and/or producers didn't care either about the integrity of the show. There were a few notable exceptions with season 4- "Old Haunts in the New Age" was kind of enjoyable- it was like their attempt at some humorous sci-fi stuff. Even Johnny seemed not too depressed to enjoy himself with this one. Plus it was enjoyable to see him doing his DeNiro impersonation from "Taxi Driver." "Stand By Your Man" contained a scene exemplifying the great chemistry between partners Penhall and Hanson. They are having a discussion at the bar and the dialogue and comedic timing and how Depp downplayed it was great, especially since it was one long scene with them sitting next to each other. It was a brilliant shot all done in one take with no breaks. Penhall is trying to explain to a totally bored Hanson about how in high school he was parked at a make-out site with a chick but he doesn't quite know how to tactfully word it so Hanson tries to speed up the story by filling in the words for him with metaphors such as touching her "corsage" and then her "other corsage" and Penhall wanted her to see what Hanson refers to as "the Big Dipper." I'd like to imagine that in real life they had to do several takes of that scene since they surely must've had a hard time keeping a straight face without laughing. "Mike's P.O.V." is another good episode because it is, as far as I know, the only one we see from the "bad" guy's point of view, hence the title. I'm a fan of Donovan Leitch who appears in this episode and he's the only one from any episode to actually be suspicious enough of Hanson to follow him to the police chapel and thus find out he's a cop or at least associated with the cops. Vince Vaughn also appears in this episode looking a lot younger and thinner but not funny. It irritated me that they cut some scenes out of this episode as well. Plus it is another example of Johnny Depp's I-don't-give-a-crap-anymore performances. Luckily Donovan Leitch's performance makes up for it. The "Back From the Future" episode is also a classic since it is 50 years later and the gang is old with aging make-up and reminiscing about their days together. Johnny Depp seems to have fun with this one, even mocking his own real-life persona when he yells at the cop who is asking about his personal life and how it's his own business. The last scene where the old coots Hanson and Penhall are bickering like an old married couple is also funny. They reminded me of the two old guys from the Muppet Show who sat in the balcony and bickered. "2245" is another good episode only because of Josh Richman whose awesome performance makes up for Johnny Depp's crappy one. "How I Saved the Senator" is one of Depp's few season 4 good performances. As each character tells his or her version of what happened in a case by using various favorite movie genres he seemed to have fun playing the silent Charlie Chaplin character and was definitely good at it. It seemed to foreshadow a lot of the talented acting we would be seeing from him in the future. So, as I said before, this is more than just a review of season 4 but also of the whole show. It was a good show and if you are a Johnny Depp fan, it definitely showcases a talented young actor and not just a heartthrob. If you are buying these box sets purely for him, then I'd recommend buying the first 3 seasons and downloading only the ones he appears in from season 4 plus the first episode of season 5. But if you are like me, you might just want to go ahead and have them all. It's also cool to see some of the people who guest starred- Donovan Leitch, Vince Vaughn, Josh Richman and many others throughout all the seasons. Keep in mind that season 4 is weak and many of the stories are boring and/or silly with lots of holes in the plots. (I think they ran out of schools in that city to infiltrate.) Depp's poor performances aren't the only flaws from season 4 which is definitely weak. As I said, most of the story lines were lame. It was really a drag that Depp was absent for many of the episodes and even when he was there, he may as well not have been. His character (and Penhall's for that matter) were both losing their appeal and the actors didn't seem to have their hearts in it either- in real life and in character on the show. A good box set should have lots of cool bonus features too and these have none. I guess that's why they aren't very expensive. Even the cover artwork is hazy- the pictures are out of focus. All 4 of the boxsets look cheap. Even the plastic prongs inside the cases to hold the dvds were broken off on some of them so the discs won't stay secure. I always find this annoying with dvds because loose dvds get scratched more easily. However, I believe these box sets are now out of print so they could be collectors' items some day!

This product is a must have if you are a 21 jump street fan. This is the last season were Johnny Depp is in it.