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26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Camdens are back and ready for more drama in Season 6!, April 1, 2008
With the release of this 6th season quickly approaching, that means that more than half of the series is already out, so being able to collect Seasons 1-11 seems more attainable than ever! Sadly, it appears that the poorly edited episodes and all-too-typical music changes probably won't be addressed, but if you're a big "7th Heaven" fan, you can't deny that it's better than not having them on DVD at all.
Like many others, I grew up with this show. I was a fifth grader when it all began, and by the time its last episode aired, I was almost done with college. I think this show will always hold up as one that was brave enough to deal with contemporary issues in a tasteful way, all while portraying a loving American family that managed to stick together, even though they were far from perfect. With each passing year, the social issues presented got deeper without steering away from their classic "family friendly" ways. I have to admit that Seasons 1-5 were probably the best, and the first two years were my all-time favorites, when the original Camden kids were young, and before the storylines started getting more complex to accommodate the classic "growing pains." It was around Season 6 that I started seeing the show weaken a little bit, but of course, at this point, they were only midway through the series as a whole, and as the kids grew up and new characters were introduced, there was plenty more of a story that the writers wanted to tell.
Season 6 finds oldest child Matt getting into med school at last and receiving his first glimpse at the girl he will eventually marry, whose Jewish roots create a serious clash between the two families. Former "fallen angel" Mary, who is trying to deal with her mistakes and has shaped up quite a bit in the past year (despite having a shameless lapse of good judgment every now and then) trains to be an airplane pilot, struggles to rebuild her relationship with her family, and has two men eager to marry her. Good girl Lucy, who convinced her parents to let her get engaged right out of high school at the end of last year, returns home after a summer with her fiance, and chooses to mope around and cry instead of explaining why the ring is suddenly off her finger. Teenager Simon enters a more rebellious world of alcohol, dating, and driving, while sassy young Ruthie--who is probably the most intelligent of the Camden bunch--corresponds by letter with a soldier in the Marine Corps and comes face-to-face with an emotionally damaging teacher from her past. Youngest Camden offpsring Sam and David are only about three now, so there isn't much to say about them (although I can't say there really ever was much to say about them, to be honest). Also present in this season is the infamous "bad boy" Robbie Palmer, who begins building a better reputation for himself and serves as both a son and an older brother to the Camden family. Then, of course, there's Eric, who continues dealing with the various trials and tribulations of being a Reverend (which includes coming to terms with his oldest son's desire to convert to Judaism) and Annie, who takes a teaching job at Ruthie's school and finds herself in the middle of a student's domestic problems.
Guest stars include singer Joy Enriquez, the memorable Andrew Keegan as Mary's former boyfriend Wilson, and a first look at the infamous Kevin Kinkirk, who may have what it takes to piece Lucy's broken heart back together. In short, it's not the very best season of the series, but it's still a pretty good one with some very nice moments, most notably (in my opinion) the episode "Suspicion," where 10-year-old Ruthie meets a serious challenge in her young life when she chooses to defend her friendship with a Muslim classmate. If you're a "7th Heaven" enthusiast, you'll want to add this one to your DVD collection. Is Season 7 on its way, too? I am confident that it is!
Additional Note: After picking up my Season 6 DVD today (June 10), I noticed that the six individual discs are now grey and do not have the art that the previous 5 season sets had, with the pictures of the Camden family members. There is also a note on the DVD box that they edited some scenes out, and boy, did they ever! The bad thing is that they take a random line or two of dialogue out right in the middle of a scene, so even if you've never seen the episode in your life, there's a really good chance you'll be able to tell, anyway. For instance, Eric's classic "Popeye the Sailor Man" joke to Annie in the season opener is removed, which means that Annie's little rant before that is very abruptly cut off, and in the September 11-centered episode, 11-year-old Ruthie is supposed to sing and dance to Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" in the first and last scenes, but because obtaining music rights is such a hassle, they opted to omit the scenes altogether, which is a real bummer, because those two scenes were a pretty big part of the episode. Sadly, they are putting these sets together more and more carelessly with each season, but just the same, I look forward to watching the episodes tonight. If we want these sets on DVD, this is the kind of stuff we must deal with. The good news is that because there are no special features or anything extra, the price is pretty low if you buy it at the right place (Target, Walmart, etc...)
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Clean Cut Family TV...., March 15, 2008
Loved 7th Heaven since the very beginning in 1996. I have to admit I was quite sad to see the show come to a definite end in 2007. I grew up with this show. What I love about it is that it's totally shameless family tv. Not the find of thing that you have to worry about your kids watching. There needs to be more shows like this. 7th Heaven always send out good signals to teenagers about making the right shoices in life. They would bring up true to life issues & watch the characters resolve these issues. There is loss, romance, happiness, success. It's just an incredible show & you have to watch the characters evolve from the beginning to the end to truly appreciate the show as I do. This is one show that will definitely be missed. Can't wait for the next season to come out. Hope we don't have a long wait again!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Generally enjoyable, August 4, 2008
I have already written about the highs and lows of previous seasons of the series. In the 6th season, there are several weird aspects that creep into (or return to) the show. Most of these problems are in the first half, when the show decides to have mother Annie flip out again (more hormone-based stereotypes just as had been used throughout the pregnancy season), culminating in one of the most distasteful scenarios of the show to this point - where she (again) insists that she's right and forces half the kids to sleep in the unfinished garage attic room until they are willing to apologize to her for basically questioning her judgement after she clearly shows favoritism toward Mary (as if her overreaction hadn't simply proven the kids' initial protests to be correct). And then, father Eric simply lets her get away with this tyranny. (He could stand up to her on religious principles at the end of the season but not at this point when their kids were suffering??? Pu-leez!) It reminded me of the movie "Mommy Dearest" where the mother wants the daughter to sit in front of a plate of raw meat until it's finished, except that at least that movie gave viewers the satisfaction of someone telling the tyrant off in the end. In these episodes, however, it's somehow presumed that Annie is justified in her stubbornness, and unfortunately this isn't just limited to one episode that can be criticized as a mere fluke, but a small series of episodes that made me ready at one point to give up watching the series. The writing problems at that point were severe. The last half of the season, however, plus various episodes in between those "spoiled and manipulative mother" ones, were quite enjoyable, with the usual amounts of humor and character interaction that one has grown to expect in the series. One weird stumble in the second half, however, was the "Known Soldier" episode... although meant as an homage to our armed forces, and including tributes to an actual soldier and his family, some of the writing again sounds as if it's being read off of political pamphlets instead of sounding at all natural. One would have hoped they'd place more care in the writing of such an important episode, and yet several sequences come across as totally amateurish in their conception. After a bit of eye-rolling at the totally contrived-sounding "conversation" between Simon and Robby, who act as mere mouthpieces for writer Brenda Hampton, the episode is only able to recover by again invoking the situations of the actual persons to whom it gives tribute. The difference between the fictional contrivance and the actual persons is difficult to overcome, making me feel primarily that the soldiers deserved a much higher quality script than was actually delivered.
At least several past stumbling blocks turned out not to be so much of a problem in this season. Mary seems to have reformed and thus become more appealing again, the Simon problems that are described on the packaging prove not to be as serious as they sound, and thus fortunately do not mark a decline in that character, and the other characters are pretty much "status quo" except that Matt finally heads down the marriage path and Ruthie has finally grown into being a more interesting character in her own right.
In general, the series is now much more focused on routine bickering between the sisters, and endless romantic overtures between the family members and a set of recurring actors. There are many pleasant episodes, a few head-slappingly misguided sequences, and a few fairly routine proceedings. Although pleasant, the topical themes of the show are now much more limited and prone to stumbling. Still, the season seemed a little less annoying during its stumbling than it had during 5th season. Yet, it also has fewer moments that succeed really well. I might have finally dropped the review from 4 to 3 stars, except that I found most of the second half of the season to be quite pleasant and enjoyable, and quite a few episodes from the first half as well. Also of note seems to be that for perhaps the first time, the content is finally down to a mere PG level instead of including the PG-13 types of thematic elements and drug-related moments that were present in previous seasons. I will be buying season 7 if it comes out, but due to my general enjoyment of the show, feel the need to complain a bit about its missteps.
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