Customer Reviews

American Idol - The Best of Seasons 1 - 4

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This DVD is good yet disappointing at the same time. This should have been nothing but the best of the best performances. Simply put, there are not enough of them here. Those that are included are true showstoppers, especially those by Clay and Bo, but too many have been left out including Clay's amazing rendition of Neil Sedaka's "Solitaire" which prompted the singer/songwriter Sedaka to say he would love to write and produce Clay's first CD. There are other omissions on this DVD from other finalists but the most serious and blatantly obvious omission is Tamyra Gray's beautiful, moving and haunting performance of "A House Is Not A Home." I'd like to know who the idiot is who chose not to put this on the DVD. I'll never forget a tearful Paula Abdul giving a standing ovation for that one. Did the people who put this DVD together not realize we would like to see more of the actual musical performances. I would have liked to see not only more of the performances by talents such as Clay, Kelly and Bo, but some of the other talented finalists as well including Kimberly Locke and George Huff. At least they were smart enough to put LaToya's amazing "Don't Rain On My Parade" in this collection. But, there should have been so much more. This DVD is a must for American Idol fans but it could have been so much better. That is my biggest complaint: There should have been many more performances and less of the forgettable nonsense.

The following is a review from the Washington Post that someone posted on the Fox American Idol site. I am posting it for people that want to know more about what's on the DVD's.


High and low notes of `Idol'

New DVD set explores popular show's first four seasons

By Curt Fields

Washington Post


Fans of TV's insanely popular "American Idol" fall into one of two camps. They watch because they enjoy rooting for the occasional discovery of genuinely talented performers, or they enjoy the train wreck of seeing people who have no business being near a microphone destroying a song and acting amazed when they're told they stink.

Whatever your motivation for watching, Tuesday's upcoming DVD releases should tide you over until the show returns in January as "The Best of American Idol: Seasons 1-4" ($19.98), "The Worst of American Idol: Seasons 1-4" ($19.98) and, combining the two and tossing in a bonus disc, "The Best & Worst of American Idol: Seasons 1-4" ($34.98) hit the market.

"The Best Of" disc contains some of the show's more memorable moments, including Fantasia Barrino's "Summertime," Kelly Clarkson's "Respect" and Bo Bice's a cappella "In a Dream." It focuses primarily on the top two finalists from each season, so there's lots of Clarkson (the most successful post-"Idol" performer so far), Justin Guarini, Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken, Fantasia (she's dropped the Barrino since winning in Season 3), Diana DeGarmo, Bice and Carrie Underwood.

A few other contestants are represented. Season 1's Tamyra Gray sings "Feel the Fire" and reminds you what a joke it was that Guarini made it to the final two that year.

A collection of season recaps is a fun bit of nostalgia for fans, as is seeing the full-length auditions of the winners and runners-up and watching them evolve musically and stylistically. (Watching Aiken's look steadily transform from geek to pop singer in the photo album feature is a testament to the power of stylists everywhere.) Even the most devoted fans will learn new tidbits. For example, Underwood was flirty and animated at her audition, much more so than during the rest of the season. Who knew she had a personality?

There is a certain amount of filler. I, for one, need never see the skit of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul on a "romantic date" ever again. The photo gallery is a bit boring because there's no sound with it, but it is fun to see how many contestants you can still name.

"The Worst Of" features all the note-cracking, tuneless delusional favorites from the audition shows. The guy who did "Like a Virgin"? Yep, he's on it. The crazy blonde chick? Yep. The guy who needed subtitles? Yep. And many more abysmally bad singers, a large number of whom felt compelled to argue with the judges about their abilities. And, of course, breakout success William "She Bangs" Hung is featured.

If you get the combined package, there's a bonus disc with lots of interviews of various Season 4 contestants, extended footage of Underwood and Bice on their "hometown trips" and an "exclusive" Abdul interview.

If you like American Idol, you will love this DVD, especially if you were not tuned in to the early seasons. You get the highlights without being dragged through the debacles, and there is a minimum of filler. There is a manufacturing glitch in the current version however, which makes 3 out of 4 of the season reviews (I'm guessing about 25% of the content) unwatchable. A replacement disk had the same problem, and on different DVD players. The good news is that Amazon.com was fantastic in their response (replacement and eventual refund).

My daughter is an American Idol fanatic, so I ordered her this DVD for Christmas. The DVD I received wouldn't play anything past the "Season Reviews." Amazon.com sent me a replacement DVD, which had the same problem. So I sent the replacement DVD back to Amazon.com. I don't think it would be worth trying to get yet another replacement.
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I got this DVD as a gift for my husband as we both enjoyed the show so much. The first DVD I got wouldnt let me view anything from the season reviews on. I figured it was just a bad disk and got a replacement DVD. Same problem. I was really happy with the content overall up to this point with the DVD. I think they picked some great performances and it was nice to see all 4 seasons on 1 disk. I'm not sure that its worth getting a second replacement DVD.

This is a great DVD that showcases the best talent of all the seasons. However, Clay Aiken's performance of Bridge Over Troubled Water made this DVD worth every penny. I encourage all Idol lovers to buy this! It's great!

Being a very big fan of american idol and watching the show since the first season, I was excited to see they had a video out with the
best of American Idol. Well, this was definately not the very best. The clips of the performances are short. There's more talking than anything else. Save your money and watch channel 11 American Idol Rewind.

I'm a big fan of American Idol. I watch only the US American Idol( we also have a local AI "Ídolos" and Latin America Idols - which are a frustated try to make a similar show) and I confess that I was REALLY DISAPPOINTED with the DVD...
I guess that whoever picked the performances as "The Best of AI-Seasons 1-4" got carried away about the actual level of expertise of the performers and forgot that most of the show's audience are more concerned about HAVING FUN instead of watching to MASTER PERFORMANCES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE SKIPPING TO THE NEXT ONE, OVER AND OVER...
I expected to see more of the classic performances that, let's say, "the lay people" love.
I thought that I'd see Bo Bice singing "Sweet Home Alabama" or Carrie Underwood singing anything the major audiences actually have heard before.
The extra-sceenes which show some images of some of the show's final contestants passing the test to be in American Idol 4 is not bad... but... seriously... I guess that nobody bought the DVD to see the extras...!!

Sorry, amigos, but I'm actually thinking about selling the DVD I bought to a cd & dvd 2nd hand store.

The "extras" portion of this video would not play. It was returned for another which was also defective. The main program was OK.

This DVD shows the performances and auditions from the top two of each season of American Idol (up through season 4). It's great for people who have just started to watch the show with season 5 and 6 to take a look back and see some highlights of what they have missed from previous seasons. Hoping there will be some highlights from future seasons of the show on DVD too.