Customer Reviews

Jeeves & Wooster - The Complete Fourth Season

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first three seasons were great. Clive Exton did a superb job of adapting the original Wodehouse stories for television, weaving separate tales together so seamlessly that if you hadn't read them first, you'd have a hard time telling what had been changed. Inexplicably, the fourth season is a complete departure from what came before. The first three episodes are, for some reason, set in America, but are very loosely based on stories set in England. I watched them all, hoping they would get better, but it was not to be. There was a great deal of scene padding (multiple scenes of Bertie frolicking at the Hotsy Totsy Club, for instance), as well as the genuinely uninspired comic creations of Mr. Exton. I will grant that, due to the sheer number of Wodehouse's writings, I may well have missed a few Jeeves tales along the way, but if turns out that Wodehouse actually put Bertie and Jeeves in a lifeboat and sent them on an eight month long voyage around the globe, well, I'm dashed.

After watching the first DVD, I hesitated with the second. Eventually I did break down, however, and I'm glad I did. The last three episodes find young Bertram back in his native land, and the result is enjoyable. Again, the stories were based on old favorites intermixed with ones I did not recognise. Again, it could simply be that I have missed a few over the years. Whatever the case, I did enjoy the last three shows. So to sum up, if you buy this one, set your drink on the first disc and pop the second in your player, put your feet up, and enjoy.

If you want more Wodehouse for your money, however, order "Wodehouse Playhouse" Season One. It's from 1975, is made up mostly of Mr. Mulliner stories, and for ...(at present) it's a much better value.

Okay, I agree. I don't remember reading about Bertie and Jeeves in a lifeboat rowing across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but at that point in the episode ("Bridegroom Wanted"), who cares? It's worth it just for the Jeeves's line: "If you will remember sir, that narrow passage of water that you insisted was the Serpentine turned out to be the Panama Canal." So like them.

And, of course, the classic moment in which Bertie is trying to explain a supposedly hypothetical example involving characters A and B and "some other fellow, what shall we call him?" Jeeves: "C, sir?" Bertie: "Well, all right, I suppose Caesar is as good a name as any."

Unlike the previous episodes, this series seems to have much more slapstick humor, all pushed politely to the background. It's an attempt (and, I think, a successful one) to convey the physical stuff that Wodehouse alludes to, such as Stinker Pinker being reminded "Try not to fall over the furniture." It could be just me, but I thought it worked well.

There's a slight disappointment in losing some of the actors who had played characters in the earlier series, but the new ones certainly do just as well. All in all, deliciously Wodehousian. Highly recommended.

Fry and Laurie are probably one of the greatest modern comedy teams. The first three seasons captured the Wodehouse spirit wonderfully. This season, the writers/director thought they were funnier than P. G. and decided to re-write his stories. The result is embarrassing and painful to watch.

If you are dying for your J & W fix, re-watch one of the earlier seasons and save yourself the pain.

Unlike the first three seasons, which were nothing short of brilliant, this season seems to have lost the Wodehouse touch. The absolute low point was a madcap chase up the Empire State Building; both Bertie and Jeeves were completely out of character. I got through the set just once and re-sold it almost immediately. I highly recommend the first three sets, but if you're a Wodehouse purist, pass on this fiasco.

The fourth season of "Jeeves and Wooster" has the same problem as the third -- half of it takes place in America, and these are probably the weakest of the series. But the series has a solid finale as the pair return to England, and several romantic subplots are wrapped up for good.

Bertie "Returns to New York" and the comforts of the more laid-back America, only to have Aunt Agatha and his prodigal cousins Claude and Eustace turn up. Unfortunately, the cousins only pretend to leave for South Africa, because both are now madly in love with a nightclub singer. To make matters worse, Bertie has to help his pal Tuppy win back a high-strung girlfriend.

"The Once and Future Ex" Florence Craye comes to New York, and shows an uncomfortable interest in Bertie. That doesn't sit well with her violence fiancee Stilton Cheesewright, a cop bent on enforcing Prohibition. Unfortunately when the two break up, Florence gets her claws into Bertie, and her cold-hearted American cousin begins blackmailing him. Can Jeeves save the day at a costume party?

"Bridegroom, Wanted" when Bertie's first ex-fiancee Honoria Glossop arrives in New York, determined to marry somebody -- even Bertie. Bertie tries to enlist a starlet to pretend to be his fiancee, but it backfires when the girl's agent insists he marry her for real. Bertie's only means of escape? A round-the-world escape with Jeeves!

But he can't escape his exes even when he gets back to England. "The Delayed Arrival" causes problems when Bertie accidentally breaks up Stilton and Florence. To make matters worse, Aunt Dahlia's magazine is for sale, and Jeeves has to impersonate an American lady novelist to impress a potential buyer. The problem is, Stilton finds Jeeves-in-drag maddeningly attractive...

"Trouble at Totleigh Towers" starts when Madeleine becomes a vegetarian, and says Gussie has to be too. The problem is, it makes him grumpy, and it's putting a strain on their engagement -- especially since he is falling in love with the chief. And the Machievellian Stiffy Byng blackmails poor Bertie into stealing an African totem from her uncle, believing that there's a curse on it.

"The Ties that Bind" begin to choke people when Bertie arrives at Totleigh Towers, thinking that Florence and Madeleine are safely engaged. Unfortunately when local politics go awry, Roderick Spode decides to run for office -- and Madeleine breaks their engagement. Now Bertie is engaged to two horrible women at once... unless Jeeves can save him from a fate worse than death.

It's hard to wrap up such a scattered series, but the fourth season of "Jeeves and Wooster" manages to do a good job. The first few episodes are the weakest of the entire series, since it seems like the scriptwriters simply didn't know what to do when Bertie and Jeeves are cornered.

But after that, things get wild and hilarious, with both our heroes in (ugly) drag and more mad antics at Totleigh Towers. And though Jeeves always saves the day, whether by blackmail or masks, the explosive finale is an absolute stunner. Exploding baptismal fonts, kangaroos, and a stolen book of scandals are just a few of the things that turn up.

The cast is STILL in flux, since Sir Roderick, Aunt Agatha, Florence and Stiffy all undergo cast changes again. Some are good, some are bad. But the vacant-eyed and helium-voiced Madeleine, painfully hearty Honoria and the violent ex-Nazi Roderick Spode are the same as always. And Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry are, as always, wonderfully funny as the hapless aristocrat and his brainy manservant.

While the first half is rather weak compared to the rest of the series, the last half makes up for this. And while it's sad to see the hilarity end, Season Four is a fitting finale to a wonderful comedy series.

Who can argue that the content is just short of brilliant? One couldn't pick two better actors to bring Wodehouse to life. But while the ripping yarns are engaging, the production leaves a little to be desired and detracts from the experience. It looks like somebody set up an old reel to reel in a dark room, pointed a camera at the screen and burned that to DVD. Come on, we've been living with DVDs for quite a few years. Producing something of quality is what we expect from PBS, right?

I agree with the other reviewers. I love Jeeves & Wooster. I love Fry & Laurie. But the 4th season isn't up to snuff. The writing is weak. It makes me think they ran out of Woodehouse's original stories and arrogantly thought they could pull together their own. A lot of the original cast members are gone, and their replacements just don't cut it. For example, the imposing Roderick Glossip is now a nice fuzzy guy who needs help. At least it's the same Honoria. In a lot of places I felt like I was watching a Fry & Laurie skit, rather than Jeeves & Wooster. Not that a Fry & Laurie skit is a bad thing, but it just didn't fit with Woodehouse.

I've greatly enjoyed Wodehouse's stories involving the Wooster and Jeeves pair. This TV series overall has been quite good, although the first two seasons are most definitely the best. This one, the fourth suffers from far too many cast changes (the characters feel like they've changed too much as well). Some quite corny script pieces, and some strange mangling of different short stories to make up an episode.

Overall, I do still enjoy the series.

This season isn't as strong and is a bit sillier than the other three, but that should in no way effect your decision to buy this because it's better than 99% of what's on TV today. You will not be dissappointed.

The last disk in Volumn two titled: "the ties that bind" , I feel was the best of the whole 4th season! That awful
Mr. Brinkly was in it and he stole the private and cherished "book" from Jeeves's Ganymedes club. And of course Bertie got himself engaged again... to two women at the same time! Bertie and Jeeves's antics on this particular disk are quite funny. It shows how far they've come as friends as well as loyal employer/employee. Other than that disk, I can't recall the other ones in that 4th series off hand.
Beth