It's that time of year again - a magical time when television studios release their most successful shows from the previous season in deluxe and frequently expensive DVD sets. But this last seasons was, of course, different. The writers strike cut the season down to 16 episodes and, as expected, many are starting to complain that the price hasn't been discounted. Paying the same price for less product does seem unfair. That is, to everyone but the media industry. As for me, I'm not surprised in the slightest. I expect to be exploited by the media - it's nothing new. The real question is, with all Office season four episodes already available on NBC's website, will people feel cheated enough to forgo this collection altogether?

Season four seemed like something of a departure from the usual style. Earlier seasons featured many episodes with a more-or-less self-contained story that came to some sort of resolution within 21 minutes. Season four seemed to be mainly episodes dealing with larger story arcs. Yeah, there were always little stories going on (e.g. they lose their parking lot, etc.) but they now feel firmly in the background, totally dominated by the more personal stories going on.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. In one sense, I'm happy that the Office is flourishing and moving beyond a simple (but awesome) comedy show. At the same time, I sometimes miss the lighthearted format of the earlier seasons. It's definitely a matter of personal preference.

Regardless, it's definitely a strong season and it's essential viewing for fans of the series because of all the major plot developments. For those who are considering skipping the season on DVD, I would argue that the bonus features make it worth the extra money. You get plenty of deleted scenes, commentaries, and all that good stuff. Sure, you could watch them online for free, but then you have to use NBC's less-than-stellar video player and you still have to watch advertisements.

Disappointing season compared to 1,3, and especially 2? Probably. Overpriced box set considering the shortened season due to the writer's strike? Definitely. Still one of the best shows on tv and still worth owning? Ye-esh. So should you buy it now or discounted later?

Well, i'm a fan of The Office and have all 4 seasons on dvd(recently addicted so i had to play catch-up). This was a day-1 purchase for me only because i love the show; and because i had a gift card and some discounts coming to me. I bought the special edition at Target with the bonus 5th disc being The Office Q&A convention in Scranton, PA with the supporting cast. If you don't know what to expect(i didn't), above all else don't expect professionalism or anything fancy. The convention looked huge and was packed with Office fans! The camera-work had a very "we coulda done this with a camcorder"-look to it. It has the standard host/audience's questions format. It lasts about an hour and is fun if you're a die-hard fan. However, i thought it was going to be the support cast for 30 minutes, then the main stars for 30. But Steve, Rainn, John, Jenna, and B.J.(he's in the writer's convention extra though) NEVER appear. Oh well.

As for the other discs, haven't gone through it all yet(episodes or extras-bloopers, deleted scenes, etc) but i was disappointed to see there appears to be only 4 audio commentaries. Now, with a shortened season(which is not their fault) i would think they would try to put as many extras as possible to help make up for it. And with such a large and great ensemble cast, they have plenty of people to choose from to help do this. Yet only 4 commentaries? I only nit-pick about this cause i love the commentaries with the cast and crew and find them(& the deleted scenes) as enjoyable as the shows themselves.

The bonus script is, uh, nice. But you're gonna have to put it in with the dvd's everytime or the outer casing will be too big/loose(you'll see what i mean). The Office sticky notes bonus are also included(yay?). All in one big box for $37 this week at Target. The standard version is on sale for $30 this week minus the big box, 5th disc, and notes. I think Best Buy has their spec.ed., but that comes with a t-shirt/water bottle combo(?).

Anyway, i hope this helps a little as to whether you want to fork over for the Target 'deluxe' edition or not. Honestly, after all my credits, i only paid $26 for mine but still feel slighltly jipped on the commentaries and no Michael, Dwight, Jim, Pam, Ryan, or Toby at the convention(but that might be my fault as i didn't research who was included). Overall 4 stars for dvd set, minus one for price and lack of extra extras to make up for shortened season. Having said all that, i'm gonna hang on to my copy and watch it over and over again, but i'm biased that way. And before you reach for that not-helpful button... FACT: my preview is still better than most reviews like "office rox", "office sux", "my shipment hasn't arrived".

(edit: besides the (great)deleted scenes for each episode and 4 commentaries, the other two standard major extras of note are the bloopers which run about 22 minutes and the The Office "Writer's Block" Convention which runs about 52 minutes. Greg Daniels, Jen Celotta, Mike Schur, Mindy Kaling, BJ Novak, and Eisenberg & Stupnitsky are notables there, but still no Paul Lieberstein)

First off, let me say I am completely in love with The Office, and it is one of my favorite TV shows in recent history. The plot is engaging, the story entertaining and the characters very memorable. Even people who have not seen the first few seasons would not miss much if they start with the fourth season.

However, my review is more of the Unbox Amazon player and service than the TV show itself.

I write episode recaps and review of the office for a small fan website and even though I watch the show on TV when it first airs, I like to have a copy of it to rewatch again while I am writing. Last season I used the iTunes season pass to accomplish this, but since the Office is not available on iTunes this year, I decided to download the video from Amazon instead.

My first impressions were very good! It was very easy to plug in my current account information into their one-click shopping and buy the episode. However, I then had to download their proprietary software to play the video. Well, Amazon neglected to mention that the player would not work on a Macintosh computer, making my purchase completely worthless. Furthermore, they do not have any refund process in place, and even though I have not downloaded the video, and am incapable of downloading it, I have yet to receive a refund.

Luckily, my girlfriend also enjoys this show and does have a Windows computer and had downloaded it, so I went over to her place to watch it, and the video quality is terrible. It looks like it was recorded on a cheap VCR. Much much worse video quality than the episodes I downloaded last season off of iTunes. Despite that, the files are twice as large as the ones off of iTunes, to the tune of 1 GB per hour of video.

All in all i rate the video as a 10/10, but the service as 1/10.