Customer Reviews

Remington Steele: Seasons Four & Five

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I can't give this collection less than five stars despite the mostly horrible Season 5 included in the series. Steele, I would rather have Season 5 than not. I'm just thankful I will have the entire series on DVD as of August 15, 2006 and can finally retire my deteriorating video tapes forever. My favorite episodes are in the previous seasons, but I enjoy them all, especially "Steele at Your Service" and "Beg, Borrow, or Steele." Just try to forget about Jack appearing in Season 5 and enjoy these final seasons of RS on DVD.

Here's a list of the episodes:

Season 4

67. 4- 1 Steele Searching (1)
68. 4- 2 Steele Searching (2)
69. 4- 3 Steele Blushing
70. 4- 4 Grappling Steele
71. 4- 5 Forged Steele
72. 4- 6 Corn Fed Steele
73. 4- 7 Premium Steele
74. 4- 8 Coffee, Tea, or Steele
75. 4- 9 Dancer, Prancer, Donner and Steele
76. 4-10 Steele on the Air
77. 4-11 Steele, Inc.
78. 4-12 Steele Spawning
79. 4-13 Suburban Steele
80. 4-14 Santa Claus is Coming to Steele
81. 4-15 Steele Blue Yonder
82. 4-16 Sensitive Steele
83. 4-17 Steele in the Spotlight
84. 4-18 Steele at Your Service
85. 4-19 Steele in the Running
86. 4-20 Beg, Borrow, or Steele
87. 4-21 Steele Alive and Kicking
88. 4-22 Bonds of Steele

Season 5

89. 5- 1 The Steele That Wouldn't Die (1)
90. 5- 2 The Steele That Wouldn't Die (2)
91. 5- 3 Steele Hanging in There (1)
92. 5- 4 Steele Hanging in There (2)
93. 5- 5 Steeled With a Kiss (1)
94. 5- 6 Steeled With a Kiss (2)

The debonair ex-con-man and strait-laced detective return in the last two seasons of "Remington Steele," where Steele and Laura solve new mysteries -- and uncover old ones. While the final season is weak compared to the previous ones, the last two seasons are still quite enjoyable and amusing.

As the season opens, Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) returns to England, trying to keep Steele (Pierce Brosnan) from running afoul of Scotland yard. He's masquerades as an assassin while looking for clues to his past -- and a murder happens. But even back in America, their problems don't cease -- and some of them are very funny.

Among other things, the agency investigate a wrestler, missing experimental pigs, faux obituaries, a body that fell onto a airline luggage carousel, a self-improvement spa where "accidents" keep happening, tell-tale butlers, missing caviar, and deal with an inept would-be detective whose latest scheme gets a man killed. Steele and Laura are even declared dead -- and Mildred (Doris Roberts) is the prime suspect in their "murder."

And on the personal front, Laura finds a doctored photo of her in a porno, Steele apparently gambles away the agency, and Mildred becomes a radio star. But the fourth season takes a nasty turn when Steele finds that he'll be deported unless he gets a green card -- and it seems that Laura is the only one available...

The fifth season was done for contractual reasons, and the stars didn't want to do it, since it led to them losing out on roles they wanted. So, they only did a trio of movies, which rather hastily wrap up the threads of the series -- mainly Steele's past, Steele and Laura's relationship. It's very light on detective work, but it does give us a satisfactory finale.

It seems that their faux honeymoon will be as peaceful as their job. Nasty insurance agent Norman Keyes (James Tolkan) is hounding Steele, and an Immigration officer is trying to woo Laura -- and get Steele out of the picture. And then their "marriage" is put to the test when a DIFFERENT woman claims to be Steele's wife. And in the two-hour finale, the duo discover the truth about Steele's inheritance and past... and finally deal with their tempestuous half-relationship.

The fifth half-season is a half-hearted, rushed finale to the series, but it does manage to wrap things up in a way that viewers will enjoy -- especially the final scenes. But the season preceding it is quite solid, with its mixture of romantic comedy, action and mystery.

Okay, few of these mysteries actually resemble anything in real life -- although the pirated music one is pretty entertaining, as is the one where Laura moonlights as a stewardess. But the mysteries are all tightly-written and intelligent, and even the fifth season's more drawn-out episodes are still fairly entertaining.

The writers had perfected the mix of comedy and mystery, and weren't afraid to be bizarre (gunsel Santas?). Not to mention that solid, moderately witty dialogue. ("If I were a man would you question it if I told you I was going to enter the Boston Marathon?" "I would question why anyone would want to run 26 miles without being chased!").

Laura and Steele finally deal with their tangled, complex relationship, after a stint at a "relationship issues" seminar that explodes in their faces. But fortunately the details of Steele's past seems to help. And secretary Mildred gets to be a bit more independent, dealing with a crooked televangelist and working as a hard-love radio commentator.

"Remington Steele" ended on a middling note, but the fourth and fifth seasons are "steele" entertaining viewing. Definitely worth seeing.

I was a big fan of this series when it first aired in the 80's. Like almost all of the fans I supported the effort to bring it back to life. Now twenty years later and purchasing all of the DVD sets, I can only say again that I'm sorry to see that it's over.

For those who haven't seen the show, season four continued the excellent plot lines and easy banter between the stars. The truncated season five was made up of three two-part episodes. I could have done without the Roselli character put in as a rival love interest for Laura. This may have influenced my rating of this set, but you aren't allowed half star rating so I went with the five star rating.

They did however bring a conclusion to the series and that is what's important. Now I can pull out the season one DVDs and start watching all over again.

Highly recommended for season four. Season five is a reserved recommendation but since they are packaged together you don't have a choice.

I just had an additional thought. Since all the stars are still alive, I'd like to see a 2 hour made for television movie that takes place 20+ years later. Maybe with the children grown and ready to take over Remington Steele Investigations.

I've been watching TV from its early days in the 1950s through the present and am convinced that Remington Steele was as good as general audience TV gets. In fact, I think it was the best TV series ever made. Remington Steele was a suberbly done combination of action, adventure, and romantic comedy with very good scripts and fine acting by attractive and appealing people. It was -- and still is -- consistently entertaining and no other series was better. I agree that the addition of Doris Roberts as Mildred Krebs made the second and later seasons even better than the first season, and I thoroughly enjoyed the first season. If you are a fan of Remington Steele you've probably already bought the DVDs of the first three seasons and you'll love this final release too. If you've never seen Remington Steele or have forgotten how good this show was, please do yourself a favor and order this DVD set now. Better still, order the earlier releases to enjoy now while you're waiting for this set of the final two seasons to be released.

The final episodes of Remigton Steele do not compare to the first three seasons, but that was the result of changing writers in the hope of giving NBC what it wanted to make the show "hipper and more marketable." There are a few episodes that are reminiscent of the earlier seasons -- not surprisingly, these were penned by original writers and directed by Seymour Robbie. The addition of Jack Scalia (who NBC was trying to make into the next big thing) to the cast was a dreadful mistake as his acting sinks every scen he is in like a lead balloon. The final episodes on disk five at least wind up the series nicely by addressing some of the key threads that were recurring themes, who Steele's father is, will Steele and Laura get together. Despite the dramtic shift in the quality of the series, I still found myself sad when he final episode ended -- a tribute to the greatness that was there. I love the bonus goodbyes to the show from the cast, and the writers. All shows should respect and appreciate their fans as much.

My wife and I were dating and freshly married when this show was on, so there's a lot of nostalgia attached. What frequently happens is that we think back to a show we liked, we get it, and the show wasn't what we remembered.

Happily, this is not the case with Remington Steel. I find myself remembering just enough of each episode to keep the surprises. I love the interplay between Laura and Mr. Steele, and I love continual references to films.

Donato

I loved the Remington Steele series and still do. I had no idea what a huge impact Laura Holt made on my little junior high and highschool life until I watched the shows as an adult woman. She was strong, smart, and classy, and that's what I wanted to be. To this day I love a man in cuff links. My husband has a huge collection and now he knows why (seeing that I make him watch all the DVD's with me). I always adored the witty banter and the quarky situations that Laura, Mildred, and Steele ended up in and I don't care if season 4 and 5 don't meet the standards of the originals. These DVD's always bring a smile to my face and give my husband and I something witty to watch around 5:oo when all that is on is a two hour stint of "Seventh Heaven."

I am a big Remington Steele fan and loved "Season 5." Season 4 was fantastic, but it was at this time that Pierce was up for the role of James Bond and NBC was not certain if they wanted to renew the show. Bonds of Steele, the last episode had great ratings which led to the mini series called season 5 to tie up the show. I loved the fact that after Steele had so many ex-girlfriends, it was time for Laura to have a serious suitor as well. Check out the excellent comedic timing between Pierce and Stephanie in "Steele Hanging in There" when the Steeles' return from their honeymoon and throw a dinner party for Gladys Lynch. Also check out the wonderful wardrobe for both. In earlier seasons, the network wanted Stephanie to have a hipper wardrobe. I love the return of her hats and more elegant outfits. Pierce's suites are are gorgeous as well! I will be glad to finally have this on DVD!

Although I rate this a 5 because I just love this show, I wanted to warn any new viewers about a troublesome addition on the season 4 disk. Like most people buying these seasons I am a longtime fan who knows the ending already, however, my husband had never seen the show before. I was vastly enjoying introducing him to it in marathon syle sessions of viewing. As before, we watched the additional "making of" type spot, which in this case highlighted the guest stars they had on each episode. Again they interspersed commentary with clips from the show.... To my shock and dismay, they also played the clip revealing who Steele's father was! I had no chance to mute it for my husband's sake. Within moments one of the two most important plot points had been summarily revealed before we could even put the last disk in the machine. Talk about disapointment. So much for all the mystery they had built up over 4 seasons. For the most part I highly recomend this set, just wait till the end of the series before you watch the extras!

This was my first time watching the series, so I was very excited for the final seasons to come out. I hadn't heard great things about the fifth season, however, so I was apprehensive as I watched it. First, let me say that up until the end of the second to last episode of season four, it was the same old Remington Steele that I know and love. The last episode of season four, where Remington is "forced" to marry a prostitute to keep himself from being deported was pretty ridiculous and unrealistic. I watched the first three hours of season five, and was so disgusted with it that I didn't watch the rest. The characters change quite a bit during season five, and I thought that many of the things that they did were not consistent with their characters' behavior during the previous four seasons. I did end up watching the last three hours, though, and my attitude toward season five improved somewhat, and I think I can say that I am satisfied with the way that the series ended. Anyway, definitely buy this set because there are plenty of great moments on it to make up for the few bad ones.