Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dr. Quinn Season 5-Dr. Mike at her best!, December 7, 2004
I have loved the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman series from the very beginning. I have loved watching the characters develop and change over the years. Seeing Dr. Michaela Quinn come from Boston, slide in the mud in the pilot episode, to now seeing her with her own young daughter Katie, and a wonderful family and a very good looking husband, Sully.
This is one of my favorite seasons. We get to see the struggle with the indians and the soldiers hit its peak. I have found this part of the plot so poignient throughout the series.
Dr. Mike now has a young baby to take care of, along with 3 wonderful children growing up. Mathew is a young man now, and the town's sherrif. Colleen is off to college and then medical school, while Brian is now a big brother, and turning into a young adult. Sully was the indian agent, but resigned his post. He now wants to help the indians in any way he can-even if it means sacrifices to his family.
This is the series at its very best. The lighting and setting is simply stunning! The homestead that Michaela and Sully live in really is gorgeous, and, a little hard to beleive that Sully built by himself with a tommahawk and some nails, but OK-.
If you have not watched Dr. Quinn from the beginning, now is a time to start. The best part about the this series is that it is family friendly, and deals with modern day issues, such as homosexuality, marriage, young adult issues nd problem, money, alcoholism, and each episode has a moral or strong point. Go Dr. Quinn!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Serious Season, And a Hankerin' For Hank, December 16, 2005
Season 5 of "Dr. Quinn - Medicine Woman" has 7 Volumes to savor. 25 episodes that include a couple of 2 parters. There are some great guest stars,wonderful history lessons,and as always an emotional roller coaster of storylines.Mixed in with the heartwarming stories,the season tackles some very serious subjects. Some subjects in fact, although well and tastefully presented, may lean a little toward the PG-13 audience.Or at least you may want to view and discuss with your youngster, the seriousness of the subjects.
One of the episodes I thought might be a little on the Pg-13 scale was "Before The Dawn". Horace is very depressed at his divorce from Myra, and tries to commit suicide. Of course, the town rallies to his rescue, sees him through this tough time and in the end, all is well. A good lesson of sorts, but I felt like, it was dealt with a little too easily.Others, although tough subjects, were good lessons on tolerance,good values and were well presented. 'The Body Electric", has poet Walt Whitman visiting Colorado Springs, and even Mike gets a little paranoid when she learns of his sexual preference. Other stroylines, include Mike trying to juggle her family life, her new baby and her practice(something very real to women of today)in "Having it All", adventure and danger in "Hostage" as Mike, baby Katie and Brian are held hostage by bank robbers,Matthew is very a much a man now and tries to uphold law and order as Sheriff(sometimes having to work against his own family) there's romance, sentiment,a budding relationship growing between the now college student Colleen and Dr.Cook, as well as Dorothy and Cloud Dancing.Disasters, disease, and prejudice are all among the storylines this season. Brian is growing up and gets into some trouble, that endangers the town(hey, nobody's perferct), Jake has a pretty nice evolving romantic storyline, but one of my favorites, Hank, is bearly noticeable through most of the season.
The season ends with a very dramatic,heartpumping and touching 2 part episode titled "Moment of Truth". The Indians are being treated despicably. Cloud Dancing takes the worst of it as he is horribly beaten by the soldiers just for coming back a little late on his day pass. Sully puts himself and his family in danger when he plans an escape for the Indians, and we are left literally, with a real cliff hanger.(You may want to have Season 6 on hand already).
Guest stars include Willie Nelson,Johnny and June Cash are back, David Carradine, Donald Moffat, Ally Mills and it's a real treat and family affair, as the Keach men make appearances as well. The DVDs are as always beautiful. The Colorado mountains look gorgeous. Not much in the way of features, some commentary, and bios. A couple of things to note, one not so important, but A&E, check the back of Vol 7. A misprint. His name is Sully, not Scully! The other, something I've mentioned in all the other seasons(and has kept me from going 5 stars)....A&E..this is a wonderful family series, please add some subtitles and captions for hearing impaired, so all may enjoy it. There are some stories revolving around the town's feeling of a Mexican woman(now a regular on the show) who has come to town("Los Americanos"), wouldn't it be nice if there were subtitles in Spanish on it.
All in all a great season, and a great series, which has never and still doesn't shy away from telling it like it was(and in some cases still is).Fans won't want to miss this emotional season. A little high priced, you may want to check with the outside sellers for a better deal.
Enjoy......Laurie
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Timeless classic, June 9, 2005
Overall, this season of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman had a slightly sadder feel to it than the previous 4. The inevitable fate of the Native Americans was becoming more and more apparent, despite Sully's and Mike's best efforts. The focus of the show shifted from emphasizing Mike and Sully's relationship (which was always the reason I tuned in! What a strikingly beautiful pair they made!), and more to matters of the townsfolk. It continued to seem as though the people in town, nearly all of whom Mike and Sully considered to be their friends and many of whom Mike had saved on more than one occasion, were all just as ignorant, judgemental and even mean-spirited as they were in the Pilot episode. Episodes would end with the wrong-doers shame-faced and contrite, and in the next ep they were right back to doing the same things again. They never seemed to learn anything. I suppose it's portrayal of human behavior was one way the series was very realistic, but after 5 seasons it could be frustrating and unsatisfying to watch.
This season did have two of my favorite episodes, A Place To Die, which detailed the effects of a staph infection in Dr. Mike's clinic at a time when very little was known how to combat such things. (Long before real sterilization beyond hybolic acid was used and before antibiotics were discovered.) In the end Dr. Mike burned her clinic and everything in it to the ground and started fresh, but it also meant humbling herself before the slimy banker Preston A. Lodge for a loan(the same actor who played evil General Custer in previous seasons!)It began the onset of money problems that would plague the family the rest of the series.
The other ep I am particularly fond of in this season is The Body Electric, which featured a visit from author Walt Whitman. His homosexual lifestyle, considered radical if not downright perverted at that time in history, provided some of the most profound discussion topics in my household. (At one point, Sully tells Mike that the Cheyenne are familiar with "man-woman", as they are called, and "Don't treat them no different than anybody else." Enlightened way before their time, weren't they, these "savages". ) It was presented tastefully and discreetly while still getting the point across to its' family audience and the entire cast, crew, writers and producers of Dr. Quinn are to be applauded for their open mindedness without resorting to preaching.
Re-watching these dvds reminded me why I loved this series of the nineties and how much I wish there was something of equal quality today. The ensemble cast, lead by Seymour and Lando's sizzling chemistry, was superb. There were always a few over-the-top moments of trite sappiness (at least for me), but overall, it was a television series that inspired discussion, and a teaching/learning tool.
The only criticism I would offer in regards to the entire dvd set, and all of the Dr. Quinn seasons, are the price, which are high by boxed dvd sets, and the very low amount of extras included in the sets. (There's only one commentary in this season, by Toovey and Allen, and while charming, I would have preferred hearing from Lando and Seymour, or even some of the behind the scenes people, like the period costume designers, those Emmy-winning hair dressers, producer Beth Sullivan, or some of their prolific writers.) They've included biographies of the cast in all the sets, but they are always the same, with no differences. It's like, what's the point, you know? I've got them memorized by now.
Overall, an outstanding entertainment experience, and I can't wait for the release of the final season of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
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