Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Welcome to the O.C., B*tch, August 11, 2007
Much like "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Dawson's Creek," "The O.C." is one of those series that is a true time capsule from the years of their broadcast. The show was made for the generation of teens and young adults growing up in the beginning of the new millennium. But unlike it's predecessors it wasn't aimed solely at teens, but at their older siblings and parents. This is what set the series apart from the competition, and why it's first season was FOX's # 1 series. Creator Josh Schwartz (almost fresh out of USC film school) created essentially a John Hughes-isq television show (if Molly Ringwald was 30lb thinner and had a no-limit Amex Card). But the pop-culture quirks, loveable characters, and rich/beautiful sets was what made "The OC" the place to be.
The First season starts when Sandy Cohen (a Public Defender) brings his newest client, Ryan home for the weekend to his posh Newport Beach House. After a series of random events Ryan is adopted by the Cohen's and the first season follows his fish-out-of-water experiences learning the ins-and-outs of Rich society, and all the secrets that come with it. But events conspire outside of his control as he and his new brother, Seth, shake up the popularity Hierarchy at their High School.
The Second season takes the storylines and remaining characters from the first season and basically continues' their story's but with adding a lot more drama, subtracting some of the humor, and bringing 4 new characters into the mix.
Season three is where the show lost its direction. Having lost almost 40% of its main characters, and completely abandoning the comedy in favor of almost unrealistic soapy drama a dry spill hit `The OC' from which the show never truly recovered with the ratings and the critics. But if the third season did anything it show's the gangs graduation from high school (IMO in the best Graduation Scene ever to be filmed) and the death of a major characters that allowed the producers to complete re-tool the series in season 4.
Season four was more or less a renaissance for the series. The creator returned to the show full-time (after a year hiatus) and the intense drama was dropped pretty early in the season in favor of some much need comedy that returned the show its quirky roots. But unfortunately this wasn't enough and the show was cancelled; although the producers were given enough warning to write a finale that successfully and very-welly wraps everything up!
This DVD collection includes all 92 episodes on 28 discs. All special features from the previous releases have been carried over including two-discs of `bonus content' and the first season is remastered in Widescreen for the first time!
|
|
|
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A big sendoff, November 29, 2007
This is a not a review of the O.C.; you've probably already seen that and know what it's all about. If not, there are other reviews that can tell you all about the content. This is a review of "The O.C.: The Complete Series Collection." What a beautiful send off for those who were sad to see the show end too soon.
The packaging is really unique. One thing that is not conveyed by the stock photos is the size--it's really big, about twice as big as I expected. This is not going to fit easily on your average DVD shelf. The outer case is solid and the book packaging itself is really well done. There are some images from the original box sets' booklets as well as some new pictures that I haven't seen before. The book contains a mix of glossy pages with the episode descriptions and Atomic County excerpts and the thicker cardboard pages holding the discs. On these pages, there are discs on one side and a photo on the other.
The sleeves for the DVDs are cardboard, but (unlike some other sets) the discs were not scratched when I got the set. Part of this is because a piece of foam was inserted in between the book packaging and the outer plastic case so that the book didn't slide around and bang against the case during shipping.
The new features are nice but not necessary--if you already have the sets then the decision whether to buy or to stick with season sets is mostly a matter of how much you like this packaging. I have to say, though, the packaging is pretty dramatic and a lot of effort was put into giving this show the proper treatment. It's not just a bunch of old discs thrown in a crappy package and called a complete set.
|
|
|
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Nearly Perfect Set, January 3, 2008
Most people know all about the show (which is why they're looking at this product in the first place), so I'll get right into discussing the presentation. For more information on the case, you can see the pictures I've included above.
Inside:
- Each season is color coded.
- Each season has every episode listed, along with the writers and directors of the episode, the date aired, and a plot sypnosis.
- Also included are promotional cast pictures for each season.
- Each season has an "extras" DVD which has all the gag reels, sneak peaks, introspectives, etc., that correspond to the season. However, some season discs have additional content that is not included on the extras DVDs. -- For example, the 1st disc of Season One has commentary by the creator, "A Look at the O.C. Music Guide" and "The Model Home" as extra features which are not found on the extras disc.
Discs:
- There are several discs for each season.
- There is a little pocket for each disc to go into in the cardboard case. However, I find this to be not very intuitive. First of all, I never had the problem of discs falling out -- in fact I had the opposite problem! Some discs are jammed in so hard, that I can't pull them out. Secondly, sliding discs in and out of cardboard (however smooth it may be) worries me. The pockets are not coated with anything soft, and I'm afraid that my discs are going to get scratched if I keep pulling them in and out. Aesthetically it's appealing, practicality-wise it's not.
- However, everything is organized beautifully despite that, and it's very easy to flip back and refer to each episode written inside the case.
The Content:
- The gag reels are hilarious, although the music seems to drown out the dialog on some of them.
- Subtitles (French, Spanish, English) are available.
- Everything is nicely presented. Menus are not complicated. I've had no audio problems (aside from the gag reels), blurry pictures, frozen menus, or anything like that.
Overall, this is definitely a good collectors set, and has a lot of extra content that should keep you occupied for hours. My only problem with this set was the disc storage, and for that it loses 1 star.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
DVD ~ Blake Lively
DVD ~ Lauren Graham
DVD ~ Chad Michael Murray
DVD ~ David Boreanaz
