Customer Reviews

thirtysomething: The Complete Fourth and Final Season

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you loved thirtysomething, of course you need the 4th (and final) season on dvd and for the time being this is the only one available. This season had so many memorable moments (Spoilers removed: Billy in the elevator, Ellyn's wedding, Nancy's cancer resolution, that shocking thing that happened to Gary, Hope & Michael's relationship being challenged, Nancy & Elliot considering moving to California etc). It is worth buying despite some of the issues with this particular package. I note that a number of reviewers are blaming Shout! Factory for the limited extras on this release. I am wondering if we are lucky to have the season available at all.

For many years, the thirtysomething dvd release was delayed due to problems getting clearances for the music that was such an essential part of the show. MGM, which owns the rights to thirtysomething is on the verge of bankruptcy. I noticed some changes in the "pop" music on the soundtrack, most notably that "Chapel of Love" was replaced on the wedding episode. This makes me wonder if the entire dvd had to be done "on the cheap" due to MGM's financial issues. This would also explain why the package artwork is clearly taken from first-season promo materials. It is possible that if it weren't for this "amazon exclusive," the 4th season might not have been released in any form whatsoever.

Creators Ed Zwick & Marshall Herskovitz taped a short introduction for Season 4 that basically rehashes material available on extras for the first season. Sadly, there are no commentaries from the actors, directors or writers. I have a LOT of questions for Liberty Godshall who co-wrote and acted in the episode "Advanced Beginners" which will probably have to wait for a deluxe edition. Mel Harris directed one episode and according to IMDB, never directed anything else. I would love to hear stories about that. I also noticed some comments about Michelle Pfeiffer who was the reigning "hottie" in pop culture at the time-- and had recently divorced Peter Horton who played Gary. (Surely an "inside" joke in the days before IMDB.com.)

Extras aside, this season is such a great encapsulation of a particular period in time. There was a familiar-feeling recession that hit-- forcing DAA to cut staff and partner with a Dutch company (and throw the usually-unflappable Miles Drentell off his game.) AIDS and AIDS-testing were new issues for heterosexual couples. One character deals with an HIV-positive test that felt like an immediate death sentence 20 years ago. Yet the stories and characters continue to feel like real people with real feelings and real challenges in relationships, in families, at work and in the greater society that are universal across time.

I love watching this show again and being reminded of who I was the first time I saw it. I was a little younger than the characters. Now, I am substantially older than thirtysomething and can see how this show influenced the way I understood my life in my 30s. (A lot of wishing that Billy Sidel would come along, of course!)

I think it would be a really interesting show for people who are currently in their 30s to watch and compare their lives with since when it first ran, they were little kids. It is a brilliantly written, acted and directed slice of time full of the humor, sorrow, drama and melodrama of the minutia of life.

After three seasons of thirtysomething DVD releases with audio commentaries and great interviews included in the packages...


this 4th (final) season release--an Amazon exclusive--contains no extras save for a quick intro from the creators. No episode commentaries! And with so many crucial episodes story-wise!

I honestly expected more from the season four set, considering this was the final season of this epic drama.

-The quality in some of the episodes is shaky - at least on my Sony Blu Ray player. There are a fair share of pixilated scenes (like in the episode 'Distance,' for example) that almost appear as if they were transferred from a VHS master. I didn't notice this problem with the first two seasons.

-No extras was a cheap way to go out. If anything, Shout Factory should have saved a few of the extras from the first and second season and placed them on the Season Four discs. Also, they could have mustered a few commentaries. Hell, get Marshall and Edward to at least comment on the series finale! Their series introduction - albeit intriguing - was the only extra in this set and very brief at that.

-Artwork was dated on the outside box. I'm starting to think that they only had good stills from the first season. Or perhaps all of the program's publicity photos were done in season one.

Final take: Only buy if you're a die hard fan like I am, and want to complete your thirtysomething digital collection.

I am so pleased the fourth and final season of Thirtysomething is being released. I look forward to seeing Ellyn and Billy as a couple and Melissa and Lee together and the changes in Hope's and Michael's and Elliot's and Nancy's lives. Some of the best episodes of Miles Drentell are on season four. There is also an episode that features Melanie Mayron's sister, Gale in which they play sisters with Melissa visiting her sister, Jill Steadman in NYC when Melissa is offered a photography job for Vanity Fair; one of my favorites this season. There are some emotionally powerful episodes in season four and the original music that was left intact in the episodes including Ray Charles, "Come Rain or Come Shine." I hope there is commentary from Polly Draper on season four. That would make it perfect. Thank you so much for releasing to DVD! :o)

I paid the full pre-release price for this set. I felt a little ripped off when I opened it and realized there were no features -- having enjoyed the first two seasons completely and having already noticed a drop-off of episode-specific commentary in Season 3.

The prior reviewers have nailed it. It seems a lot of this was just recorded off whatever master there is and not digitized well. Picture quality varies -- sometimes between cuts in the same scene! This feels like a slapped together set. Disc 4 cuts off before the ending of (what I assume is) the final scene of the last episode, and closing credits for that episode are therefore also omitted.

That said, the scenes cut out for syndication are returned to us here and the final episode is re-mastered beautifully (the only reason this review goes up to 2 stars).

I don't know the politics or the finances surrounding this project, but commentaries on the prior seasons' discs and opening credits on the Season 4 episodes indicate to me that Zwick and Herskovitz lost interest after 3 seasons and became involved again only for the final episode. Maybe this has something to do with the Season 4 DVD Set quality. Whatever the reason, this final offering is a disservice to the series and disappointment to those of us who now have a 4-Season DVD collection.

Why is this so much more expensive than the other seasons? It is not longer, has no extras. Can only assume amazon is fleecing the fans for every cent....

Just received final season of thirtysomething on DVD. Wow NO special features, NO commentary, what a MAJOR disappointment in an otherwise great series release from Shout Factory. If any season required some context in the form of the excellent commentary from the writers, actors and directors this was it. MAJOR shame, Major disappointment.

I was a huge fan of thirtysomething...and I remember hoping it would be picked up on another network after the show was canceled...no such luck. I felt they didn't have a chance to finish critical story lines...like what does Michael do after leaving DDA? Are Ellyn and Billy a happily married couple? Do Michal and Hope solve their marital problems? I hope a commentary track will give me some insight into 'what might have been'

I was waiting to see if I enjoyed this season as much as I did twenty years ago (and if I disliked the Hope character as intensely). Yes and sadly, yes (just as humorless as ever).

I am so enjoying this fourth and final season of Thirtysomething. I only saw parts of it back when it ran on tv, and am so glad I got it. It is worth getting and adding to your collection!