The Office: Season Six

It took me a while to start watching The Office when it began to air.  I saw an episode every so often and I knew who the main characters were.  I didn’t start really watching the show until it was in syndication.  After that, I decided that I enjoyed the show enough to pick up the DVD sets.  I picked up The Office: Season Six when I found it on sale.

Since this is the sixth season of The Office, the characters are very well developed and situations have been established.  The show is a bit different since it is set up like a documentary film crew is filming the employees of a fictional paper company.  I don’t remember ever hearing why a film crew was filming them.  It is stretching believability a bit that they would still be filming after so long, but it does give the show an interesting set up.  The show is funny, though it is a sort of twisted humor that some people won’t appreciate.

The main development in the sixth season of The Office, at least for me, is that Pam and Jim get married.  I like that they are happily married and I loved the wedding episode.  It had just the right blend of sweet moments and goofy stuff.  I know that some people have complained that the show isn’t as good since Jim and Pam got together, but I don’t agree with that at all.  I don’t think that a couple has to be kept apart to keep a show entertaining.  I’ve stopped watching shows in the past because of that nonsense, so I’m glad it isn’t happening here.

The Office: Season Six is available on DVD and Blu-ray.  I picked up the DVD.  I really don’t like the case.  Two discs are stored on a panel, with one slightly on top of the other one.  To make matters worse, the edge of the disc that goes on the bottom has to go under the thing that holds the top disc.  This has become my least favorite DVD case because of that.  I hope this crappy design isn’t used on future sets of the show. 

The Office: Season Six has a decent amount of extras.  The show does deleted scenes wonderfully well.  They aren’t just random bits that don’t seem to fit with what is in the finished episodes.  Instead, they add to them and help to embellish them.  The deleted scenes are pretty entertaining.  The bloopers are funny and last a decent amount of time.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Office: Season Six and think the DVD or Blu-ray set is worth picking up for fans of the show.  I think the series is still entertaining and worth watching.

I did get a review of The Office: Season Six posted on Epinions.

The Office: Season Six

Castle - The Complete Second Season

I started watching Castle in the spring of 2009 when the show began airing.  I was quickly hooked on the show and continue to watch it.  I have the first season on DVD and I picked up Castle - The Complete Second Season when it was released.

Castle is an hour long show that airs on ABC.  It is about an author, Richard Castle, who ends up tagging along with homicide detective Kate Beckett.  They first meet when someone starts killing in ways that Rick used in his different books.  Once the case is solved, Rick manages to arrange things so that he can keep going along with Kate and he intends to base a new character, police detective Nikki Heat, on her.  Kate is really annoyed, but they end up working well together.

When Castle - The Complete Second Season  starts, Rick’s book Heat Wave is about to be released.  The book actually did come out in September of 2009.  Kate is really upset with Rick during the first episode of the season, but she gets over it and they continue working together.  Every episode features a different case that Kate investigates.  Many of the murders are somewhat bizarre or twisted, like a person dressed as a vampire being stabbed with a wooden stake.  The murders do add some mystery to the show, though the mysteries aren’t overly complex.  They are highly entertaining.  Some violence turns up every so often, but it generally isn’t that graphic.  Humor is used in every episode, usually through something that Rick says or does.  I think the humor works to make things more entertaining. 

The main characters remain the same in Castle - The Complete Second Season.  The characters are definitely one of the strong points for the show and one of the reasons why it is so entertaining.  I especially love Rick’s daughter Alexis and his mother Martha.  Alexis is delightful and it is so nice to seen a teenager in a series that isn’t a brat or highly annoying.  The cast is wonderful, especially Nathan Fillion.  I started watching the show just because of him since I adored him on Firefly.  There are a few little references to Firefly during the second season.  The best one is during the Halloween episode when Rick is trying out a costume he claims is a space cowboy.  It is Mal’s outfit.

Castle - The Complete Second Season has a few interesting extras, including a blooper reel that is pretty funny.  The DVD set is great for fans of the show.

I did get a longer review posted on Epinions.

Castle - The Complete Second Season

Mork & Mindy - The Complete Third Season

Mork & Mindy is one of my favorite shows even though it has been off the air for years.  Unfortunately, the episodes don’t air on any stations and the final season still hasn’t been released on DVD.  I do have the first three seasons on DVD.  I recently watched the episodes in Mork & Mindy - The Complete Third Season.

Mork & Mindy is basically about an alien named Mork from the planet Ork.  He comes to earth to observe and makes friends with Mindy and ends up living with her.  Most of what happens in the episodes is tied to Mork learning something new about humans.  He knows more by the third season, but he still has a lot to learn. 

The fact that Mork still ends up in some rather odd situations is a big part of what makes Mork & Mindy so entertaining.  The show is hilarious and I think the humor has held up well.  I was laughing out loud during every episode when I watched this set.  Most of the humor comes from the odd things that Mork does.  This show is what really launched Robin Williams’s career.  I’ve read before that he was allowed to improvise a lot of stuff and I noticed things in almost every episode that he probably did improvise.  That works really well for the episodes and helps to make things more entertaining.

The cast changes slightly in the third season of Mork & Mindy again.  Mindy’s dad is bad more often, which I think is a good thing.  I missed him when he wasn’t around more in the second season.  Remo and Jeanie aren’t around as much, but that doesn’t bother me since they weren’t my favorite characters anyway. 

Mork & Mindy - The Complete Third Season doesn’t have any extras, which is disappointing. Despite that, the DVD set is still a must own for fans of the show.  I just wish the fourth and final season would be released.

I did get a longer review posted on Epinions.

Mork & Mindy - The Complete Third Season

The Big Bang Theory - The Complete Third Season

The Big Bang Theory has been one of my favorite shows since it began airing.  I was quickly hooked on it and I’ve picked up the DVD sets as they have been released.  I pre-ordered The Big Bang Theory - The Complete Third Season and I watched all the episodes in just a few days even though I’d already seen them a few times. 

The Big Bang Theory is my favorite show on now and I think it is the funniest show on as well.  I enjoy other comedies, but none are as consistently funny and entertaining as The Big Bang Theory.  Yes some of what happens is rather bizarre, but I think it works for the show and helps make things more entertaining.  Every episode makes me laugh numerous times.

The Big Bang Theory is about a group of friends, four of which are intelligent scientists and nerds.  The fifth friend is Penny, the pretty waitress living across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon.  The guys have set times to play certain video games and go to the comic book store.  They can have long conversations about movies and movie characters.  Science stuff comes up at times as well.  It sounds believable, but I have no clue how accurate it is. 

The characters are the strongest part of The Big Bang Theory.  They are all different and have their own little quirks.  That helps to make things really entertaining.  The cast is wonderful in the parts.

The Big Bang Theory - The Complete Third Season has a funny gag reel and two other extras featuring cast members that are interesting.  The DVD set is a must own for fans of the show.

I did get a longer review posted on Epinions.

The Big Bang Theory - The Complete Third Season

Veronica Mars - The Complete Second Season

I first heard about the television series Veronica Mars several years ago when it was still airing. I didn’t pay much attention to what I heard about the show at that point and I didn’t watch at that time. Since then, I’ve read and heard more about the show and I decided to pick up the DVD sets when I found them on sale. I recently finished watching Veronica Mars - The Complete Second Season.

The second season of Veronica Mars picks up a little while after the end of the first one. Some things from the first season do carry over into this season, so it is best to watch the episodes in order.

Once again, Veronica deals with several mysteries in these episodes. Some are rather simple and easy for her to resolve and others are more complex.  Just about all of them are entertaining in some way. There is one that runs through the entire season and is dealt with in some way in several of the episodes. That is resolved by the last episode in the set.

The same main group of characters in back. The characters are more complex and all of them have flaws. That makes them more believable, but it is also harder to like some of them at times, including Veronica.  I continue to think that Kristen Bell does a good job with the part.

There are only a few extras on the DVD set. Despite that, I still think the set is worth getting, especially for fans of the show. The second season is very entertaining and definitely worth watching for people who liked the first season.

I did get a longer review posted on Epinions.

Veronica Mars - The Complete Second Season

Facts of Life - The Complete Third Season

I loved The Facts of Life when it originally aired.  Unfortunately, the reruns haven't aired that much over the years.  I've found it on a few different stations over the years, but it was never on that long.  I picked up the DVD sets that were out last year.  One DVD set has the first two seasons and the second set has the third set.

The main group of characters is firmly established in the third season.  The girls have issues dealing with each other, but the dynamic works better than when there were more girls during the first season I think.  Some things tied to school are brought up, though the girls usually aren't shown in class.  They each have to deal with different things over the course of the season, and their friendship is tested a few times.  The plots are mostly self contained and resolved by the end of the episodes, though there are a few two part episodes.

I'm glad that I have the third season on DVD even though there are no extras for the set.  That is disappointing.

I did get a longer review posted on Epinions.

Facts of Life - The Complete Third Season

Veronica Mars - The Complete First Season

Veronica Mars is a television show that I've heard about for years before finally watching it.  I had read a few positive reviews of the seasons on Epinions.  In the last few years, I've heard more about how good the show is on a movie board I joined.  Earlier this year, I tracked down some episodes online.  I really enjoyed them and decided that I wanted the DVD sets.  I tracked down a sale and got all three seasons.

Veronica Mars is a wonderful show about a teenager, Veronica Mars, who works with her father Keith in his detective agency.  Even though the main character is a teenager and much of what happens is tied to high school in some way, this show isn't just for teenagers.  I actually think it is more for adults than teenagers because of the different subject matters that pop up every so often.  The show is set in Neptune, a fictional southern California town.

Most of the episodes have a mystery of some sort that Veronica works on and solves by the end of the episode.  The season also has a few season long mysteries that Veronica is trying to solve.  The main one involves the murder of her best friend, Lilly Kane.  Keith was the sheriff at the time of the murder.  People in Neptune, especially the Kane family, weren't happy with how he handled the investigation and it wasn't long before he was recalled.  After that, Veronica lost her popular friends at school, they had to move to a small apartment, and Keith's wife left.  Someone was arrested, but Veronica doesn't believe he is the killer, so she does her own investigating.  She is also trying to find her mother during the season.  The mystery elements work very well to the make episodes entertaining.  Time is also taken to deal with other issues Veronica has, like with her friends and love life.

The characters are all interesting, though not all likable.  A few of them are jerks, but that works for what is going on.  None of the characters are all good or all bad, which makes them more believable.  Even Veronica has some flaws.  Kristen Bell is wonderful in the part.  The rest of the cast does well with their parts too.

I'm very glad that I decided to start watching Veronica Mars.  I loved the first season and will probably start on the second season before long.  It is too bad that such a good show was canceled after only three seasons, though it is probably lucky that the show had the chance to last that long.  I have a feeling if it had been on a different network, it may not have lasted as long as it did.

I did get a longer review posted on Epinions.

Veronica Mars - The Complete First Season