MacGyver: The Complete Final Season – I’m no Patty or Selma Bouvier, but I understand what people enjoy about “MacGyver.” You can’t deny the inherent coolness of a guy who can take a paperclip, a wad of gum, three sheets of toilet paper, and a sprig of parsley and make a functional radio transmitter. By this seventh and final year of the show, however, two things are woefully apparent. The first is that Richard Dean Anderson’s hairdresser had lost control of the man’s mane; the thing is on the verge of getting a co-starring role, so prominent is it. The other is that when you have to resort to a two-part episode where MacGyver dreams he’s gone back in time to the days of King Arthur, it’s time to call it quits. Fortunately, the producers of the show agreed with my position on this matter.
The Golden Girls: The Complete Sixth Season – Say what you will about “The Golden Girls,” but in addition to being a guilty pleasure, it also gave a lot of actors who weren’t exactly spring chickens a chance to appear on TV again. This season found Don Ameche, Cesar Romero, Harold Gould, Hal Linden, Bill Dana, and Alan King popping up either as relatives or dates of the girls, and it also saw Debbie Reynolds showing up as a potential new roommate. (Dorothy was planning to remarry her ex-husband, Stan, but it didn’t take.) Fans will enjoy the bonus feature, a 20-minute segment from a Museum of TV and Radio appreciation of the show where Rue McLanahan and Betty White detail the origins of the series.
Charmed: The Complete Sixth Season – And now, the polar opposite of the Golden Girls. The reality of the matter, folks, is that no matter how hot Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan, and Holly Marie Combs may be…and they are damned hot, my friends…I will never, ever forgive the WB for canceling “Angel” but allowing this show to stay on the air. It’s not bad; it just tends toward being a bit silly. That having been said, having these three witches appear in tight outfits and hot costumes in the various episodes makes it much easier to watch. (Milano spends an enjoyable amount of time in a bikini top during this season’s first episode.) It’s still a chick show at heart…the longest running female drama in TV history, in fact…but it gets short shrift for its DVD releases; there’s not so much as the first special feature here.
Gilmore Girls: The Complete Sixth Season – Otherwise known as the last season of the show that purist fans will ever watch. This is the year that starts with Lorelai and Rory not talking and Rory taking a break from college in order to do community service for stealing a yacht with her boyfriend, Logan…and it ends with Logan leaving Rory to take a job in London and Lorelai sleeping with Christopher a.k.a. Rory’s dad. And somewhere in between, there are guest appearances from Joe Pernice, Sparks, Sonic Youth, and Paul Anka. What’s not to love? Season 7, apparently…but that’s just the word on the street; I won’t watch it ‘til it’s out on DVD.
Home Improvement: The Complete Fifth Season – Yawn. More tool-related shenanigans with Tim Allen…and, again, the only extra is a bunch of bloopers.
J.A.G.: The Complete Second Season – Please offer a hearty hello to Catherine Bell, who joined the series during this, its second year. More military courtroom action for your viewing enjoyment, plus audio commentary and two featurettes (one about the season itself, the other about the J.A.G. Corps in the real world).
Stay tuned for at least one more volume…possibly two more volumes…of TV DVD QT’s before the end of 2006. I’d like to not start 2007 with a gargantuan backlog, thank you very much…
