NEW ABC/Touchstone DVDs!-Greys, Betty, Lost, DH, B&S,WAB

[MadonnasManOne]

Maybe that bonus ep on the Bro and Sis set may be the original pilot ?

Could be. However, you would think that they would just list it as that, instead of as an un-aired bonus episode. I know that Desperate Housewives had an original pilot, that never aired, and I wish they would have included it on the first season set.

By the way, in response to your previous comment to me....it's not my fault if you are a bad boy. That's no reason to stop playing with me!

[Rowlf_The_Dog]

I would agree as well ... but I just don't see it as really being an un-aired ep ... it has to be the original pilot ...

I saw the first few eps of B&S and I loved it ... but I fell out of it ... and I always said I would buy the DVD ... so this one I am def getting ...

But I do know it's a show where continuity and flow are important ... as in ... you kinda have to watch the previous ep to kno what's been going on ...

So I don't really think that in the middle of the season they didn't show an ep ... and they are now including it ... cuz wouldn't that throw the show off a little?

Maybe I could be wrong ... but it could be the pilot ...

I would love to see the original pilot of DH ... so many changes were made ... I hope they include it in the final season's dvd set ...

[Disney's Divinity]

Well, I definitely plan on getting Desperate Housewives. Of the others, I might pick up Lost in the future and maybe Ugly Betty or Brothers and Sisters. I'll probably wait for those to go down a little or buy them used.

[James]

I think the bonus features sound pretty good, there's so much on each set, I wouldn't be complaining MM1. The only qualm I have though is that there's no audio commentary on the Desperate Housewives set, but other than that, they sound superb.
-James

[Jake Lipson]

I'm pretty sure the unaired B&S has to be the original pilot, yeah. I'm not aware of anything else they've shot that wasn't aired.

And once again I am still left with the question "Which four episodes of Grey's Anatomy are getting new cuts?" Also, will the two episodes which were extended for their initial broadcast run -- From a Whisper to a Scream and Didn't We Almost Have It All -- retain their long versions on disc? Scream was edited down by a few minutes for its repeat airings (although I do think the entire thing will be included on disc.)

I will be getting Grey's, Brothers & Sisters, Ugly Betty and Lost. Desperate Housewives jumped the shark last year and after giving it ample time to redeem itself, it let me down. So I'm done with that.

[MadonnasManOne]

I'm pretty sure the unaired B&S has to be the original pilot, yeah. I'm not aware of anything else they've shot that wasn't aired.

Desperate Housewives jumped the shark last year and after giving it ample time to redeem itself, it let me down. So I'm done with that.

It would be interesting to see the original pilot of Brothers and Sisters. I won't complain if that's what it is. I'm just extremely excited to get this great series on DVD, and that it is coming back in the fall.

I'm sorry to hear that you feel that Desperate Housewives "jumped the shark". While season 2 didn't live up to the great season 1, season 3 has been absolutely terrific. I don't feel you gave it ample time to "redeem itself", or, you would see that it improved greatly, this season. Then, again, you can't please everyone.

[Jake Lipson]

I gave it all of season 3 and, while there were a couple standouts (Bang, for example), it just wasn't enough for me. They seem to have selective memory about what they bring up and what they follow through on (example: where is Mike's dog?; what was that thing between Mike and Orson in the dentist office in the finale? They didn't know each other from prison, so it was unneeded), and while S3 has been unquestionably better than S2, the whole thing just feels incredibly sloppy. It's got some funny moments, but the writing is sloppy, it feels like they toss things out there and see if they'll stick for the characters without having a plan, and the mysteries just aren't involving. I love Season 1 and always will, but I'm sorry to say they never really recovered after letting Mary Alice's secret out of the bag. I understand that it is meant as a primetime soap opera, but in its first year it was a brilliant sendup of crappy soap norms; now, it has degraded into the crappy soap it started out spoofing. The minute I gave up for real is the minute that I realized -- <b>SEASON FINALE SPOILER AHEAD FOR ANYONE WHO STILL CARES AND HASN'T SEEN IT YET! --</b> that Edie was committing suicide and I didn't care at all one way or the other. All I felt was "eh, let's get on with Brothers & Sisters already." So yeah, I don't plan return visits to Wisteria Lane next year and may well sell off my Season 2 DVD.

[Rowlf_The_Dog]

Well if you were watching carefully at all ... the whole point of that dentist scene was that Mike recognized Orson ... why did he recognize him ... because years prior to that ... he went over to Monique's place the night she was murdered ... Mike obviously didn't put two and two together during that dental appointment ... so he thought maybe they had met when he did time ...

Orson clearly remembered that he saw him that night ... and whether or not he had killed Monique wasn't the case ... he had a witness that saw him on the scene ... so that's when he took desperate action ...

As far as Edie's attempted suicide ... that had to do more with her mother's premonition that she would wind up heartbroken and a lonely old woman ... so I kinda could understand why she did it ... but I do feel that act was a little too desperate ... and I can't wait to see how she's going to use it to her advantage in the fall ...

[James]

Mmm, I agree, it's definitely got a lot better this season. I like how Lynette and Tom have opened the pizza parlour and how both Lynette and Gaby have added humour to it. I love that scene where Gaby's talking to Carlos the night after she think she had sex with Zach, and it's really dramatic, and then Lynette just pops out of the house with chairs and says hi. That was so funny, I laughed so hard at it. And yeah, even though it isn't as good as past eps, it's still better than a lot of other things on TV. Give it another chance, we know you want to. Oh, and for the record, I won't care either when Edie dies (it hasn't aired yet in Australia). She's my least favourite character, so I won't mind. It'll make for juicy TV though.
-James

[Jake Lipson]

Well if you were watching carefully at all ... the whole point of that dentist scene was that Mike recognized Orson

I know that, but it proves my point. They drastically changed the Orson storyline for Season 3; despite playing it up as prison-related, it ended up being Monique, and what's with that person he was visiting in the mental hospital? The actress who was playing her quit, but they could still have worked the character in by having other characters mention her (or at least acknowlege her death or some such thing.) The Orson portrayed at his introduction in the last leg of Season 2 seems like a completely different character than the Orson displayed in Season 3, and that's what I mean about them tossing ideas around and waiting for them to stick. Super-self-involved shows like this with mystery arcs that demand a lot of the audience need to have a plan and purpose, and this one just doesn't.

As far as Edie's attempted suicide ... that had to do more with her mother's premonition that she would wind up heartbroken and a lonely old woman ... so I kinda could understand why she did it ... but I do feel that act was a little too desperate ... and I can't wait to see how she's going to use it to her advantage in the fall ...

Again, I understand the plot logistics here perfectly well. I'm saying I didn't care. When a character does something that drastic, it should envoke some kind of emotional respoinse from the viewer, and it just left me completely blah.

And yeah, even though it isn't as good as past eps, it's still better than a lot of other things on TV. Give it another chance, we know you want to.

Oh really? Because I watch a lot of TV -- other than Desperate, this past season alone, I watched Brothers & Sisters, Wildfire, Heroes, Lost, The Nine, Day Break, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Men in Trees and October Road on a regular basis, and occasionally Law & Order -- and every single one of those shows was better, richer and more satisfying than Desperate Housewives.

For some reason, my family continues to feel that it is worthwhile, so it will remain in our Tivo and I will probably see bits and pieces when I come in at 10:00 to take the TV for Brothers & Sisters. And since I plan to watch a lot of ABC shows next year, I'm sure I will keep up with DH against my will becase they run the ads for all their other shows near-excessively in all their other shows and always seem to spoil more than they should in those. But as far as me actulally watching the show and caring about it? No, that ship has sailed far away from the shark I sat around and watched them jump for the past two seasons, and I'm not sorry about leaving either. I'm just sorry it isn't the vastly better show it used to be.

[Disney's Divinity]

I kind of agree about the finale. Even though I got that tingly feeling at the sight of her doing what she was doing, most of the impact was made by Mary Alice's voice over. I mean, the fact that I cried over Nora and not Edie says something about how they played the story out. Maybe it was just hard for me to feel sorry for Edie after all the horrible things she'd done this season (twisting Mike's memory, "using her kid for sex bait," manipulating her child to get Carlos, lying to the woman who rents Mike's old house, taking advantage of Carlos by saying she'll have his child, etc.), whereas Nora was at least dedicated to her daughter.

And I kind of agree about a lot of episodes being below par. Bang and most of the episodes with Gloria and Bree were really great, but the rest seemed pretty bad. That might be because they relied too much on uninteresting subplots to get through the season.

But there are things about this show that I like too much to just stop watching. The only things I think they need to really work on are Susan and Gabrielle's stories. Susan's antics were only tolerable in the first season because she was involved in all the action, but now they've just made her into a drama queen (and the episode where her camp guide tells her this fact was fun to watch). And I don't think Gabrielle's had a chance yet to be involved with the main story arc, though she's always been close (having a miscarriage because Betty's son threw her down the stairs, dating Zach Young, etc.). Bree and Susan have been the central characters so far and, though Lynette hasn't been in on the mystery sequences yet either, Gabrielle's storyline doesn't have the same interest that Lynette's does. I wish the show would just tone down on their love lives and get back to the mystery. Or at least something better to watch.

[Disney-Fan]

I cannot ditto enough what Jake said. Up till Bang this would've been my favorite season. The humor in episode 5 was way up there with the season 1 material, the mystery seemed promising, the stories somewhat original and fresh and there was a sense of 'this is it! We're gonna hit a home run'. Instead, after Bang, all we got were some lame attempts at humor, sloppy and inconsistent writing and a lackluster resolution to the mystery (to be fair though, that last one wasn't up to the producers, not entirely anyway).

Though the hiatus cliffhanger was awesome, everything from episode 8 onwards just felt so very 'meh'. And don't even get me started on the stories we saw from episode 15! Carlos and Edie? Righttt... A dead husband in Mrs. McClusky's freezer? As IF! And that ridiculous excuse for a suicide. So, what? Last year she could handle breaking off a near engagement with Karl yet now she can't handle a simple break-up with Carlos? Oh yeah, so in-character. What started out with so much promise ended up in such a mediocratic mess.

[Jake Lipson]

Thank you Disney-Fan! I feel kind of betrayed by the writers; after having trusted them to improve, and having gotten so close in the beginning of the season...the failure was even more disappointing. And really, if the show is so dependant on Marcia Cross that it can't exist credibly without her and is supposed to be an ensamble piece, that's not a good sign either.

Goodbye, Wisteria Lane. I'm moving out.

[Rowlf_The_Dog]

I guess there's another empty house on Wisteria Lane ... Edie better get revived soon ... she still needs to sell the Young house ... Applewhites house ... and find a tenant for Mike's house LOL

Back to the topic at hand ...

MORE UGLY BETTY DVD NEWS ::

- 45 minutes of deleted scenes
- "Ugly Bloopers" is the name of the Outtakes reel
- 4 audio commentaries
== "Pilot": Silvio Horta (creator), Teri Weinberg (executive producer), Richard Shepard (director)
== "Fey's Sleigh Ride": Michael Urie (Marc), Becki Newton (Amanda)
== "Sofia's Choice": Salma Hayek (Sofia), Eric Maibus (Daniel)
== "Don't Ask, Don't Tell": Vanessa Williams (Wilhelmina), Michael Urie (Marc)

Sounds pretty good ... I am just shocked at the lack of America in any of the commentaries ...

[ZOOMBOOM0688]

I am just shocked at the lack of America in any of the commentaries ...

Oh! Me too that was the 1st thing I noticed!!

AND is it just me or does it seem like we get less special features as shows go on...Like I wish DH had commentaries like the 1st season.

They usually say "AND MUCH MORE..." now they just have the exact list...

[James]

Back to the topic at hand ...

MORE UGLY BETTY DVD NEWS ::

- 45 minutes of deleted scenes
- "Ugly Bloopers" is the name of the Outtakes reel
- 4 audio commentaries
== "Pilot": Silvio Horta (creator), Teri Weinberg (executive producer), Richard Shepard (director)
== "Fey's Sleigh Ride": Michael Urie (Marc), Becki Newton (Amanda)
== "Sofia's Choice": Salma Hayek (Sofia), Eric Maibus (Daniel)
== "Don't Ask, Don't Tell": Vanessa Williams (Wilhelmina), Michael Urie (Marc)

Sounds pretty good ... I am just shocked at the lack of America in any of the commentaries ...

Wow, yeah I am too, I was scanning for her name and it didn't come up, so I'm pissed, but it's great that Amanda, Marc and Wilhelmina are doing some, they're my favourite characters. I love them. That's great info, that's for that Rowlf. Can you dig up some info on the Grey's commentaries? Or the Brothers and Sisters commentaries? Please!
-James

[MutantEnemy]

Here's High Resolution 'Lost' art for season 3 from http://www.tvshowsondvd.com

[Rowlf_The_Dog]

Beautiful box art ... glad they used the really cool season 3 promo pics ... glad Eko is on the cover ... and glad that this time the Dharma logo is on the spine ...

Very hott!

[Just Myself]

And yeah, even though it isn't as good as past eps, it's still better than a lot of other things on TV. Give it another chance, we know you want to.

Oh really? Because I watch a lot of TV -- other than Desperate, this past season alone, I watched Brothers & Sisters, Wildfire, Heroes, Lost, The Nine, Day Break, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Men in Trees and October Road on a regular basis, and occasionally Law & Order -- and every single one of those shows was better, richer and more satisfying than Desperate Housewives.

<snip>

...since I plan to watch a lot of ABC shows next year, I'm sure I will keep up with DH against my will becase they run the ads for all their other shows near-excessively in all their other shows and always seem to spoil more than they should in those. But as far as me actulally watching the show and caring about it? No, that ship has sailed far away from the shark I sat around and watched them jump for the past two seasons, and I'm not sorry about leaving either. I'm just sorry it isn't the vastly better show it used to be.

I can say that Jake and I are definitely on the same ship. The first season was damn good TV, it entertained and remained consistant through the whole thing, knowing exactly where it was going and how it was going to get there. But the past two seasons? They went nowhere and got there fast. I bought the S2 DVD set for two reasons: Out of mercy for the amazing first season, and out of hope the third would be as good as the first, meaning an eventual purchase. However, I will not be buying the third season and have already sold my S2 set for all the upcoming season sets of various shows.

Goodbye, Wisteria Lane. I'm moving out.

Can I borrow your U-Haul when you're all moved?

Meh,
JM

P.S. These are all the upcoming season DVD's I will be purchasing inbetween August-December, in order of anticipation:

Lost: Season 3
Grey's Anatomy: Season 3
Jericho: The Complete Series
Friday Night Lights: Season 1 - The Cheapo-Deapo Edition (or so it would be named had it been a Touchstone property ). Supposedly to gain more viewers for S2, this set will be much cheaper than most other season sets.
(these are all tied)Heroes: Season 1
Brothers and Sisters: Season 1
(should they come out)Men in Trees: Season 1
Studio 60: The Complete Series
October Road: Season 1

[MadonnasManOne]

As they say, to each their own. I absolutely disagree with the assessment of those who say that Desperate Housewives has "jumped the shark", and they are moving out of Wisteria Lane. Good luck to you, then. It's your loss.

I'll still be enjoying the show!