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When Ally McBeal premiered on the Fox network in 1997, the series was already riding high on critical praise, with its upscale mix of savvy humor and hot-topic legal drama. Created, produced, and written entirely by the amazingly prolific David E. Kelley, the show immediately found an appreciative audience of women drawn to the title character's frank perspectives on dating, sex, and career objectives, and men lured by a cast full of attractive, outspoken women with vibrant personalities and flattering wardrobes. (If you think that's a sexist observation, you haven't tuned in to the show's brilliant balance of male chauvinism, feminist attitude, and hilariously turbulent office politics.)

This two-disc compilation of episodes from the show's first season is aptly titled, because Ally McBeal--a Boston lawyer played by Calista Flockhart--is defined by her seemingly perpetual singlehood, her sexual and emotional yearnings, her professional passions, and--by one of Kelley's creative masterstrokes--her flights of imagination (often visualized via amusing computer-generated effects) that give the series a constant, unpredictable edge of humor and emotional depth.

These well-chosen episodes offer a comprehensive summary of the first season's major developments, including the emotional history shared by Ally and her now-married colleague Billy (Gil Bellows); the notorious "dancing baby" (in "Cro-Magnon") symbolizing the insistent ticking of Ally's biological clock; the amiable quirks of John "the Biscuit" Cage (Peter MacNicol); and the dubious pearls of wisdom known as "Fishisms." Here we witness the sublime chemistry of the ensemble cast, and each member is given ample time in the spotlight. Regular guest star Dyan Cannon is strongly featured in "Silver Bells," prior to the second-season addition of Nelle (Portia DeRossi) and Ling (Lucy Liu). That leaves plenty of room to establish Ally McBeal as the lively focus of the series--confused, opinionated, sexy, neurotic, frustrated, ecstatic, intelligent, emotional... and never, ever boring. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (58)

Do you want every bit of Ally? Come to the UK!!!
Ally McBeal is an American TV show so I do not understand why Americans have only been given this small bundle of episodes when over in my home country England we have ALL the seasons available with special features!

For you hardcore Ally fans I'll give you some handy advice. Save up for a multi-region dvd player or a computer that plays dvds. Go on over to amazon.co.uk and purchase the season box sets!

Good luck!!!

UPSET!
I love the show Ally Mcbeal, and I am upset that there is only one season released here in the US! I ordered three seasons from the UK website only to get them in the mail and find out that they are not compatible with the systems of the U.S. so either way I am still with out any of the episodes!It cost me $32.00 to send it back to the U.K., and I'm not even sure amazon.uk will refund the cost of the sets! So I am out of over $100.00 trying to buy the series of this wonderful show. I am upset at the entire situation!

What an insult!!
While I might be inclined to believe that the seris was a cult fav, it still was extremely popular. This DVD release is an insult to all the faithful followers and just a tease to those who are unfamiliar with the ironic yet hilarious humor. There is a bit of Ally in all of us. Does Fox even know how frustrating it is to know that Ally is available in just about every country but the U.S.? I had to buy season one off a jerk on ebay and it was burnt and it sucked! I did get season four from a fabulous person in another country. Expensive song rights or not, give your loyal fans what they deserve and make it good with deleted scenes and lots of special features!!!!

ally mcbeal boxed set PLEASE
i am a fan of ally mcbeal and would love to be able to buy the entire series of episodes on dvd. i see sex and the city, friends, buffy, etc...there are so many people that love ally mcbeal, i would LOVE to see this set put out.
becky

Where's the rest of the seasons???
I was planning on buying this cd as a gift for an Ally Mcbeal fan but after reading the reviews I changed my mind! This show was great, I cannot believe the entire collection is not out on DVD, I'm going on amazon.co.uk to see what I find? ... Read more

Reviews (2)

SAME PILOT AS ON FULL SEASON COLLECTION
Just so you know, this is the IDENTICAL PILOT THAT IS IN THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON SET. I give the show itself 5 stars, and for everyone who just wants a taste, buy the DVD. BUT if you own the first season, there is NO NEED to buy this one.

What is different about this Pilot?
I was wondering if this Pilot episode is any different from the Pilot episode provided on the first season DVD set? It just seems odd that they would sell the Pilot as a stand alone episode. I had heard through different Gilmore Girl websites that the Pilot episode presented to WB execs before the show was picked up did differ slightly from the episode that viewers saw. Apparently, both Sookie and Dean were played by different characters and I believe there was some different dialogue. Anyways, if this Pilot is different from the DVD set, I would happily buy it! Can you ever get too much Gilmore Girls? And I think we all know the answer to that question ... NO! ... Read more

Description

Helen Mirren is Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison who is promoted to Detective Superintendent.In this Fourth seriesthree two-hour episodes are included:The Lost Child, Inner Circles, The Scent of Darkness. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Wrong George Marlowe but always right Jane Tennison
Another reviewer at Amazon was exactly right in pinpointing the weakness of this entry in the series as being the decision to revisit the Marlowe character from Prime Suspect 1 but with a different actor playing him. The first Marlowe had such an interesting ambiguity, a likeability and seeming sympathy, that this one, albeit a good actor, unfortunately can not match. That said, however, that the actual crime being investigated is the least convincing part of Prime Suspect 4 doesn't lessen the episode's impact. Prime Suspect's "not as good" is still loads better than most other crime dramas, the reason being that Jane Tennison is such a compelling character and she is surrounded with equally complex supporting figures. Several of the key cast members in Prime Suspect 4 are detectives and superior officers that we've gotten to know in the preceding episodes. The fact that the case necessitates a re-opening of the Marlowe case, the case upon which Tennison's career as a D.C.I. was established, makes this an even more intimate look at her personality, how she works with her colleagues and how that, combined with departmental politics, impact on her approach and effectiveness in her work. Her private life takes on more significance here for her current lover, a psychologist, has participated in a book written on the case. The intelligence of the series, however, is that we are seeing more of her personal life not to make this into a chick flick melodrama but to examine more closely the workings of her professional world and her particular place in it both as a woman and as the very individual woman she is.
And yes, Jane is still having some issues with smoking.

Great Detective
I like Helen Mirren's character of Jane Tennison so much that I have begun collecting the entire series. Her character is very intense, very thorough, brilliant, and at times frustratingly obnoxious, but I think that she is the best female detective to hit the airways. I realize that she only makes one or two "Prime Suspect" movies a year, but every one that I have seen exceptional and worth the wait.

Prime Suspect 4
Unusually this Prime Suspect series was three separate stories - unlike all the other series. however it did not detract from the very professional and lifelike acting. The last story was the weakest (although still good) as it referred back to the original Prime Suspect - the reason the story was weak was that George Marlow was played by a different actor. Obviously it took a long time to recreate the animosity between Jane Tennison and George. The first two stories were great, well written and very well acted. The subject matter was very direct and there were no holds bar filming in what people would feel in the real circumstance.

I would recommend this set of videos to anyone who likes police dramas that are realistic. ... Read more

Reviews (30)

Excellent, underwatched show with smart writing, great cast
"Veronica Mars" is a lot smarter than your average show featuring attractive teenage characters. To use the term "teen drama" is misleading, as the story is darker, subtler and more sophisticated than other shows like "The O.C." and "Dawson's Creek." It's a modern twist on the noir genre placed in high school, centering around 17-year-old Veronica, once popular but now a social outcast after a chain of events following the murder of her best friend, Lilly Kane.

In every episode, Veronica, a P.I.'s daughter, solves a smaller mystery, while also assembling clues and delving further into the bigger mystery of Lilly's case. The brilliance of the show is in tying the small cases into the larger, overarching themes surrounding the larger mystery. While there are a few episodes that feel more stand-alone, as is the case in all TV drama series, the writers do an excellent job in avoiding letting them become mere filler, throwaway cases -- instead, they use them to feed us more information to further Lilly's case. (As a result, it's hard to skip any episodes without missing some crucial bit of information about the main msytery.)

It's amazing how carefully drawn the entire season is, with clues placed in a meticulously careful, controlled manner, all amping up to an intense crescendo in the last four or five episodes. As the season draws to a close, the intricately laid details click into place as Veronica solves the two biggest cases -- the mystery of her rape (which occurred shortly following Lilly's death and her subsequent ejection from the "cool" crowd) in the penultimate episode (a wonderfully complex, dark and emotional episode), then Lilly's murder in the season finale.

Despite the darkness of the series, there are notable lighter moments too, and the show has quite a bit of humor thrown into the mix. The writing is witty and smart, and the actors pull off comedy just as capably as they do angst and drama. The cast is excellent, and the actors have noticeable chemistry with one another, but two standouts are Kristen Bell as Veronica and Jason Dohring as Logan Echolls (who has an amazingly complexcharacter arc that is drastic, enthralling and utterly believable). As Veronica's former friend, nemesis, then reluctant ally (and the lines blur frequently), Dohring steals every scene he's in, and when he's with Bell the sparks really fly, whether they're pushing each other's buttons, antagonizing each other or simply bantering.

Man, I love this show. Thank goodness UPN had the guts to renew it for a second season.

Veronica Mars is what is RIGHT with television today
I started watching Veronica Mars mid-season, when One Tree Hill was on hiatus.I could kick myself for not watching this show from the beginning.I stopped watching One Tree Hill and the O.C. because the shows have little substance to them and the characters are bland.Veronica Mars's characters are multidimensial.Nobody is completely perfect or innocent, and the guilty usually have redeeming qualities.Veronica's cases usually have a twist in them, like you end up feeling sorry for the bad guy who gets caught.I was a big fan of Desperate Housewives and still watch it, but I think Veronica Mars's mysteries are done better.VM is the best show of 2004 and is still the only show I'm looking forward to in the fall of 2005.It is a smart show and way better than mindless reality shows or dumb shows on the major networks.Do yourself a favor, and "get a clue."Give this show a chance.You won't regret it.

Top-notch:Veronica Mars *is* smarter than me.
Veronica Mars is a brilliantly written, tightly paced show with dark, intricate storytelling and lots of humor. It gets a lot of comparisons to Buffy because its lead character is a tiny blonde teen who takes no prisoners and is always quick with a clever comeback, but in many ways VM is a more complex and intriguing show, and there are almost no "fight scenes" and no fantasy elements. Unlike Buffy, Veronica has no superpowers and knows she can't "kick butt" when she is trying to bring down the bad guys. She has only her intelligence and her wits to keep her ahead of the game. Plus, when the going gets rough, she has her trusty dog Backup to scare off the evildoers.

Veronica is frequently described as a "modern day Nancy Drew," but she is also much more than that. Yes, she does work for her private investigator dad tracking down missing persons and solving other mysteries both large and small, and her weapons of choice are modern-day tools like the internet, cell phones, and Lojack. But Veronica is not your typical peppy teenage girl. She is the anti-cheerleader, a very angry girl who is more likely to taunt her classmates with clever insults than to provide any cheer. While she does have her softer side, it's well hidden and she doesn't reveal it very often. She didn't always used to be this way, and the series takes it time exploring, via flashbacks, how Veronica used to be in the past and why she became so angry and isolated from her peers.

If you have wanted to watch the show but have been put off by the "teen" angle, rest assured that there truly is something for everyone here, of any age. The writing is sophisticated and adult. These teens do things like quote Hamlet and make pop-culture references as widely varied as Heathers to Brigadoon, so the dialogue is frequently quippy and never boring. But the humor never takes over the entire show to make it too light, and the tone is pretty dark overall, considering that the underlying mystery driving Veronica for the entire season is finding the person who murdered her best friend Lilly Kane. Add to that some story lines involving rape, incest, and child abuse, and it's clear that this is no comedy. It's also not for children and sometimes tests the bounds of what you might see on network television in terms of the darkness of the subject matter. Drugs, alcohol, and sex are portrayed as a fact of life among teenagers and the show is not moralizing or preachy in any way, although it frequently portrays the sometimes tragic consequences of all of the above.

Kristen Bell is astonishingly good as Veronica, but the entire cast is for the most part pretty first-rate, especially Enrico Colantoni (as her dad Keith Mars) and Jason Dohring (as her arch-nemesis Logan Echolls). If you are a fan of twisty ongoing mysteries like Lost or Twin Peaks, or you enjoy the quippy humor of the Gilmore Girls or the O.C., or even if you like old-fashioned detective stories like Columbo or the Rockford Files, give Veronica Mars a try because it truly combines the best of all of the above. And if you are a guy, Kristen Bell is pretty darn cute, to boot. So there's that, too.

excellent
This is the only thing I was looking forward to see every week on TV. Excellent writing with main story going across all the episodes and sub-stories that get resolved at the end of each episode. Veronica Mars is a 17 years old daughter of a private investigator, a former sheriff. She's helping him with his cases, has her own to solve and she's decided to find out who killed her best friend Lilly Kane. Almost all the answers get answered by the end of the season. Excellent acting from all the actors. I cannot praise highly enough Kristen Bell as Veronica Mars and Jason Dohring as Logan Echolls. Highly recommended!

Veronica Mars is the best show ever
This show is so amazing. if you like a good mystery then this is the show for you. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

best new show
This is the only new show this season, I would say,that is worth watching. I started watching it because of Patrick Dempsey,who has evolved nicely since the mid-80's. Sandra Oh is also proving that she is a very versatile actress. I think she is just terrrific. The sad thing is is the season ended too soon.

One of the BEST Shows on TV
Ok, I haven't seen the DVD's yet (since they haven't been released) BUT I have not missed an episode. I remember Patrick Dempsey from "Can't Buy Me Love" but man, is he HOT now! The chemistry between Dr. Shepherd AKA "Dr. McDreamy" (Patrick Dempsey) and Meredith is off the charts. I also like the new romance between Cristina (Sandra Oh) and Dr. Burke (Isaiah Washington). If you by any chance missed this show rent the DVD's when they become available and Thank me later! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

One of the best ever
Bereft of any promotion, Huff crept unnoticed into the UK, via a new and little known satellite channel called FX. I took a gamble and was spellbound from Episode 1. Emotionally it's an extreme experience. I can't think of a series so capable of generating side-splitting laughter one minute and under-the-cushion tension the next - not forgetting all-too-frequent bouts of genuine tears. To achieve this in a cynical, stiff-upper-lip English household is no small achievement. Typically, from this UK perspective - much U.S. material is either heavy-handed with sentiment or transparently hesitant when it comes to controversial issues. Huff is not. Beautiful writing, incredible characterisation, tremendous acting, Huff is a work of genius on the part of everyone involved. I shall be buying the DVD set of Series One for my friends and I can't wait for a Series II. I just wish Russell was for real and my best friend. But then - fortunately - I have a son more than a little like Bird....

Top Notch Entertainment
Huff was so enjoyable. Every episode was packed with mystery, fun, human emotions and mishaps and being in the field of therapy, I could relate to and deeply feel all of the characters' angst. The acting was superb. It was a slice of life!

Best show on TV since 'Six Feet Under"
Much as HBO's The Sopranos, Showtime's HUFF shows us as much about the
interior lives of its characters as it does their exterior relationships and
problems.

Azaria is brilliant as a well-known, highly paid psychiatrist whose practice
overlaps into his family's life in countless ways, often at the expense of
his own interior self-expression (except through fleeting appearances of a
phantom character) and his family's safety and security. The rational
approach he has to display at all times almost becomes his downfall.

Oliver Platt and Blythe Danner practically steal the show because they're
both great actors and they've both been given off-the-wall, fascinating,
likeable characters.Platt and Danner provide some of the funniest moments.
Swoozie Kurtz guest stars as the mother of Huff's wife, and is compelling in
her struggle with cancer.

Drama, marital conflict, mother/son problems, unmet needs, occasional
frightening violence, drugs, teen sex, kids acting more mature sometimes
than their parents:HUFF has it all.And it's relieved by quirky,
sometimes laughing-out-loud comedic moments.As well as the consistent
solid acting and interesting story lines.

I'm not sure I can wait a year to see what happens next.The last episode
left me on the edge of my chair.

Frankly, I signed up with Showtime so I could get the Sundance Channel.
But, I'd keep subscribing just to catch HUFF. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

WOW Season 4 is awesome
Season 4 is amazing, one of the best yet. I know best i live in the UK and it just came out last monday. YOU MUST BUY IT. I Feel sorry for all you americans since it was made in the US. You do however get a cooler box case for Season 3 so you should wait. Carter and Del Amico is the couple that should of been but never was. Season 4 is the best yet.

ER Season 3
Waiting anxiously for season 4. Why is it available in Europe and Australia but not in the US?

Can t wait any longer
Season 3 is just been released and I ve already seen them all.. can t wait for season 4 to come out.. It think like many many other people that the Warner should release at least 2 or 3 seasons a year... all the other show are more up to date than ER how come ?

Yes, Please release it...
I agree with the other writer.For those of us who love and wait and wait for the Season Releases, it would be nice to have them come out a bit sooner than later!!

PLEASE RELEASE IT WITHIN THE NEXT FOUR MONTHS!
Hi there. I hope Warner starts releasing these more often. ER really is the best show on television. I am anxious to buy every season. This season includes Paul McCrane and Alex Kingston joining the cast, as well as Maria Bello (although she is in the last episodes of season three, which will be released in a couple days). I know that many others are anxiously awaiting a faster release schedule. (At least two or three seasons a year would be good, but more than that is fine too).
I recommend all ER seasons to everyone who enjoys fast paced, well written drama. ... Read more