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Golden Girls (The): Complete Season 7 (TV)
R1 - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Jon Batt (27th March 2007). |
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The Show
 Ah the end of an era. Season seven and last crusade. Season seven, with a vengeance. Season seven Revolutions. Ok, I'm done. but lets face it, how many shows these days depict a 50 something woman strutting into a bar and announcing to Cheers-esque reception: "It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm not wearing any underwear!" I only wish that I had the testicular fortitude to get away with that one. After seven years and seven seasons, these old ladies of comedy have laid down the baton. We all hope that one day some other sexagenarians bow down, clutching the smalls of their backs, and take on the charge. But even now, 10 years on, still we wait. The show itself retains all of its charm in this season; the characters are well established in their roles. Everyone seems very happy to be together again, and as the season moves towards its' conclusion, you can see a sadness in each of the actors as they begin to realize that it really is all about to be over. This season is littered with guest stars, including Alex Trebeck, Merv Griffin and an interesting appearance from Leslie Nielsen as Blanche's (Rue McClanahan) uncle. The episodes tend to lead you down the garden path and back up again with heart attacks, freak storms and weddings (again), which all seems a little cliché now that I've written it, but I felt it fits quite nicely into the mix of sex of senility that makes the series interesting. It made me happy to see that there was no toning down of the insults and harassment that the girls inflicted upon each other in previous seasons, which managed to include: pretending to be your friends dead husband in order to get $20, stealing the Popes ring, and my personal favorite: fake marriage proposals to screw each other out of their family homes. I only hope that I am that devious in my golden years. I got pretty sick of the theme tune, and the little bit of a song that they play just after the opening credits when they show the shot of the house at the start of an episode. I guess that's what happens when you watch 26 episodes on the trot. I wouldn't recommend watching the entire season in one go because it does get a bit tedious, but I would recommend watching it. Overall, it's good times.
Video
Presented in the show's original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1 this full screen transfer appears on par as the previous seasons do, a bit on the soft side. The quality of the image looks pretty much how one would expect it to look, like a show that was filmed in the early 90's. Back then they didn't use digital cameras and it's painfully obvious when looking at some colors that could have been much more vibrant and some detail is limited with murky blacks. However the transfer is as good as it can get, it's watchable and that's the important part.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is included for these episodes, the series audio is basically made up of dialogue, some musical cues and a laugh track so there isn't much use here for a full blown 5.1 track. This mix is most likely the original broadcast audio (although I cannot confirm this, I would be surprised if it wasn't) and it presents the dialogue, music and laugh track clearly and without distortion. Optional subtitles are also included in English for the hearing impaired.
Extras
DISC ONE: The only extras on this disc are some bonus trailers for: - "Scrubs: Season 5" which runs for 1 minute 39 seconds. - "The Queen" which runs for 2 minutes 19 seconds. - "Dinosaurs Season 3 & 4" which runs for 57 seconds. - "Ugly Betty" promo spot which runs for 32 seconds. DISC THREE: There's a featurette called "Thank You For Being A Friend: A Look Back With The Golden Girls" which runs for 14 minutes 58 seconds on this disc and it's nice. Everyone looks really, really haggard, except for Rue McClanahan, who appears to have had a whole lot of plastic surgery. Those bits are holding up ok, but the skin holding the plastic in place has aged at the normal speed. Proof that plastic surgery never really works out. Take note people, for your own good. Estelle Getty doesn't appear on the special feature, I thought she may have been dead. Turns out that she's still kicking around, got a bit of dementia going on, but despite being 83 apparently still has times where she is 'lucid and communicative' according to her official website, good for her. The clip includes the other ladies looking back at the seven years spent on the show, they comment on their characters, the scripts and their favorite episodes among other things.
Packaging
This 3-disc includes all 26 episodes from the seventh season of this TV series and is packaged in a digi-pack case with a cardboard slip-cover.
Overall
For a season set it's disappointing that there aren't more substantial extras such as episode commentaries, but if you've already collected the six previous seasons then there's no reason why you shouldn't pick this one up.
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