An old series making a return, The Week That Was (aka TW²) is a brief look at the various shows I've watched last week. It's an easier way for me to condense all the fall shows and write a little about each one, especially when dealing with American sitcoms with their relatively short length and light nature.

As always when dealing with this type of thing spoilers will abound, so be aware!

Community:
There will be more on NBC's new sitcom Community later this week. Suffice to say here it's good enough that it warrants it's own post which will appear tomorrow.

The Office:
The returning season premiere was both exciting and a little flat, I'm always thrilled to see The Office back on the small screen but on the whole the first episode wasn't that great. It was a little light on laughs and had Michael going a little too far beyond the normal expected behaviour for him. Fine one of his staff members is having an affair, but it's a bit of a stretch to have Michael going that far over it.

On the other hand, the rumours he generated to create a smoke screen were pretty hilarious, but in essence the episode was just a vehicle for revealing Pam's pregnancy to the

The second episode on the other hand (The Meeting), was more on pitch. The opening joke (Michael asking Oscar for advice on what to do when having a colonoscopy) was hilarious. Likewise the episode itself had plenty of great moments, I did enjoy Michael pulling out Toby's performance review for Jim and reading it - a nice subtle reminder of Toby's dislike for Jim. The episode ended with an interesting development as well, should be a season to watch!


How I Met Your Mother:
Another great episode from the little engine that could. Ever since I stumbled apon HIMYM by accident about two years ago it's done nothing but delight me with the comedy and performances from the cast. This episode was no exception, throwing a fun curveball at the viewer before settling into more expected directions. The whip was inspired genius and even Ted was given a bit of a chance to be funny and entertaining, he's normally the show's straight man - being set up by the situations rather than just being oddball (like the rest of the cast).

I can't help but wonder how many more years are left in the story, they've teased things out well over the first four years, but I'm not sure how I'll feel if we get to the end of this season and haven't found out who the mother is. Will we get five seasons or seven seasons of HIMYM?

Curb Your Enthusiasm:
After the amazing season Curb had previously I was left wondering what direction it would take if it returned. Then I heard about the superb idea of the Seinfeld reunion show, but I was still unsure if it would be good.

Thankfully it is, it's absolutely awesome. The show continues to deliver awkward moments, comedy and heart (well, misguided heart) at the same standard it's always managed. The build up to the reunion arc has already started with Cheryl mentioning how much she preferred it when Larry was working (and that was what lead to their break up). I frankly can't wait to see the gang all back together on the screen, especially in Curb. While Julia and Jason have both appeared in the show before (and Jerry cameoed in the brilliant 'Producers arc') it's still going to be amazing to see them all together once more.

And has Jeff Garlin (Jeff Greene) lost some weight? Cause he's looking a lot more svelt now!

On the DVD front I continue to work my way through the second season of The Sopranos - more on that once I've completed it. But I really enjoyed the first disc and the direction the show's taken, and I'm finishing up watching the third season of 10 Items or Less (more on that soon). In addition I purchased seasons 1, 4 and 5 of Ally McBeal - they were available for such ridiculously low prices that I felt they were worth it - I'll watch them at some point in the future.
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Just a quick post with first of Bag of Shoes's Top 25 Seinfeld moments video. I don't know if this is the same as my own top 25, but I do love all of the ones in this.

25 to 22 are in this short video.


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The Seinfeld Seasons are identically set out between each season, the only differences being box art and the actual season featured. There are also two versions of the complete collection, one special version in a box that looks like Jerry's fridge and another more normal version. The special fridge version is nothing more than a cardboard box that looks like a fridge, it's rather disappointing tbh. But the fridge magnets that come with it are rather cool.



Each season comes in an outside sleeve, a second box slides out of this sleeve and then you slide out the dvd box out of that. Yeah, you read that right. These babies come double bagged (well boxed)! It seems a little excessive for the needs, just one of the external boxes would have done the job just fine. While it's not much extra packaging, it does mount up when spread over 7 boxes.
The internal DVD tray is quite nicely done, it includes a short pamphlet that tells you about each episode and the tray itself is a book style two page layout. So you only have to open it once to get access to each of the DVDs. This system works well for seasons that fit on 4 DVDs.
The box art is nothing spectacular (as you can see), but it does include a wide range of pictures with no duplications between seasons. It's also kept consistent between each season, there are no sudden changes in style and the only real difference between each season box is the colour of the outside border. This keeps it all looking tidy and a part of the whole.
7/10

The Seinfeld DVDs include the usual selection of features, the wonderful "Play All" button is here and the menus are rather pleasing to look at, consisting of scenes/places related to the show. Most of the usual suspects are present in the extra section, you have deleted scenes, outtakes, a smattering of commentary (but it's not as good as it could have been), featurettes and collections of Jerry's stand up work. There's literally hours of extras.

But the two stand out amazing extras are the Seinimations and the "Notes about Nothing". You can see the Seinimations in the link above, but it's the "Notes about Nothing" that are clever and unique to the Seinfeld DVDs (so far anyway). Notes about nothing are a collection of interesting facts placed like subtitles in each episode. They keep track of some statistics (like the number of relationships everyone has, how many times Kramer enters Jerry's apartment and the like), plus provide a whole range of facts about the show or related subjects linked to the show. It's like watching the show with the worlds biggest Seinfeld nerd telling you all about everything, but without being annoying. It's a brilliant feature and I often now watch the show with it turned on.
9/10 (It would be 10, but the commentary leaves a little to be desired - more people in each commentary and more episodes with commentary please!)


Seinfeld is a genuinely seminal show, it changed the face of sitcoms and altered viewer expectations. It remains a "love it or hate it" show, often provoking extreme reactions from people one way or the other. Which is a sign of how brilliant it is. Really I don't need to go on about how influencial this show is, so many parts of it have crept into popular culture and have influenced later shows.
10/10

While you can pick up the earlier seasons cheap when in sales the RPP tends to be between £28 and £35 per season. That's 7 boxes for lets say £30 each (but as I said you can get it for less), containing 180 episodes. Which works out at £1.17 per episode or 5p per minute. But, that is still comparable to Futurama and as such it's pretty reasonable. The complete collection represents an even larger saving, so it's worth taking this time.
8/10


Watching Seinfeld via the DVDs is better than watching it on television, add to it the sheer bulk of good extras and you have something that's must have for fans of the show. "Notes about Nothing" is one of the best extras on a DVD ever.

Packaging: 7
Features: 9
Show: 10
Price: 8
Overall: 85%

And to wrap up, here's one of my favourite exchanges in the show.

[Scene: Jerry has answered the phone to a telemarketer]
Jerry: This isn't a good time.
Telemarketer: When would be a good time to call back, sir?
Jerry: I have an idea, why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you back later?
Telemarketer: Umm, we're not allowed to do that.
Jerry: Oh, I guess because you don't want strangers calling you at home.
Telemarketer: Umm, no.
Jerry: Well, now you know how I feel.
[Hangs up phone]

And as a special bonus:
Here's a link to the Seinfeld Poster Challenge there are 38 images related to Seinfeld moments!
(Here are the answers for the impatient or lazy.)
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Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Jerry Seinfeld is going to be on 30 Rock tonight! It's like a meeting of awesomeness in my head! Even the advertisment on tv.com looks awesome. It seems that Jerry is about to be hit from behind by Alec Baldwin. Now that's entertainment!

" Jerry Seinfeld shows up at Jack's office in an upset mood after Jack announces his plan to use footage from Seinfeld to install Jerry into every current show on NBC, a strategy which he calls "SeinfeldVision"."
[tv.com]

Now that's an awesome plan.

More tomorrow...
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