sex and the city: The Complete First Season (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

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CAST: Starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristina Davis and Cynthia Nixon.
PRODUCED BY: Executive produced by Darren Star
RATING: Not Rated
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0159206
TYPE OF MOVIE: Comedy
DURATION: 12 episodes/30 minutes each (300 minutes total)
DURATION: 105 minutes

Now you can achieve multiple viewings of the best Sex on TV. Winner of Golden Globes for Best TV Series and Best Actress, Sex and the City is based on Candace Bushnell’s provocative bestselling book. Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Carrie Bradshaw, a self-described “sexual anthropologist,” who writes “Sex and the City,” a newspaper column that chronicles the state of sexual affairs of Manhattanites in this “age of un-innocence.” Her “posse,” including nice girl Charlotte (Kristin Davis), hard-edged Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and party girl Samantha (Kim Cattrall)–not to mention her own tumultuous love life–gives Carrie plenty of column fodder. Over the course of the first season’s 12 episodes, the most prominent dramatic arc concerns Carrie, who goes from turning the tables on “toxic bachelors” by having “sex like a man” to wanting to join the ranks of “the monogamists” with the elusive Mr. Big (Chris Noth). Meanwhile, Miranda, Cynthia, and Samantha have their own dating woes, few of which can be described on a family Web site. Seinfeld has nothing on Sex and the City when it comes to shallow, self-absorbed characters or coining catch phrases. Episode 2, for example, introduces the term “modelizer”: a guy who is obsessed with and will only date models. Some may accuse this series of male bashing. But women, after years of enduring shows with “men behaving badly,” will relish the equal time. Some may blanche at the ladies’ graphic language and ribald humor, or dismiss some of the situations as unrealistic (Carrie doesn’t bat an eye when she discovers that an artist friend surreptitiously videotapes his sexual conquests). Still others will view Sex and the City as documentary. Regardless of your view, this groundbreaking series will have you longing for more. –Donald Liebenson

DVD EXTRAS:

• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Closed-captioned, Box set, Collector’s Edition
• “Making-Of” featurette (3:47)
• List of awards and nominations
• “Research” TV Promo
• DVD-ROM Features
• Full-screen format
• Number of discs: 2

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): None that I could find.

DVD REVIEW:

Since I no longer have HBO anymore, I have always been curious about this show.  You’ve seen them on TV, you heard about the rave reviews, so I must admit that I was very curious about the show, wondering if men can enjoy it, wondering if it’s only a show for females.  After watching this DVD, all I can say is that this is a DVD/a show that both genders can enjoy.

As for the DVD, I wasn’t expecting a major transfer because it is a TV show.  The majority TV show DVD’s I have are nothing I would compare to a movie.  But I was more impressed by the movie settings, the storylines and the characters.  The sound is completely dialogue, so don’t expect anything major.  The colors are good but you see quite a few artifacts but since this is not a movie, I’m a little more lenient on this DVD.

I’m glad they included a featurette and a “research” TV Promo.  Also, the promos for each episode.  Very cool!  Now, I was hoping something new in terms of features for disk 2, but it’s the same feature on disk 2, just different episodes and promos.

But that’s the major negative.  Otherwise this DVD is really awesome.  you get more for your money on this DVD.  Highly recommended!  

THE MOVIE:  A+
THE DVD EXTRAS:  B+
THE DVD OVERALL:  A