Home :: DVD :: Television :: General  

A&E Home Video
BBC
Classic TV
Discovery Channel
Fox TV
General

HBO
History Channel
Miniseries
MTV
National Geographic
Nickelodeon
PBS
Star Trek
TV Series
WGBH Boston
Jeeves & Wooster - The Complete First Season

Jeeves & Wooster - The Complete First Season

List Price: $39.95
Your Price: $35.96
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wodehouse not for the short attention span viewer
Review: "Jeeves and Wooster" season one came to me as a bonus disc set included in a "Emma Peel Megaset" of the "Avengers" (5 stars and a bag of crisps) I had no idea what I was in for. The title charectures; Jeeves, played by Steven Fry, Is a fiendishy brilliant charecture. None smoother and so frightfully "Under the stairs" British. Wooster, played by Hugh Laurie, Is a young tosspot. A pillock of noble birth who seems to reside in the stew, with only Jeeves for rescuer. The stories wind their way through the hour with 3 subplots forming a 3 strand rope to pull off the perfect coup of delight though sometimes maddening! The writers did a bang up job of establishing all charectures in season one. Casting in season one is nothing short of excellent. Season one is a great advertisement for seasons 2,3, and 4. Yanks would be well advised to obtain an authoritive "British language" book to further enhance their delight with these marvelous episodes. As an afterthought, If you love antiques (especially Art Deco) you'll find the sets of "Jeeves and Wooster" Pure eye candy!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Jane Austen meets Noel Coward -- but no bells or whistles
Review: A perfect cast anchors these clearly brilliant and nearly faithful adaptations of P. G. Wodehouse's sparkling, narrow prose portraits. If you have affection for the British you will love these none-too-gentle digs at the noblesse, as it were. Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry are sublime, perfect in every way, and they are backed up by a gifted group. The screenplay is delightful. The sets are lush.

All that brilliance aside, the DVD is disappointing. Surely someone has some reminiscences? Home video of the wrap party? Anything would be lovely. The carton back reads: "DVD Features: Interactive Menus, Scene Selection" Oh, how very kind.

The material easily gets 5 stars, but the DVD package falls short of what consumers have come to expect.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great for a get-well gift
Review: An aunt of my bosom got me a whole slug of these tapes (about 23) while I was taking care of my ill mother. My mom had been pretty depressed, but I prescribed at least one episode of "Jeeves and Wooster" per evening, and it perked her right up! (As Bertie would say, "Buck up, old fish!")

I myself have always enjoyed P.G. Wodehouse. To be blunt, I thought at first that Stephen Fry was way too young for the part of Jeeves, the valet (I always thought of Jeeves as a long-suffering paternal type - the old lion and his dim-witted cub). But I got adjusted to Fry really quickly, and really enjoyed the series.

Hugh Laurie as Bertram Wilberforce Wooster has the best comedy face since Danny Kaye. Actually, maybe better. If someone you know is depressed or confined because of an illness, tapes from this series really make a great gift. Great for healthy people, too!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great for a get-well gift
Review: An aunt of my bosom got me a whole slug of these tapes (about 23) while I was taking care of my ill mother. My mom had been pretty depressed, but I prescribed at least one episode of "Jeeves and Wooster" per evening, and it perked her right up! (As Bertie would say, "Buck up, old fish!")

I myself have always enjoyed P.G. Wodehouse. To be blunt, I thought at first that Stephen Fry was way too young for the part of Jeeves, the valet (I always thought of Jeeves as a long-suffering paternal type - the old lion and his dim-witted cub). But I got adjusted to Fry really quickly, and really enjoyed the series.

Hugh Laurie as Bertram Wilberforce Wooster has the best comedy face since Danny Kaye. Actually, maybe better. If someone you know is depressed or confined because of an illness, tapes from this series really make a great gift. Great for healthy people, too!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: faithful and funny
Review: back in 1987 before i owned a complete stereo, i used to listen to the radio. i happened on a broadcast of 'what ho jeeves' and was regularly doubled over with laughter. it gave me an appreciation of wodehouse which i misappropriated to the english language itself. it's all good though, english can be beautiful.

fast forward 15 years. i'm stuck with the onerous task of driving from houston to los angeles (or vice versa, who remembers such things?) so i pick up the audiobook of 'the inimitable jeeves'. fortunately i have learned to laugh without doubling over, otherwise i would be in a mangled pile of german engineering somewhere in new mexico.

as soon as i reached houston (yeah now i recall), i jumped onto amazon and ordered this dvd set. wouldn't you know that i had to move to atlanta before amazon delivered it. so i ended up buying an audiobook of 'baudalino' to last me from atlanta to houston where i finally picked up 'jeeves & wooster'.

it was with great relish that i finally vewied the stories, many of which were picked from 'the inimitable'. i was fully satisfied. these are, go get a tub of moo goo gai pan and a smirnoff ice, fluff your pillows and get ready to laugh stories. the kind of entertainment you really enjoy. it was all i could do not to watch all of the episodes at once.

which reminds me, i gotta put the next set on my wish list.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: CAREFUL-- YOU MAY HAVE THIS SET ALREADY. IF NOT, GET IT.
Review: For some reason, A&E has released the first series of Jeeves & Wooster under different episode names. The original first series was available from PBS branded as Mobil Masterpiece Theatre, which is how this wonderful series first ran in the States.

I made the mistake of purchasing the first set offered by A&E thinking these were episodes I did not already have. Don't you do the same if you already have the original set from PBS.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perfection. Almost
Review: Fry and Laurie make the perfect visual Jeeves and Wooster (next to Horden and Briars, who were utterly brilliant in the Radio 4 adaptations.) But this series sticks so closely to the tenet of the books, and there are enough silent one liners to make watching it a tireless pleasure. It's the perfect alcohol-free remedy for an awful day at the office.

Unfortunately the 'extras' option on the DVD (an 'Audio Commentary') is desperately bad. It completely misses the program's natural ebullience and the commentator discusses Jeeves and Wooster as if they died in a suicide pact sometime during the Depression. It has absolutely no place in the running, and drains all the colour and enjoyment from the rest of this magnificent disc. So buy it- definitely. Just don't touch the add-ons...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ...more on the confusing titles
Review: Great videos, these. And thanks to Ian for the tip regarding duplicate tapes. After further research I believe I can clear up the issue. I think "The Very First..." and "The Collector's Set" contain the same episodes, despite the fact they sport different titles (see Ian's review below). Both of these sets were released in 1991. The upshot: there are essentially 3 J&W box sets: the two mentioned above which are really the same; the "More J&W" box set; and the "A Tad More J&W" box set. Happy hunting!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A charming, old-fashioned comedy
Review: I always heard about how wonderful Jeeves and Wooster was but I held back on buying it since I had no idea if it was to my taste. At last, I decided to give it a try and was delighted by the witty dialogue, the marvelous set-ups and the back-and-forth between the very talented leads.

To anyone who wants to try this series but is not sure, it is marvelous. From the first bars of the catchy theme song (which gets stuck in your head) I was totally in love. The comedic style reminded me of the screwball comedies of the 1930s, the era in which this series is set.

A must for Anglophiles, fans of older comedy and people looking for good, clean humor.

My favorite episode is the first one but every episode in the set in a minor comic masterpiece. Try it and you will not be sorry.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Jeeves And Wooster is FABULOUS
Review: I bitterly regret not having seen the series when it was on television and waiting all these years to experience such visual joy. The sets and costumes are sublime. The actors were certainly born to play their roles. Hugh Laurie is divine, handsome, charming witty, urbane and erudite exactly as I have imagined Bertie to be in all the many years I've been reading Wodehouse.

I can't stop watching the tapes. I'm hoplessly under Bertie's thrall.


<< 1 2 3 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates