Rating: 
Summary: A packaging disaster?
Review: NO WAY!!! This might be the greatest packaging for a boxed set ever. Who says it does not fit? It will fit on any shelf I have in my house, including some that regular DVD's are too tall for. So it is not as tall as the others, so what? Moving on to what's important.When you open the box there are six sleeves, each containing a disc. This can be a problem if you don't know how to treat things. I recommed before sliding a disc back into the sleeve that you make sure there are no loose materials inside the sleeve that will rub against the finish of the DVD and scratch it. That is really all that can happen, otherwise it's 100% perfect. Hint or word to the wise; Don't eat around your DVD's anyway and you won't drop foreign particles into the sleeves or get grease on the cardboard. The extra minute of footage not originally aired on some of the episodes was completely amazing to see. This includes Mike and Davy's screen tests. Hilarious and spontaneous. The picture is fabulous and the audio is great too. When you are watching and it appears that they are not playing or singing the correct things and words it's not the audio track. lol... That's how they were originally released. It gets four stars from me because it lacks subtitles. If you want to watch this quietly to avoid bothering roommates or can't understand what they are saying, too bad. And you can forget about other languages. This does not really bother me but I am fair to the needs of all when reviewing commerical items for mass consumption. Classic television. What's the season 2 package going to be, a televsion?
Rating: 
Summary: Great Boxset, but....
Review: It is indeed a great boxset. No doubt this is what we've waiting for ages, but time passes and my hearing is not that accurate anymore, I wonder why Rhino didn't bother to put captions? I know, it's kind irrelevant in music dvds to have captions, but it would have been nice to be able to understand 100% of what they're saying....or maybe it's my boxset that is defective? I would give 5 stars, but take out 2 stars for the lack of captions.
Rating:
Summary: Some Guys Have It....
Review: What a fabulous box set. The episodes are still extremely funny and childlike in a good way and I especially love the time filling slots where they talking about themselves - Davys stories about going home are so English and easy for me to associate with the humour 36 years on! I wish they had done more of this as these clips are too short. Would also have been good to see Peter and Mickys screen tests. The adverts are a bit weathered but really funny "Ricey bubbles so crisp and nourishing, Eat'em every day!". Had me in stitches!! Shame that some of the songs were different and that there was no commentary from Micky. Also it would have been nice to see a face to face interview with each of them talking about what they've done since the Monkees rather than just the usual "manufactured image" "its like Leonard Nimoy really becoming a Vulcan" stuff. The packaging is a bit flimsy - think they need to rethink that for next time - Please Please Please !! mine has to travel to England!! At least a paper sleeve for each disc so it doesn't scratch? Go on - push the boat out! Cant wait for season two - I like the contrast in their image and seeing them take the mickey out of their original style of show - its time for the Monkee Scare - ahhhh! I think ive fancied them all at some stage (except Micky - sorry!) but I have to say that if I was the woman on the black label advert there is no way i'd have ran past Mike Nesmith!! Its the first time ive seen him smile I think!! Thanks for reading. This is John Smith asking you to save the Texas Prairie Chicken!! (See how nice that works... blackbird wise!)
Rating: 
Summary: Can you dig it?
Review: The Monkees TV program ran for two seasons, combining comedy and music, to present a unique view of the 60's pop culture, focusing on the adventures of an aspiring Southern California band. Wacky, unconventional, spontaneous, outrageous, irreverent, and fun, are just a few of the adjectives that could be used to describe the world of the Monkees. Then as now, the reasons for this program's appeal, lies with their music, and the intrinsic charm, and talent of the members of the group. Modeled on the Beatles' film, A Hard Days Night, the Monkees won an Emmy for best comedy program, in its first season. Circumstances brought together relative unknowns, Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, Davy Jones, and Mike Nesmith, to play roles as members of a rock group. Who could predict the phenomenon that this fortuitous casting would come to produce? Transcending their TV roles to become a "real" band, writing and playing their own music, achieving worldwide success, and turning fiction into fact. Much has been said about the Monkees' music, which originally consisted of their vocals being recorded over music played by studio musicians. As the original concept was for a fictitious rock group, this approach to music making was a most natural one. Top songwriters were recruited to pen material for the group. "Manufactured" or not, their fans didn't care, and the results are hard to argue with, as the Monkees had a string of hits produced in just this matter. A fact that irks critics immensely. Season one's final episode, which shows the events taking placing before an actual Monkee concert, provides real insight into their lives, and has three separate commentary tracks as well. The DVD set is not inexpensive, and served up in one 32 episode dose, is a bit too much for the casual fan. This is one set that is definitely for the true fan, with material running over 13 hours. The transfers are very good, with just a few signs of deterioration. Commentary tracks by Peter, Davy, Mike, director Bob Rafelson, and songwriter Bobby Hart, provide different insights into selected episodes. Unfortunately, there is no commentary from the "voice of the Monkees", Mickey Dolenz. The extras are only semi satisfying, and could have been much better and more comprehensive. A retrospective documentary, where we could hear from the guys, and see them as they look today, would have been great. The closest we get, is Bobby Hart's recollection of events. For those interested in reading rather obscure, often inane trivia, such is provided for each episode. Some discs as an extra, feature a compilation of the musical "romps" from the episodes on the disc. Better than nothing, but just barely. Many have commented on the "creative" packaging of the set, in which the six discs are inserted into album sleeves, and placed into a cardboard box resembling a portable phonograph. It's all very cute, but not the most practical design for long term storage. Expect something similar for Season 2. The Monkees remind us of a time, when life seemed much simpler, with an idealistic perspective that never gets too heavy or into the dark side of life. While the number of episodes may overwhelm some, true fans rejoice and eagerly await Season 2. Can you dig it?
Rating:
Summary: Good set at an exorbitant price
Review: This review will mainly be a critique of the actual contents of this package--The Monkees' first season--and not so much a review of the box itself (that will come at the very end). At the time of its airing, "The Monkees" was first regarded as an interesting curiosity (the first time rock music and rock bands were the focus of a sitcom), then as a bunch of ridiculous bubblegum hype with musicians who didn't even play their own instruments (which was not true, of course). But in retrospect it has been revered as a mostly successful experiment that featured four very talented young men impersonating a band--The Beatles--that was very hard to impersonate, with some great music to match. "The Monkees"--its first season in particular--really does play like a colorized, slightly updated 1966 version of "A Hard Day's Night", replete with zany edits, fast-forwards, in-jokes and self-references (they frequently comment directly at the camera), playful social commentary (esp towards the older generation) and pioneering music video bits. A lot of this was extremely pioneering for television, which makes the show still watchable today, even if some of the humor (esp that taken from the traditional sitcom format of the time) now seems old-fashioned. What's even better, all four Monkees are very
charismatic; Nesmith's dry, countrified style is my favorite (he's also easily my favorite musician in the band), but all three are fine (even Jones!), and they work brilliantly together, as if having performed for years. The first season got better and better as it progressed, as well, with the scripts eventually dropping a lot of the old-fashioned humor in favor of the "hip"
expressions and humor of the mid-to-late Swinging 60s (which may still look old-fashioned to observers 40 years later, unless they are--like me--big fans of the decade). The Monkees were considered a bubblegum act during their day, but that was largely because of their reputation of having been pre-fabricated by TV producers, and partly due to the Jones-sung ballads. However, if any other band had come out at the time with their image and songs, they would probably have been well-respected. The first season wardrobe of paisley and flower-print shirts (as well as the famous six-button, vaguely western uniform), checkered and striped pants, enormous belt buckles and green granny glasses was very 1966, heavily influenced by what was going on in Swinging London and Los Angeles as "mod" gradually turned into "hippie". The music, too, was very contemporary, encompassing folk-rock, country-rock (the group, and Nesmith in particular, was very pioneering in this respect), UK Beatle-esque pop (esp from the 65-66 period), ballads, hard garage rock ("She", "Words", "Mary Mary", "Stepping Stone") and even proto-psychedelia ("Take A Giant Step", "This Just Doesn't Seem To Be My Day"). All the songs were written by excellent writing teams (including Nesmith, who provides some classic tunes in the form of "Sweet Young Thing", "Mary Mary", "Papa Gene's Blues" and "You Just May Be The One") and are very slickly produced, which actually put them ahead of many bands of the time. Although it is true that they do not play the instruments on the studio records during the first season, they soon rectified that situation for "Headquarters" and they did play live on tour, which is documented in the season closer that has become celebrated as one of their best episodes. The second season would see the band become full-fledged hippies (actually, the word "hippie" makes a hilarious first appearance here in an episode filmed in November of '66 entitled "I Was A Teenage Monster), with the plots and filming style becoming even more surreal and self-referential and some drug humor subtly laced in--but that's for another review, hopefully soon! In closing, Rhino did a fair job in releasing the set (the picture quality is the best I've ever seen it, and as good as it's ever going to get), although the price is, as mentioned, very steep; I, too, would rather have ditched the elaborate box packaging in favor of a cut price. The commentaries are sometimes good, sometimes bad, and the 5.1 sound doesn't really work, but these are minor quibbles--the episode trivia is very thorough and the chance to see the original unaired version of the pilot (even with the poor print) is pretty cool. Anyways, one star knocked off for the price, and because they also could have included alternate versions of the romps shown in syndication that featured different songs from the very great "Headquarters" period.
Rating:
Summary: Nice contents, shame about the transfer ...
Review: Just to point out that the picture suffers from what (to me at least) is the worse kind of DVD picture defect. It's the kind where, in order to save space on the disc, stills are used as backgrounds giving the picture a wholly artificial look. For sure, a lot of people won't be bothered by any of these flaws. But it's clear how the picture has been taken apart and put together again by the way moving objects (e.g. someone walking across a room) look superimposed on the background. Objects with sharp edges look as though they've been 'cut & pasted' onto the picture, reminiscent of a bad computer game. Tell-tale 'difficult' shots, such as trees and ocean scenes, are particularly poorly handled.
Rating:
Summary: A Good One
Review: If you like the Monkees get this dvd i just got it and like it i just wish the sound was better but its not that bad. the box is a odd size but i like it because i collect dvds and i like the odd ones.i would like to season two out soon.I hope they keep it looking the same way so they look the same.
Rating:
Summary: What Monkee Fans Have Been Waiting For
Review: This box set from Rhino has been worth the wait for Monkees fans. The audio and video are excellent for the most part, which make these first season episodes a pleasure to watch. The picture quality is so good that you will see things in the background that you have never noticed before, even if you've seen the episodes dozens of times. The packaging for this six-disc set is outstanding. The box looks like a little record player and the discs are inside little cardboard sleeves that replicate actual Monkee 45s. Select episodes have audio commentary from various people connected with the Monkees, except for Micky Dolenz who is sorely missed. He was hilarious on the audio commentary for the "Daydream Believers" DVD and would have had some entertaining things to say about these episodes. Here's hoping he will be on the second series box set. The booklet that comes with the set is a bit lacking but the discs make up for this by including trivia on each episode from a well-known Monkee website. However, some trivia that has previously not been seen before would have been nice. When I reviewed Rhino's Monkees Volume One & Two on Amazon, I mentioned several things that I thought would make good extras when the entire Monkees series came out on DVD. Rhino has lived up to most of my expectations, including putting the alternate version of the pilot in the set and most of the Monkees TV commercials. That being said, most of the commercials are of poor quality and look like they were taken off of a bootleg tape called "Secret Video Files" that is in wide circulation among Monkee fans. I still appreciate them being included though. I was also a bit disappointed that the episodes did not feature the alternate music soundtracks from reruns and syndication. Despite these minor flaws, here's hoping the same creative people work on the release and packaging of the Monkees Season Two DVD set.
Rating:
Summary: OK, Let's be realistic about this!
Review: What do you actually get for shelling out this much money? Here are the good things to say about this set, and Rhino's work on it:
1. They actually released it, and it has all the episodes of the first season included in order, with the original songs, and in vibrant color. This earns it most of the points, and is the only real reason to buy this. 2. It includes commercials, and the pilot episode with Boyce & Hart singing the soundtrack, and text trivia screens about each episode. Here is what I see wrong with this set in no particular order:
The commercials and Boyce & Hart pilot are pretty bad quality copies. The box set video, while mostly vibrant throughout, still includes dust and hairs sometimes. The audio quality never gets above mediocre, and sometimes is either tinny and harsh, or muddy and mushy. The Rhino Monkee audio CDs sound terrific, as do most Rhino CDs. I have not been at all impressed with any Rhino audio on other DVDs so far, and these DVD 5.1 soundtracks are worthless--and the mono isn't much better. Why couldn't they have just done a decent plain stereo mix from the master tapes Rhino had access to for all the Monkee CDs? I agree with a previous review comparing what was done with the old Beatles Anthology audio and video, and should have been done on this set. The volume levels are all over the place in this set too. The dialog is mostly quiet so you crank it up to hear, and then the romp music is too much louder. But what is really bad, the menu music level just blasts in comparison to the episodes. So, because you can't just set it to play all the episodes at once, the menu comes back after each one and you turn it down while the menu plays, then turn it back up for the episodes, and so on, very annoying. No commentary from Dolenz, but if he had as little to say as what is included from the others, we're not missing much. This is some of the most boring and uninformative commentary you will ever sit through. As implied in other reviews, basically any of us could have given these commentaries (many of you much better)--and we weren't even there! You may as well say there is no booklet either, something this small and uninformative in a set this big, at this cost, is unbelievable. The Monkee CD booklets put this to shame. The most outragious aspect of this set, and the single reason Rhino so overpriced it for what little work they actually seemed to put into the episodes--the packaging. We are paying for AIR. The expensive (probably about a third of the cost at least) 3 inch deep box holding six discs and a booklet that are 3/4 inches deep. That's 2 1/4 inches of premium wasted shelf space for air. The cute sleeves inside don't protect the discs, they scuff them sliding in and out--so you have to supply your own safe way to store them yourself. Nice way to give people value for their money Rhino. Yeah, I'll still get season two reluctantly when it comes out--because I want all the episodes. But I hate rewarding Rhino anymore for lackluster work packaged in an over-sized, overpriced, impractical holder. We deserve better, and I feel we have already paid for better, but didn't get it.
Rating:
Summary: Monkeelicious!
Review: I think this set is wonderful! I think the packaging is great too. Finally I get to see my guys whenever I wanna! I am awaiting (almost patiently) for the next set!
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