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Television
Red Dwarf - Series 3 & 4

Red Dwarf - Series 3 & 4

List Price: $69.98
Your Price: $55.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: And The Hits Just Keep On Coming...
Review: Series 3 & 4 contain most of my favorite Red Dwarf episodes. "Backwards" is brilliant by any standards, and the others such as "Justice" (Lister: "What? Shoot him in the back?" Rimmer: "Of course in the back! It's only a pity he's awake!") and the strangely underrated "Meltdown" really stand out. By the way, in "Meltdown" its NOT seeing Winnie The Pooh get executed that's so funny - showing it would only prove to be very phoney and viewers might get as repelled as poor Lister.

All in all I'd highly recommend this series to anyone who would like a good laugh. The 2 disc sets are priceless for the extras they contain, and the commentary tracks are spot on (at times just as funny as the episode being watched). I agree with others that a year is too long to wait, but I guess it takes time to dig up all that archival material. Still - maybe 3 series per year...?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: And The Hits Just Keep On Coming...
Review: Series 3 & 4 contain most of my favorite Red Dwarf episodes. "Backwards" is brilliant by any standards, and the others such as "Justice" (Lister: "What? Shoot him in the back?" Rimmer: "Of course in the back! It's only a pity he's awake!") and the strangely underrated "Meltdown" really stand out. By the way, in "Meltdown" its NOT seeing Winnie The Pooh get executed that's so funny - showing it would only prove to be very phoney and viewers might get as repelled as poor Lister.

All in all I'd highly recommend this series to anyone who would like a good laugh. The 2 disc sets are priceless for the extras they contain, and the commentary tracks are spot on (at times just as funny as the episode being watched). I agree with others that a year is too long to wait, but I guess it takes time to dig up all that archival material. Still - maybe 3 series per year...?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: And The Hits Just Keep On Coming...
Review: Series 3 & 4 contain most of my favorite Red Dwarf episodes. "Backwards" is brilliant by any standards, and the others such as "Justice" (Lister: "What? Shoot him in the back?" Rimmer: "Of course in the back! It's only a pity he's awake!") and the strangely underrated "Meltdown" really stand out. By the way, in "Meltdown" its NOT seeing Winnie The Pooh get executed that's so funny - showing it would only prove to be very phoney and viewers might get as repelled as poor Lister.

All in all I'd highly recommend this series to anyone who would like a good laugh. The 2 disc sets are priceless for the extras they contain, and the commentary tracks are spot on (at times just as funny as the episode being watched). I agree with others that a year is too long to wait, but I guess it takes time to dig up all that archival material. Still - maybe 3 series per year...?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Getting so much better all the time.
Review: The Red Dwarf I and II DVDs were absolutely superb in almost every detail. But Series III and IV is when the show really becomes amazingly good, and also quite possibly the funniest thing on television, ever. (Series V and VI would fall into that category, as well, but more on them later.) The same goes for the DVDs. The improvement can be seen almost instantaneously. The menus are better put together, there's more variety to the CG menus - and above all, the list of extras has grown exponentially. There's model shots, deleted scenes, and some fantastic easter eggs. But for now, we'll start with the documentaries. All Change (Series III) and Built to Last (Series IV) have a total of (I believe) eleven cast and crew members talking, reminiscing, reviewing their work and revealing various interesting details. Both documentaries run at an approximate length of seventy-five minutes. There's some very funny stuff contained herein, but the extras don't stop there. The commentary by the cast is admittedly very funny, but not particularly informative. There's also a variety of other extras, but I'll let you navigate through the rest of them yourself.

The episodes themselves are absolutely fantastic. Marooned and Meltdown are some of my favorite episodes, with some fantastic dialogue and well thought-out plots. Rob Grant and Doug Naylor are, quite possibly, the funniest writers in existence. Their excellent writing skills, along with Chris Barrie's fantastic impression skills, are also showcased in the audio book chapters, taken from the novel Better Than Life. III and IV are superlative DVDs - bring on V and VI with all speed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great laugh season
Review: the web red dwarf community ranks these two seasons at the top
not only does it have the laughs it has the most favorite scene of red dwarf

these dvds also have the cast on a track telling you of the fun they had making the show
it is a good buy and worth every cent

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BEST TV SERIES EVER!!
Review: This show is the best! I remember as a child watching it with my mom and dad. However just recently my dad's friend lent the DVD's to us and i feel in love with it again. It makes you laugh so hard you have you keep going to the bathroom!!! HAHA Also you cannot just watch one episode you have to watch all of them, because you cannot get enough of it! EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH THIS AND YOU WILL GET YOUR MONEY WORTH!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome episodes in original form, loads of great extras
Review: With more interviews, comments, chapter points, deleted scenes and Smeg Ups than on the first two series DVDs, Red Dwarf Series 3 & 4 are even better than those terrific earlier releases. With awesome episodes like Dimension Jump, Meltdown, Camille, and Backwards, be prepared to laugh yourself silly 3 million years into the future. Many thanks to the producers for releasing the original series on DVD and not the remastered versions occasionally shown on TV around the time Series 8 made its original run. The effects may not always have been great, but the jokes and cast in all their original comedy genius on these early episodes are fantastic and best left untouched.

Red Dwarf really hit its stride in Series 3 & 4 with the hilarious addition to the cast of Robert Llewellyn as Kryten and the original cast members explore their characters in new and extremely funny ways. This is Red Dwarf coming into its creative best and most comical. Have a chicken vindaloo and kick back and relax with one of the funniest shows ever on TV on either side of the pond.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not sure on compression, but the extras alone are worth it!
Review: Wow, these discs are jam packed - 2 discs per series! Disc 1 contains the episodes, each episode has a commentary. Disc 2 contains the extras.

Indeed, there's more running time for the extras than there are for the episodes!

Being a Red Dwarf fan, I eagarly bought these releases. Warner Bros is WAY TOO SLOW in releasing these discs (that goes for Doctor Who as well, hint hint!)

$28 per series is a decent price, but if it were $28 for only the extra material, it's still worth the price. (that's not a hint, $28 per season is just fine for a 6 episode series.)

The episodes for both seasons are hilarious, the only clunkers being "Marooned" and "Meltdown", though the latter has some nice social commentary but lacks the visual of Winnie the Pooh being shot in front of the firing squad... fans already know this. For newbies, keep in mind the show is a bit raunchy at times, probably TV-14 level for American standards. (And these episodes were made in Britain in 1989 and 1991.) But it's still infinitely less offensve than South Park or most shows that are TV-14.

The only drawback is video quality. Not necessarily the quality of the mastertapes, which is mostly spectacular. (in series 4, I saw some brief edge enhancement and maybe a bit excess color bleed in spots.) It's the DVD compression. Sometimes the scene looks perfect. In others, it's very grainy/fuzzy as if too much compression was used to make the episodes fit on the disc. If I can see it 6 feet away on a standard 27" TV set, you chaps with 42" HDTV sets are bound to have a hissy fit, nor would I blame you. (Bodyswap, in the Lister/Rimmer scene where Rimmer contrived Lister to do a bodyswap so Rimmer will make Lister fit again is a clear example of where the poor compression quality can be seen.) Doctor Who also has the same problem in some of its releases... Is BBC America/Warner Bros using single density discs to fit 3 hours worth of TV show on a medium meant for 2 hours at high quality? They ought to use double density discs. I'll pay the extra money. (Or should I? "I Spy" had fit 4 hour-long episodes onto a double density disc and they look perfect, no compression artifacting that I had seen.) I can still say that the quality is better than VHS, but this is DVD - I've seen plenty of movies where this artifacting is barely visible, if at all. I shouldn't be seeing it here at all. (for the ultimate in bad compression, check out "Three's Company" season 1.)

Don't let bad video compression be a reason not to buy the disc and if you never move to HDTV then you'll never really have to worry (that'll change by 2006 though...). They still look very reasonable, and the compression is usually not as noticable or 'invisible' to the naked eye when the image is moving, as the naked eye is processing all the moving images and doesn't have time to stare at the finer details. And, again, the extras alone are worth the price for these volumes.

Hurry up series 5 and 6!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not sure on compression, but the extras alone are worth it!
Review: Wow, these discs are jam packed - 2 discs per series! Disc 1 contains the episodes, each episode has a commentary. Disc 2 contains the extras.

Indeed, there's more running time for the extras than there are for the episodes!

Being a Red Dwarf fan, I eagarly bought these releases. Warner Bros is WAY TOO SLOW in releasing these discs (that goes for Doctor Who as well, hint hint!)

$28 per series is a decent price, but if it were $28 for only the extra material, it's still worth the price. (that's not a hint, $28 per season is just fine for a 6 episode series.)

The episodes for both seasons are hilarious, the only clunkers being "Marooned" and "Meltdown", though the latter has some nice social commentary but lacks the visual of Winnie the Pooh being shot in front of the firing squad... fans already know this. For newbies, keep in mind the show is a bit raunchy at times, probably TV-14 level for American standards. (And these episodes were made in Britain in 1989 and 1991.) But it's still infinitely less offensve than South Park or most shows that are TV-14.

The only drawback is video quality. Not necessarily the quality of the mastertapes, which is mostly spectacular. (in series 4, I saw some brief edge enhancement and maybe a bit excess color bleed in spots.) It's the DVD compression. Sometimes the scene looks perfect. In others, it's very grainy/fuzzy as if too much compression was used to make the episodes fit on the disc. If I can see it 6 feet away on a standard 27" TV set, you chaps with 42" HDTV sets are bound to have a hissy fit, nor would I blame you. (Bodyswap, in the Lister/Rimmer scene where Rimmer contrived Lister to do a bodyswap so Rimmer will make Lister fit again is a clear example of where the poor compression quality can be seen.) Doctor Who also has the same problem in some of its releases... Is BBC America/Warner Bros using single density discs to fit 3 hours worth of TV show on a medium meant for 2 hours at high quality? They ought to use double density discs. I'll pay the extra money. (Or should I? "I Spy" had fit 4 hour-long episodes onto a double density disc and they look perfect, no compression artifacting that I had seen.) I can still say that the quality is better than VHS, but this is DVD - I've seen plenty of movies where this artifacting is barely visible, if at all. I shouldn't be seeing it here at all. (for the ultimate in bad compression, check out "Three's Company" season 1.)

Don't let bad video compression be a reason not to buy the disc and if you never move to HDTV then you'll never really have to worry (that'll change by 2006 though...). They still look very reasonable, and the compression is usually not as noticable or 'invisible' to the naked eye when the image is moving, as the naked eye is processing all the moving images and doesn't have time to stare at the finer details. And, again, the extras alone are worth the price for these volumes.

Hurry up series 5 and 6!!


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