FRIENDS: THE COMPLETE 7TH SEASON - DVD review

At its best, the situation comedy "Friends" captures the Zeitgeist of the 1990s with startling accuracy. That it is funny without resorting to cruel ironies only solidifies the cheery, optimistic outlook of the show's creators. Sure, some of its sarcastic jokes hit a little close to home, but the characters seem to care genuinely for one another and about being good people (unlike the tools in "Seinfeld").

Warner Bros.'s first "Friends" DVDs consisted of "Best of ‘Friends'" collections. Those releases were a hodge-podge of episodes from various seasons. Thankfully, the studio has come to its senses and is now releasing "Friends" season by season. "Friends": The Complete Seventh Season Box Set includes twenty-three episodes on four DVDs. Each episode contains footage not seen during its original broadcast. Mostly, these are mere seconds that were cut here and there in order to fit in a couple of extra commercials on the air.

Disc 1: "The One With Monica's Thunder", "...Rachel's Book", "...Phoebe's Cookies", "...Rachel's Assistant", "...the Engagement Picture", "...the Nap Partners".

Disc 2: "...Ross's Library Book", "The One Where Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs", "...All the Candy", "...the Holiday Armadillo", "...All the Cheesecakes", "The One Where They're Up All Night".

Disc 3: "The One Where Rosita Dies", "The One Where They All Turn Thirty", "...Joey's New Brain", "...the Truth About London", "the Cheap Wedding Dress", "...Joey's Award".

Disc 4: "...Ross and Monica's Cousin", "...Rachel's Big Kiss", "...the Vows", "...Chandler's Dad", "...Monica and Chandler's Wedding Parts 1 and 2".

During the show's run, Jennifer Aniston (Rachel), Courteney Cox Arquette (Monica), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe), Matt LeBlanc (Joey), Matthew Perry (Chandler), and David Schwimmer (Ross) have become highly-paid stars. Their chemistry makes the show, for they simply look like people who wouldn't mind hanging out with one another 24/7. I also like how the show reaches back into the characters' pasts to provide a sense of where the six friends will be in the future. That respect for how the sextet came to be gives the characters a solid base for their growth as fully-realized personas.

The seventh season deals with Monica and Chandler's engagement/wedding, and basically, the series shows signs of fatigue. There are only so many wedding jokes that can be made before people stop laughing, and that's what basically happened after the first six or so episodes of Year Seven. The writing also seems a bit haphazard, with Chandler getting cold feet and getting over his cold feet in a matter of minutes, with Ross's son showing up only to be dropped out of the picture after one episode, with Rachel's new boyfriend (her assistant at work) coming and going based on something as whimsical as her turning-30 crisis, etc.

The highpoints in Season Seven are the very funny cameos by Winona Ryder (as Rachel's college buddy) and Denise Richards (as Ross and Monica's cousin, who's the object of everyone's lust). Kathleen Turner and Morgan Fairchild are pretty funny, too, as Chandler's parents.

I really enjoy the performances by the cast members, but I also detest Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe). I like wacky stuff that humanizes a fictional creation, but Kudrow's character is wacky for the sake of being wacky. The other five characters often act with chagrin when they realize that they've done something silly, but Phoebe is so oblivious to reality that she elicits groans rather than laughs from me.

Video:
The seventh season of "Friends" arrives on DVD with a 1.33:1 (full-frame on 4:3 monitors) video image. The video quality is still not as great as, say, the quality of the video of the "Star Trek: Voyager" DVDs. Most episodes are rather soft, and that softness can lead to the occasional blurring. Sometimes, the footage sports a digital sheen rather than appearing film-like, possibly due to overzealous edge-enhancement. However, colors and lighting schemes have been reproduced well.

Audio:
Warner Bros. re-mixed the show's soundtracks into Dolby Digital 5.0 English presentations. Since "Friends" is a sitcom, there's not much that requires the use of dazzling sonic effects. Therefore, while the 5.0 mixes help to "widen" the depth of the soundstage, there's nothing on these DVDs that will compel you to pop them into your DVD player to impress your friends. Dialogue and music are well-balanced. Low-end frequencies are scarce, but they're not necessarily suitable for something like "Friends" anyway.

Optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles as well as English closed captions support the audio.

Extras:
Despite the fact that there are four discs in this box set, there aren't many extras to accompany the Seventh Season of "Friends". Where are the retrospective interviews with the cast members looking back at their costumes and their hairstyles from the early seasons? Sigh.

Disc 2: Audio commentary by executive producers Kevin S. Bright, Marta Kauffman, and David Crane for "...the Holiday Armadillo".

Disc 3: Audio commentary by Bright, Kauffman, and Crane for "...Joey's New Brain".

Disc 4: Audio commentary by Bright, Kauffman, and Crane for "...Monica and Chandler's Wedding".

The other "big" extras are also found on Disc 4. There's a "Friends of ‘Friends' Guestbook" (a featurette that looks at five regular guest actors), a gag reel, and a "Monica's Wedding Book Challenge" trivia game. There's also "Gunther Spills the Beans", a featurette that has the Gunther character giving away some of the plot developments of Year Eight (it's actually a promo for the next box set).

--Miscellaneous--
On each disc, the menu screen that allows you to pick an episode to watch also has "coffee cup" icons in front of each episode's name. These icons access previews of the episodes. Each disc also has a list of the show's leads as well as executive producers. There are some weblinks if you use a DVD-ROM drive to view the discs.

The cardboard gatefold packaging provides information about the episodes' writers, directors, original airdates, and guest stars.

Film Value:
Season Seven of "Friends" has a couple of amusing guest appearances, but it is also considered to be one of the show's weaker seasons. After all, it takes an entire year for the writers to get to Monica and Chandler's wedding even though it is the most logical destination for the two characters. With so many moments devoted to the slow-in-arriving wedding, you get the sense that some episodes simply marked time. Still, "Friends" is one of the best TV shows ever, and if you've been buying every season anyway, then you can't skip out on Season Seven, right?