Review of Friends Series 7, Disc 1

Introduction

The Friends series needs little introduction. This American Sit-com of six thirty-somethings struggling through their lifes and loves has become an international phenomenon. With this seventh series, we see the plans for Monica and Chandlers wedding crystalising. In the mean time, Joey gets back to work after the lamentable "Mac `n Cheese" is pulled by the cable company, and the others bimble along between their own various disasters.

It`s fair to say I`m a big Friends fan, although the last few series have been of more variable quality. Season 7 is much more of the same - offering a mix of clever and witty comedy, with a fair bit of material which is off the mark. It`s probably a good job that the Friends stars are getting well paid for their work, because their showings on other projects have been less than stellar (Courtney Cox-Arquette excepted) as they are usually hopelessly typecast. With Friends clearly grinding to a halt soon they may have to live off their earnings. That is to say that I hope, as a fan, that they bring the series to a close before it loses the edge which it seems to have a tenuous grip on now.

Video

The Friends series on DVD has never had the best quality picture, and this often leads to debate about what picture source is used, and how the series is recorded. The picture is presented in fullscreen 4:3 (1.33:1), and although it is in the PAL format, it doesn`t seem to have any more definition than an NTSC picture. The image always looks like it belongs to an American broadcast show, due to it`s slightly blurry image and bright colours.

However, saying that, the image on this disc does to my eyes look a *little* better than previous Friends discs which I have. Perhaps newer technology is in use in the recording or at DVD transfer, because the image is just ever-so-slightly crisper than it has been previously. Colours are also slightly more lifelike.

Audio

The soundtrack of Friends is hardly going to test one`s home cinema kit - consisting mainly of dialogue. However, this Season 7 disc does have one ace up it`s sleeve in comparison to broadcast shows and previous VHS/DVD releases - the material on the flipside of the disc (ie. the `Directors Cuts`)is presented in Dolby Digital 5.0 rather than Pro-logic. Although this disc does little in the way of moving anything around speakers, there is a great deal of music in Friends, and it is pleasingly and powerfully reproduced. The vocals are also always clear, and located well in the centre of the soundstage. Generally, this disc again sounds a bit crisper than previous seasons.

Features

This is where the crunch comes in with these discs. Whereas previous Friends discs have contained 8 episodes - four each side on a flipper disc, the new releases of series 7 carry only 4 episodes altogether. The flip side of the disc carries the same episodes again, but this time "Director`s Cut" editions. These episodes are simply slightly longer versions, containing, on average 2-3 minutes footage. This footage usually consists of extra one-liners, or additional short scenes, which were cut for pacing reasons.

When viewed back-to-back, it is still difficult spotting anything of value in the new episodes. It is also clear that the Friends editors are quite good at selecting what to retain. Most of the additional material is unnecessary, although it is nice to have for Friends fans or competists. However, I imagine that anyone owning this disc will rarely play the shorter original versions - what would be the point ?! So the conclusion would be that it is unnecessary to duplicate each episode.

Conclusion

For anyone who`ve seen a Friends disc before, this one is not going to bring any surprises. Anyone choosing would appreciate that although the picture isn`t great, it still blows the VHS versions into the weeds - and that`s before you consider the ability to access whichever episode you want directly.

However, there is that one vital point that there are only four episodes on this disc, and yet it still retails at £15-£20 the same as previous seasons. Call me a dimwitted consumer if you like, but notwithstanding the additional material (which is of little true value) that means I`m getting half as much for the same money. This smacks of serious and blatant profit taking by Warner in producing the discs in this way. It also removes the benefit that the DVD`s always had that you could get a whole series in only three boxes - very neat and compact. Now it will be six per season.

Come on Warner, I feel sure you are damaging your own sales figures by halving the value of these discs and effectively ripping off your customers. Even having the discs as flippers is technologically unnecssary and cheap these days. These Friends discs should be dual-layer DVD9 and contain 8 episodes, and if they were, they would certainly sell better and be far easier to recommend.