Review of Friends Series 4, Disc 3

Introduction

This disc shows the last seven episodes of series four of the hit sitcom Friends.

In this part of the series, Ross gets serious with Emily, and proposes to her after knowing her for six weeks. This central story provides the backbone of the episodes, and is nicely surrounded by the funny stuff.

Everyone who watches the show has their favourite characters, mine being Chandler and Joey. The pair are given the opportunity to work well together, either when they are involved in the main story, such as in `The One With The Free Porn`, or just by providing the essential one liners.

The series culminates with the wedding in London, which features guest appearances from a number of well known stars - Tom Conti and Jennifer Saunders being the best.

These episodes are a few years old now, but have not really aged - they are mostly as funny now as the first time that you would have seen them. There have been so many episodes of the series now that if you have seen them all, you can`t quite remeber which bits happened when, so seeing them again lets you fill in the gaps nicely.

Video

Friends is still produced in the standard 1.33:1 television ratio, so those with widescreen televisions will get no extra benefit. Like most tv conversions, the picture is not as good as a film, but is still sharp, with excellent coluring. Definately better then the VHS version that you can also buy.

Audio

The disc is presented in Dolby Digital, and this is actually used. There are a number of sound effects throughout the episodes coming from the rear speakers - airports feature heavily, so listen out for the announcements from behind. This was a welcome surprise - being a sitcom I didn`t really expect there to be any audio effects, but the fact that there are some shows that Warner have actually taken some time and effort over this disc, as opposed to simply re-hashing the VHS versions.

Features

There are two short documentaries included on the disc, both about the London episode. These provide a bit of an insight into the cast, and the shooting of the episodes. Unfortunately they are included on the other discs that make up this series of Friends, so if you have the others, this is nothing new for you. Oh, and we get to see The Rembrandts singing the theme song again as well.

Conclusion

Overall, well worth watching, and worth buying for big fans of the series.