Married With Children – The Complete Fifth Season
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: C-
Why was Married With Children a hit? From the outset, it just wants to be crass,
gross and its reductionisms about sex are hallmarks of the show. Fans would say that it was the ultimate
desecration of the happy TV sitcom family.
But the show would have only been possible if that family had not
returned in regressive, phony 1980s sitcoms to begin with, so that is the main
source of the anger. Shows like All
In The Family, Alice, Soap and Hot L Baltimore are the
real cutting edge series that did what Married could not do at its best.
Still, the show was cast right and The Complete Fifth
Season is about as much of a peak as the show was going to reach, if
that. Even as a passive viewer, these
shows do not have the energy of the previous seasons and even the cast and
writers seemed to be getting bored at this point. We did not get the previous seasons to cover, so we will not
comment on the earlier shows, but if you have never sent he show or are a fan,
you might want to start earlier on. By
the way, the Frank Sinatra hit Love & Marriage (1955) has been
deleted form the credits and replaced by a Muzak-like knock-off, likely because
royalties would have been too expensive.
The 1.33 X 1 image is barely better than broadcast and was
shot on professional analog NTSC video, while the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is
without surrounds as the package says.
There are no extras, though the DigiPak foldout has a little paper
foldout of its own listing the episodes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
