Articles about the Box Set

Ok, there is much confusion about what episodes of Family Guy are on each season release in the UK. It is pretty messed up! So here is a list of all the episodes and which box set they are on in the UK. The numbers after each episode are the USA episode numbers.

Season One
Disk 1:
Death Has A Shadow (1-1)
I Never Met The Dead Man (1-2)
Mind Over Murder (1-4)
Chitty Chitty Death Bang (1-3)
A Hero Sits Next Door (1-5)
The Son Also Draws (1-6)
Brian: Portrait of a Dog (1-7)
Disk 2:
Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater (2-1)
Running Mates (2-10)
Holy Crap (2-2)
If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin' (2-9)
Love Thy Trophy (2-5)
Death Is A Bitch (2-6)
The King Is Dead (2-7)

Season Two
Disk 1:
Da Boom (2-3)
Brian In Love (2-4)
I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar (2-8)
A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Bucks (2-11)
Fifteen Minutes of Shame (2-12)
Road To Rhode Island (2-13)
Let's Go To The Hop (2-14)
Dammit Janet! (2-15)
Disk 2:
There's Something About Paulie (2-16)
He's Too Sexy For His Fat (2-17)
E. Peterbus Unum (2-18)
The Story On Page One (2-19)
Wasted Talent (2-20)
Fore, Father (2-21)
When You Wish Upon A Weinstein (3-22)

Season Three
Disk 1:
The Thin White Line (3-1)
Brian Does Hollywood (3-2)
Mr. Griffin Goes To Washington (3-3)
One If By Clam, Two If By Sea (3-4)
And The Weiner Is... (3-5)
Death Lives (3-6)
Lethal Weapons (3-7)
Disk 2:
The Kiss Seen Around The World (3-8)
Mr. Saturday Knight (3-9)
A Fish Out Of Water (3-10)
Emission Impossible (3-11)
To Live And Die In Dixie (3-12)
Screwed The Pooch (3-13)
Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother? (3-14)
Disk 3:
Ready, Willing and Disabled (3-15)
A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas (3-16)
Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows (3-17)
From Method To Madness (3-18)
Stuck Together, Torn Apart (3-19)
Road To Europe (3-20)
Family Guy Viewer Mail #1 (3-21)

Season Four
Disk 1:
North By North Quahog (4-1)
Fast Times At Buddy Cianci Jr. High (4-2)
Blind Ambition (4-3)
Don't Make Me Over (4-4)
Disk 2:
The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire (4-5)
Petarded (4-6)
Brian The Bachelor (4-7)
8 Simple Rules For Buying My Teenage Daughter (4-8)
Disk 3:
Breaking Out Is Hard To Do (4-9)
Model Misbehavior (4-10)
Peter's Got Woods (4-11)
Perfect Castaway (4-12)
Jungle Love (4-13)
Special Features - Quite a few!

Season Five
Disk 1:
PTV (4-14)
Brian Goes Back To College (4-15)
The Courtship of Stewie's Father (4-16)
The Fat Guy Strangler (4-17)
The Father, The Son, And The Holy Fonz (4-18)
Disk 2:
Brian Sings & Swings (4-19)
Patriot Games (4-20)
I Take Thee Quagmire (4-21)
Sibling Rivalry (4-22)
Deep Throats (4-23)
Disk 3:
Peterotica (4-24)
You May Now Kiss The...Uh...Guy Who Receives (4-25)
Petergeist (4-26)
The Griffin Family History (4-27)
Special Features - Deleted Scenes (pretty sad there's no more than that!)

Season Six
Disk 1:
Stewie Loves Lois (5-1)
Mother Tucker (5-2)
Hell Comes To Quahog (5-3)
Saving Private Brian (5-4)
Whistle While Your Wife Works (5-5)
Prick Up Your Ears (5-6)
Disk 2:
Chick Cancer (5-7)
Barely Legal (5-8)
Road To Rupert (5-9)
Peter's Two Dads (5-10)
The Tan Aquatic With Steve Zissou (5-11)
Airport '07 (5-12)
Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey (5-13)
Special Features - a few

Season Seven
Disk 1:
No Meals On Wheels (5-14)
Boys Do Cry (5-15)
No Chris Left Behind (5-16)
It Takes A Village Idiot, And I Married One (5-17)
Meet The Quagmires (5-18)
Disk 2:
Movin' Out (Brian's Song) (6-2)
Believe It Or Not, Joe's Walking On Air (6-3)
Stewie Kills Lois (6-4)
Lois Kills Stewie (6-5)
McStroke (6-8)
Padre de Familia (6-6)
Peter's Daughter (6-7)
Disk 3:
Special Features - Includes '100th Episode Special' from Season 6

USA Episodes NOT on any UK discs so far (that I have seen):
Stewie B. Goode (4-28)
Bango Was His Name Oh (4-29)
Stu & Stewie's Excellent Adventre (4-30)
Back To The Woods (6-9)
Play It Again, Brian (6-10)
The Former Life of Brian (6-11)
Long John Peter (6-12)
Any of the Season 7 (USA) episodes

On a separate release:
Blue Harvest (6-1)

So there you are. Hope this helps!

Amazing. Truly amazing. The best, most moving war movie or series, or, anything, that i have ever seen. Truly moving, after wathching it I felt a huge kinship with the men of easy company. I even set my background as band of brothers. Buy this.

After Soprano's came to an end last year over here in blighty last year I was wondering would another series come along to give it a run for it's money.

I'm not sure what people think of David Chase's Mafia Epic but I can imagine cries of overrated being called out, I personally found utterly engrossing TV and simply sublime, I was somewhat sad to see it end but grateful Chase chose it to go out on high and yes I was perfectly happy with the opened ended abrupt ending to the final episode. Chase never was going to do conventional.

While I admit Showtime's Dexter started to fill that void, the 1st season was a great intro to the world of Miami's most interesting serial killer the 2nd season took the concept and ran with it, the 3rd season seems rather sedate but seems to hotting up, I knew it was falling short of Tony Soprano's Journey.

At last I've found my void well and truly filled and HBO's (god these guy are so far ahead in the game) The Wire may well eclipse Chase's genius series. David Simon a Journalist who had written the treatment for what became the TV series Homicide Life on the Street, alongide ex Cop Ed Burns also like Simon a award winning writer of Drug related crime lliterature conceived this exemplelary series.

An excellent basis for what is simply one of the most engrossing thing I've ever seen, knocks spots off most theatrical releases and it's broad canvas and rich characters make for a series which becomes more addictive each episode, I watched the 1st series in just over a week and the 2nd is a done deal as well, can't wait for season 3 which I should start today.

Season 1 introduces us to a rich vein of characters on both sides, the cops at times are nearly as dirty as the dealers. a detailed exmaination of the Baltimore underbelly where the dealing heroin is just an everyday thing. A Detail of cops is put together to build a case against a relatively unknown drug dealer called Avon Barksdale who has managed to elude the spot light but due to some of his people beating a conviction and the murder of an eye witness, the Baltimore Police department is determined to brings some convictions using wire taps, surveilance and paperwork .

Dominic West (yes he is a Brit) heads the cast as the not always likeable but compelling Homicide Detective James "Jimmy" Mcnulty seconded from Homicide to the detail after intiating the investiagtion due to his connections to now Legal Judge Daniel Phelan played by Peter Gerety, who Jimmy lets slip details of a recent case that failed involving Avon Barksdale's crew members who leans on Frankie Faison's Commisioner Ervin Burrell to act, Jimmy always a thorn in his superior Major William Rawls side, gets deeper involved in the situation and puts Burrell in a compromsing situation which results in the detail being formed due to the Judge's inability to stop shouting his mouth off after Jimmy rather naively takes him into his confidence. Mcnulty joins Lieutenant Cedric Daniels crew, a stern no nonsence performance from Lance Reddick.

The group which in includes Detectives, lesbian Kima Greggs, Lester Freamon, Ellis Carver, Thomas "Herc" Hauk as well as Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski, only there due to his father in law being Deputy Comm Valchek, someone who will figure prominently in Season 2. Daniels is also afforded by Burrell some dead beat near retirement officiers who give the impression Burrel has no intention of letting this investiagtion run for too long, enough time to humour the Judge in his quest for convictions and is looking for either quick results which doesn't dig to deep or closing it down due to failure to bulid a case

Mcnulty continues his Homicide cases alongside partner the deep voiced Detective William "Bunk" Moreland (Wendell Pierce) who Jimmy continues to investigate current cases which have connections to his investigations with the Detail a murder with ties to Barksdale.

Although when Lester (an excellent Clarke Peters) starts to uncover money connections that lead to highly connected officials, the investigation has the breaks halted on it and the team are told to concentrate on the hoods and the drugs.

As well as this we get the perspective of the drug dealers, as well as Wood Harris's intimidating Barksdale, Avon's right hand the superb Idris Elba as Stringer Bell (another Brit) including Avon's own nephew D'Angelo a superb Larry Gillard Jnr, who has recently beat the conviction which helps to fuel the beginnings of Daniel's Details investigation.

D'Angelo is in charge of his patch and has under is command a group of would be gangster teenager pushing heroin on the neighbourhood which the Detail zero on in for the majority of their operation. Gillard is brilliant in conveying the uncertainty of his dealings in his Uncle's empire and is the moral concience of this season

Amongst this are colourful characters like Junkie Bubbles (Andre Royo) who is also a snitch for detail cop Kima Greggs. Michael K Williams charismatic homosexual under dog Omar who is a blight in Barksdale schemes and after Avon's orders result in the death of his lover becomes determined to be the fly in Avons ointment by upsetting his operations.

The Wire is simply astonishingly good, the acting is consistently brilliant and the storytelling and plotting is masterful, I thought maybe the critics were maybe going over the top with their plaudits for this HBO drama but it is that good and is without doubt the greatest TV series since HBO's own Soprano's.

I thought Season One and Two were fantastic, and the mystery and lacks of answers was enthralling. However, I felt that Season Three started to go astray, and it just seemed to keep creating crazy questions just to keep us on the edge of our seats. If you felt that about Season Three, then you will continue to be frustrated with this season. Instead of flash-backs, we now have flash-fowards, which seem great, but through the progression of the season, the situation on the island becomes more and more ludicrous. The climax of the season is just completely awful, and proof that all the greatness is Lost (pun intended).

Fawlty Towers is (of course) as good as comedy gets and this package is a bargain. However completists may want to be patient. Rumour has it that John Cleese is preparing commentaries for all 12 episodes in preparation for an extra special re-release. I believe he needs the money to pay for his divorce!

Damn you Amazon for not allowing 10 stars! Along with "the Wire" the best television series of this or for that matter any other decade. The scripts are sharp enough to cut diamonds. The characters are the most memorable to hit the screens in years. And with Martin Sheen, Richard Schiff, Alison Janney, Rob Lowe, Alan Alda et al you have the strongest actors on the box. There are also occasions when Aaron Sorkin's scripts are transcendent. Let's hope that Barrack Obama pulls him to write some of the forthcoming inauguration speech (ok it should be great in any case). It would be up there with Kennedy's or Roosevelt. The West Wing, The Wire, The Soprano's, Six Feet Under etc are all evidence that while the American century may be over they still dominate the planet in terms of brilliant dramas.

Being a great fan of Desperate Housewives I was eagerly waiting for Season 4 to be available. However, I find this season too fast-moving with too many sombre events crammed into each episode. True, we only get 17 episodes instead of the 23 or 24 of the previous seasons, but far more happens in this season. We get very little time to laugh (at our own follies), and are whipped along from one catastrophe to the next. I find it a great pity ... I liked being able to see myself (as a housewife and mother). No time for this now. I'll no doubt be getting Season 5 ... in a year's time ... but will be looking forward to it less. By the way, do watch them in order. Reference is made all the way along to the previous seasons 1, 2 and 3.

With the 1st season setting the scene and introducing the characters the 2nd season does that rare thing of being even better, Though the story does still contains the continuing Barksdale story with Stringer Bell holding the reins as Avon alongside his nephew are incarcerated due the conclusions of the investigation in season 1. It is the new strand that drives the 2nd series even more. It introduces the tragic tale of the Sobotka's, a family of Batimore Dockers who's head Frank sometimes goes to not exactly legitimate methods to keep the money coming in but is a generous but compromised man. So when he rubs childhood adversary Deputy Commissioner Valchek up the wrong way with a incident that concerns amongst such things as Church stained glass window, Valchek blackmails a returning Frankie Faison from Season 1 as Commisssioner Burrell for political reasons to getting him to launch an investigation into Frank's activities. When after Burrell tries to buy him off some dead beats determined to do nothing, Valchek requests Daniels langishing in the Police Evidence dungeon to put together another Details to lead the investigation including Valchek's son-in-law a returning "Prez" from season 1.

What starts out as a childhood spat gone out of control becomes much bigger when Mcnulty (now Harbour Patrol for his sins) dredges up a Jane Doe in the docks and then connects it to a cargo hold full of 13 dead immigrant girls which Jimmy makes rather maliciously fall in to the jurisdiction of his old boss Major Rawls and ends up being put in the laps of a rather unimpressed Lester & Bunk who base their investigation from Daniels Detail but when their investiagtions become connected end up becoming part of Daniels Detail and after a number of episodes, Daniels agrees to take the case off Rawl's hands in exchange for his co-operation including the one thing Rawls is loathed to grant due to his axe to gring with a certain Detective that used to be part of his squad.

This season also looks into Mcnulty's home life and is flawed personality concerning his family life and coming to terms with his demotion and his borderline alcoholism and is just about pulled from the brink when Rawls allows Daniels to get his own way in exchange for taking the 13 jane does off his roster after being convinced by Bunk & Lester that they are connected to Valchek's Sorbotka case. Also Port Cop Officier Beatrice Russell (Amy Ryan) who is initially left with the immigrant girls case till Mcnulty's intervention is a new addition and makes for an interesting a solid but more wet behind the ears member of the team who lacks experience but has connections with the Dockers including Frank himself which assists in the case and becomes a fine a valuable memeber of the Detail. Kima returns after a stint behind a desk due to receovering from her shooting from season 1 much to her now pregnant girlfriends dismay. Herc & now Sergeant Carver also return to complete the Team

Season 2 improves on the standard of 1st season by making the storytelling even more compelling, where it's Avon's nephew D'Angelo that was the concience and one of the main drives of the story in season 1, it is Chris Bauer's Frank which is the concern of series 2. Frank is loyal to his workers but is involved in what he thinks his petty smuggling and theft but becomes deeper involved with a dangerous group ran by a man simply named "The Greek".

Frank's nephew and son become embroiled in "The Greek's" operation and result in events and actions which will be life changing and tragic for them all. Pablo Schrieber as Frank's nephew Nicky gets deeper in with "The Greek's" right hand Spiros (Paul Ben Victor) who after going behind his Uncle with some scams gets offered the chance of payment in Heroin.

Nicky then see's the oppurtunity that Ziggy, Frank's son had tried to intice him into but was reluctant due to Ziggy's firebrand personality and unexperience in dealing. Nicky being a more shrewd, clever and adept at turning his hand to new oppurtunities excepts the heroin and starts dealing in his neighberhood through the local connections, cutting out Ziggy of the scheme which sows the seeds of startling actions later in the season.

Daniels and the team concentrate on tracking the drugs, Herc & Carver doing the surveilance and gathering vital info as well as the scams with the stealing of Cargo holds which connect them to Lester & Bunk's Jane Does case. After setting up wire taps and cloning the computer system the dockers use to discover the deceptions they start to zero on in on the Sorbotka's schemes, with Nicky becoming more embroiled and Frank not being aware how deep his Nephew is involved and how unpredictable is son Ziggy is becoming.

The story of the port aces' the Barkdale angle of the 1st season by presenting Bauer's tragic but decent Frank and the fate of his families involvement with "The Greek" who seems to have friends in high places who start to throw huge spanners in the Details operation. When the FBI come involved due to Valchek's thirst to bring down Frank the information starts to leak and "The Greek" becomes aware of the operation.

The strands of the Barksdale empire become embroiled in the port story as Stringer has to strike a deal with the competition "Propostion Joe's " (Robert F Chew) crew due to lack of product which see's Stringer's grip on Avon's territory slipping made more awkward by Joe's people in a particular "Cheese", (Hip Hop star Wu Tang Clan's "Method Man") as Joe has dealing with Spiros as they are providing him with a steady supply of heroin bought through on the docks.

Regulars from series 1 make an apperance, Bubbles continues to thieve to fund his habit and Omar continues to taunt Stringer as well as assisting Mcnulty in putting away a Barksdale soldier arrested due to incidents covered in season 1. Like Soprano's the characters aren't always likeable but compelling and make each episode fly by, the detail in the storytelling is astonishing and is truly masterful.

An With 3 more seasons to go I'm practically salivating for some more of this stunning piece of TV.

Yes! The Wire really is that Good!

I must be missing the point with this series,really I must.I watch it,a character makes an inane comment and the audience burst into uncontrollable laughter while I sit there stoney faced.I mean,the series ran for a few years so millions must have loved it.It is so unfunny that it goes beyond my comprehension.I know everyone has different tastes but why is this so popular?From what I have seen it's a group of pretty people sitting around drinking coffee.Then one of them starts to sing an incredibly unfunny song and there it is again,complete hysterics.

I might sound like a miserable swine but when American comedy is done well it is brilliant.'Bilko' was fabulous and 'Frasier' definitely had it's moments.'Friends'is unbelievably overrated in my opinion and gains an extra star because Courtney Cox is a cutie.

Though it's nice to have the entire Blackadder collection in one neat DVD-set, there's no comparison between Season One (1983) and the subsequent three seasons.

The 1983 series was directed by Rowan Atkinson (Blackadder) and Richard Curtis. Though Brian Blessed is a superb actor, the dialogue is mildly amusing at best. It simply can't hold a candle to the 1985, 1987 and 1989 seasons - all directed by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton. Season 2 is set in the first Elizabethan Era (late 16th century). Miranda Richardson is hilarious as Queen Elizabeth and it also features a young(ish) Stephen Fry as Lord Melchett. Season 3 is probably my favourite; it's set in the Regency period (early 19th century) where Hugh Laurie excels as Prince George. In one classic episode called "Ink and Incapability" Dr. Samuel Johnson is convincingly played by the talented Robbie Coltrane. Sheer quality! Season 4 is set in trenches of World War I. It's in that series that Stephen Fry really comes of age as the outlandish and eccentric "General Melchett". There's also some once-off, bonus episodes. "The Cavalier Years" is entertaining enough. It's set during the English Civil War, with Fry as King Charles I (though he sounds more like the current PRINCE Charles than King Charles of the 1640s!). "Black Adder Back & Forth" is disappointing. It's set on 31 December 1999 and is only marginally more amusing than the 1983 Series.

Blackadder doesn't light everyone's candle. But if you're into mid-80s Ben Elton satire as I am, this boxed-set is well worth owning.