"DHARMA & GREG: SEASON ONE"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: **** (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Jenna Elfman as DHARMA FINKELSTEIN MONTGOMERY Thomas Gibson as GREG MONTGOMERY Shae D’Lyn as JANE CAVANAUGH Susan Sullivan as KITTY MONTGOMERY Alan Rachins as LARRY FINKELSTEIN Joel Murray as PETE CAVANAUGH Mimi Kennedy as ABBY O’NEIL Mitch Ryan as EDWARD MONTGOMERY Not Rated Studio: Fox Created by: Chuck Lorre and Dottie Dartland Back to DVD Review Home |  |
“Dharma & Greg” was probably one of the best cast shows of the 1990s. Like “That 70s Show,” it clicked from day one. Even the pilot was cute and funny, and pilots are notorious for being clunky, unrefined versions of what shows become.
So many sit coms have decent stars and tremendous supporting casts. How many times have you found yourself thinking that the wacky neighbor or goofy best friend was the highlight of the show. (Can anyone say Schneider from “One Day at a Time”?) However, it’s refreshing to find these characters as the weak link.
Don’t get me wrong. Jane (Shae D’Lyn) is pretty doggoned funny. But she still doesn’t hold a candle to Dharma. And Pete (Joel Murray) is tossed a decent line here and there, but he’s clearly the least interesting character on the show.
The casting is what made this show work. Jenna Elfman was born to play Dharma, and her serious work since this show hasn’t fit her as well as the free-spirited hippie child from this show. Likewise, Thomas Gibson seemed a perfect fit for Greg. Gibson is a very good looking man with an incredibly serious tone. However, he’s also got a vulnerability that comes through when he’s with Dharma.
But it’s not just the title characters. In fact, as great as Elfman and Gibson are as Dharma and Greg, the real spark in the show comes from the parents. The danger of putting a show like this together is that you can come across as partisan. That’s not what you want because, with a one-sided politically-driven show (as was found in the dwindling numbers for “Commander in Chief”), it’s too easy to alienate half of your potential audience.
Because Dharma and Greg are our heroes, they can’t fight over the partisan stuff. They can disagree, but the audience wouldn’t stand for them getting in each other’s way for a political cause. This unpleasant task has been handed to their parents, the glue that holds the show together. By taking the polarizing sides, the parents allow their kids to be the grounding presence in the relationship.
A set-up like this allows either side of the family to take an extreme view and exploit all the negative and hilarious stereotypes of both ends of the political spectrum. Because Larry Finkelstein and Abby McNeil are such whacko left-wing hippies, and Edward and Kitty Montgomery are such country-club elitist conservatives, we can laugh at the extremes while grounding our own identities in Dharma or Greg.
Watching the first couple episodes of season one, I was worried that the show would run out of steam once Dharma and Greg had a couple arguments over lifestyle, home life and their goals in life. However, the focus soon shifted from the title characters to their parents, opening up an endless supply of ideas of where they can bicker, fight and, yes, bond over different issues.
The Montgomerys appear to be stiff, unmoving sticks in the mud, but they do love their son, and they are doing the best they can do to accept things. In the midst of this, they do allow themselves to be changed by their newly extended family, and they welcome Dharma in the best they can. Likewise, Larry and Abby are never going to turn to Greg’s conservative ways, but they want him to give their daughter a good life. They’ll stop fasting on Thanksgiving to welcome a potential pregnancy, and Larry will eat meat now and then to bond with his new family.
Overall, “Dharma & Greg” opened to a great first season, forging a fun show with more heart than you’ll normally see in all the shows of a season. It was a special magic that brought it together and made it gel, and one of the few shows on television that managed to be warm-hearted without being sappy.
The DVD includes a retrospective of the show, an interactive game that allows you to find out how in tune you are with the free-spirited Dharma and all of Chuck Lorre’s vanity cards he placed at the end of the shows.
Finally, look for the links to bloopers and gags, hidden among the yins and the yangs of the show.
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Stereo Sound. Full frame (1.33:1). Spanish language track. Spanish and French subtitles. English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
