"THE GOLDEN GIRLS: SEASON FIVE"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Beatrice Arthur as DOROTHY Rue McClanahan as BLANCHE Betty White as ROSE Estelle Getty as SOPHIA Rated TV-PG Studio: ABC Created by: Susan Harris Back to DVD Review Home |  |
Didn’t I just watch the fourth season of “The Golden Girls”? Perhaps the fan base for this old 1980s stand-by are more influential than the tobacco lobby. I think this because they only started coming out on DVD a year and a half ago. At first, they were released in sixth-month increments. Now the window between releases is only a couple months.
This isn’t all that bad, mind you. With the fifth season in the bag, I should be done with these DVDs by Christmas – and that would be the greatest Christmas present I could ever get. After that, I’ll be in a very small, elite group of people who can say they have seen every single episode of “The Golden Girls” in the show’s seven-season run.
By the time “The Golden Girls” entered its fifth season, it was an institution. It had lasted longer than most shows on television, and it had spawned two successful spin-offs: “Empty Nest” and “Doctors.”
The plots started to run dry, however. After tackling such challenges as a lesbian episode and impending mortality, the well had run dry. It forced the show in two directions. On one hand, the fifth season saw a resurrection of two stock plots: : 1) one girl planning on getting married while the others cope, 2) a visit from a friend or relative that turns everyone’s life on its ear.
The other direction was to tackle the social issues of the day. The most obvious one was hitting on AIDS, which emerged when Rose thought she may have been exposed to the dreaded and then-oft-misunderstood disease. I imagine that to some degree this was a concern of the show’s target demographic, considering how many seniors had blood transfusions during the onset of AIDS. However, I just couldn’t shake the fact that I was getting preached to at times.
The show dipped into the political well a couple more times during the show, with Bea Arthur’s character of Dorothy becoming a little more vocal about her liberal beliefs. I guess this is the outcome of a show that becomes so successful. This also happened with the Christmas episode with a saccharine-sweet look at the homeless problem. It was clear that the people in charge of the show had a bone to pick with President Bush.
We see a couple new guests stars in this season, including a pretty funny show from Dick Van Dyke, as well as a few predictable flashback episodes. Fortunately, the “Whose Dying This Week” stock show had been pushed away (or at least transformed into the “Whose Sick This Week” show).
Creator Susan Harris did take a two-episode chance to vent her spleen about chronic fatigue syndrome, something that she suffered from herself. In this two-parter, Dorothy learns that she has this ailment, but she struggles to find a doctor that will diagnose her. We end with Dorothy telling off one of her skeptical doctors, which caused the audience to cheer but just seemed so whiney to me. I also thought it funny that Dorothy’s fatigue magically disappeared after this episode and was never heard from again.
Overall, the fifth season of the show continued the run of the series. “The Golden Girls” is a show that really never changed over the years, and that was great for the fan. If you’re one of those fans, pick up season five and start saving for season six, which comes out in August.
One final note: After four releases with scant special features, I commend the folks making these DVDs for getting Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Betty White to lend their voices to commentaries for select episodes. Sure, these ladies are 20 years older, and they don’t give the most stimulating commentaries, but it is clear they still had great love for the show itself and the people involved.
Specifications: Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Full frame (1.33:1). English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
