"THE GOLDEN GIRLS: THE COMPLETE SEVENTH AND FINAL SEASON"
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 |  |
Oh happy day! A glorious time is upon us. The seventh – and final – season of “The Golden Girls” is now out on DVD.
If you’re a fan, this last 3-disc set will complete your collection. If you’re a cantankerous movie reviewer, you’ll be thrilled that there will no more episodes of “The Golden Girls” coming your way. Like the Iraq War, this has been a test of endurance for me. Finally, we’re at the light at the end of the tunnel.
After more than two years, I have completed the seasons, becoming one of the few straight men alive who has seen every episode of “Teh Golden Girls.” I’m not proud of this fact, but I take it like a war wound that makes you stronger when you’re healed.
Over this 30-month ordeal of DVD watching, encompassing nearly 4000 minutes of television viewing, I have gained respect for my adversary. “The Golden Girls” began as a rough but original concept. Four old women lived together, but instead of being matronly, they were like normal people. They laughed, they cried, they fought, they had sex, but most imporatnatly they talked about sex.
More than a decade before “Sex in the City,” “The Golden Girls” pioneered the four women in the city story. With Rose as Charlotte, Blanche as Samantha, Dorothy as Candice and Sophia as Miranda, this was the first show brave enough to show sexually active women – in their 60s (and one in her 80s) no less.
In the early years, they lost some characters (like their gay house boy from the first episode) and refined others (like pushing Sophia’s stroke to the side in later years). Soon, they stumbled upon a formula that worked, and it created seven years of unstoppable television.
Season seven took the girls through many journeys similar to the previous six years. In fact, if you didn’t know this was the final season, you wouldn’t know it was ending until the last few episodes. In the days before continuous storylines on sit coms, “The Golden Girls” still held to the week-by-week story concept.
The episodes weren’t bad at all this time around. While it floundered in the ratings its last year, it actually took some chances, giving the show more spark than its earlier seasons that ran on only a handful of script formulas.
For fans of the show, the greatest gem will be the last disc in this set which sets in motion the ending of the show. Ironically, the overused storyline about a pending marriage becomes the device that sends the girls packing. Dorothy finally finds someone she loves, and that takes her and her mother from the home (after Blanche put all four women’s names on the title, which was conveniently ignored by the showrunners).
Even though I cringed whenever a new season of “The Golden Girls” graced my mailbox, I had a slight tinge of nostalgia seeing the series end. While it was never my cup of tea, I respected it and understood how influential it was over the years. It’s nice to know I won’t have to sit through another 625 minutes of television in an upcoming season, but I am a bit sad to see it go.
Of course, it’s only going to be a short time before Touchstone Television decides to put the short-lived spin-off “Golden Palace” on DVD and send it to me for review. But for now, I will enjoy my freedom.
Specifications: Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Full frame (1.33:1). English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
