"THE GIRLS NEXT DOOR: SEASON FIVE"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: *** (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Holly Madison as HERSELF Bridget Marquardt as HERSELF Kendra Wilkinson as HERSELF Hugh Hefner as HIMSELF Not Rated Studio: E! Entertainment Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson have been Hugh Hefner’s live-in girlfriends for seven years, and they’ve been doing the television show “The Girls Next Door” for five. If you follow the tabloids, you’ll know that they’ve all moved out for various reasons, and Hef has three new girls. So here is your last chance to see the final episodes of the E! Entertainment series about the three very different girlfriends of Hugh Hefner... at least until season six stars with the new blond bombshells.
WHAT I LIKED
I have to admit that this show has grown on me a little bit. After sporadically watching the series on DVD, I’ve gotten used to Kendra’s faux ghetto nature and Holly’s stuck-up attitude. Say what you want to about these girls, but they all have personality, even if it can be vapid at times.
Holly, Bridget and Kendra have changed over the years, and it is probably most noticeable in this season, not necessarily because they’ve grown as people but because they were all making preparations to leave. Their personal lives and careers took them on different paths, and it is actually quite rare to watch any scene that has all three girls in it at the same time.
Like any season of “The Girls Next Door,” it is far better to watch on DVD than on the original E! broadcast. The is mainly due to the fact that the DVD is left uncensored, both for language and the copious amount of nudity. Watching “The Girls Next Door” is like watching this summer’s hit “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” It may not have much in the brains department, but it sure is fun to look at for 22 minutes at a stretch.
There are only about four different types of shows, and my favorite happen to be the ones that involve a Playmate search or any other excuse to get a bunch of Playboy models together in skimpy, little or no clothes. Strip away all the quality literature and articles that most men claim to read, and “The Girls Next Door” is the closest thing you get to a television version of the magazine itself.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
Although “The Girls Next Door” is fun to watch for the jiggle factor, it still tends to highlight the girls’ lack of wits. In particular, this comes through in the episode featuring Bridget’s first shot at producing a horror movie, which looks utterly terrible. (Glad the studio didn’t send me that DVD.) Bridget is my favorite, but it’s clear that she doesn’t know the first thing about producing a film – or starring in one, for that matter.
Every pre-conceived notion about the girls in “The Girls Next Door” is probably true. They get by on their looks, and the path to becoming Hef’s girlfriend has more in line with a high-priced call girl than a traditional dating scenario, but for what the show it, it works. (Let’s just see if Hef’s new twins can muster any more personality than they do in the episodes of this season.)
DVD FEATURES
There’s not necessarily a wealth of special features in this season, but there is a relatively large volume of them. This comes in deleted scenes and a commentary by all three girls on each of the 16 episodes. I personally can only take so much of the girls talking over themselves, but true fans should enjoy this.
The most interesting aspects of the commentaries are seeing how the girls look back on the show with the public announcement that all three have moved on. They ask Holly about Cris Angel during the commentary, and they also give some nice, solid and very jealous jabs at the new twins whenever Hef’s new girlfriends show up on screen.
Finally, if you like the show on E! for the T&A factor, it’s even better on DVD. Is it possible to have too many naked girls on this show? I don’t know the answer to that, but it’s funny trying to figure it out.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Fans of the show and people who long to be Hugh Hefner.
