Roseanne – The Complete Third Season

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Episodes: B-

 

 

Roseanne kept slowly getting better in ways I had not expected and The Complete Third Season has an up-tempo pace that makes it slightly better than the previous seasons.  The actors had really grown into their roles, where there was an awkwardness of sorts in the previous tapings that is even more noticeable watching these.  This new set from Anchor Bay has all 25 uncut shows, a point once again made on the box in a sticker.  The 4 DVDs are once again contained in two slender cases, boxed.

 

Though the show was not extremely groundbreaking in its time, it was still about the working class, something that had almost completely disappeared from TV at this time because no one is struggling or poor in the U.S. since the 1980s?  Either way, Morte chemistry had particularly developed between John Goodman and Roseanne herself, which went further than it had, though Goodman was already working with The Coen Brothers and soon to move on to a big feature film career.  In him in particular, the big screen Fred Flintstone was using the experience to add nuance to Dan.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is again soft at times, being shot on professional analog NTSC video, one of the last such hit series to ever be produced this way.  Color is as consistent as it is going to get and all looks to be close to the source tapes.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no surrounds, but is of the expected fidelity for a series from the late 1980s produced like this.  The result is once again playback as good as you will ever see the show in the DVD format.  Extras include more trailers for other TV series from Anchor Bay on the first DVD and new interviews with Laurie Metcalf & Lecy (Alicia) Goranson (see Love, Ludlow elsewhere on this site) and a highlight featurette for this season’s shows on the final DVD.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo