Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The weakest of the four series, 30 Jun 2003
By A Customer
It's the last of the J&W series, and this is where they nearly jumped the shark. The magic formula of this outstanding series so far had been to provide the excellent cast with a well timed and almost scrupulously close adaption of Wodehouse' stories for the screen. Well, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry are as good as ever, just as Elizabeth Kettle as Honoria and Elizabeth Morton as Madeline, to name but a few of the supporting roles. It's the script that somewhat spoils the fun. Maybe some TV producer had the misbegotten idea to spice up the old-fashioned Wodehouse originals with a certain slapstick element, or perhaps Clive Exton felt the need to challenge himself to improve Wodehouse' ideas. The result is not very convincing. The episodes start as usual with either one of Bertie's previous fiancées starting to renew the matrimonial prospects or a friend being in need of Jeeves' help in matters of heart or business, and there is still much witty dialogue to enjoy. But instead of the elegant solutions we were used to from Jeeves, we now get Wooster grilled by lightning on top of the Empire State Building, Jeeves and Wooster jumping overboard from an ocean liner on high sea with a subsequent return of the two some months later in rags with shaggy beards (the most un-Jeeves imaginable, he would have seen to Wooster shaving and dressing up under any circumstances), and a ghastly singalong of the whole Totleigh Towers society including the notorious Roderick Spode. So while this is of course better than 99% percent of what you see when you turn on the TV any day or night, it's a bit of a let down after the first three series. On a technical note, it's also the worst DVD of the series in terms of sound and picture quality, which is a bit strange since it's the newest material.So before you buy this, take one of the earlier series if you can. And if you already have them all, you will want to have this anyway, even if it's not quite as good.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Scintillating as usual, 13 Feb 2003
By A Customer
The delightful pair Fry & Laurie is once again back. The fourth series starts off on "the other side of the pond", whereas the last three episodes is set to the old "metrop", as Wooster would have said. The actors perform wonderfully as always in this series, but I feel they have not been given enough good material to work with in this fourth part. The writers meddle too much with the original stories, and they seem to have got this mediocre and odd idea of "developing" the charachter of Jeeves. He is here found in a drag, with a beard, incognito etc. This is not a very "wodehouseian" setting, and what is more, I do not think neither Wodehouse nor Jeeves would have liked it. But if you can overlook these minor flaws (as I would have to call them, being a hardcore Wodehouse fanatic), this DVD is of course spiff-ho, top of the line, first class material. Splendid, spledid!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stop it now. You're just being silly., 13 Jun 2004
When watching this charming installment of the adventures of the Last of the Woosters and his gentleman's gentleman, one has the suspicion that the Major from Monty Python's Flying Circus is going to turn up and say 'No - stop it now - I warned you. It started off as a perfectly sensible story about a man with daft aunts who didn't want to get married, but now you've just made it silly.' And he'd be right. Another series and the reputation of these glorious productions would have been spoilt, but as it is, they just escape with their dignity intact. While there is something quite Woosterian about jumping off the side of a boat in the mid-Atlantic to escape an impossible social situation (this is the man, after all, who cannot avoid being engaged to someone unless someone else gets engaged to them, because refusal is simply not an option) it does show an element of daftness that is not quite the mannered, weirdly logical daftness of Wodehouse. It is also a little disappointing that some of the sets have been changed, so we are no longer in the familiar Berkeley Mansions of the first three series. That said, the combination of Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and P.G. Wodehouse is infallible. There was no possible way it could be bad. Thus, while very enjoyable, it does leave a strange aftertaste of dissatisfaction. Please don't let my criticism put you off it, as it is really quite wonderful. Just be certain to watch series 1-3 first.
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