Frasier: Season 5

If I'm feeling down ,I'll play Frasier, I totally Crack up with laughter, love this show.

Winner of five straight Emmys for Best Comedy, "Frasier" caps off that remarkable run with this collection of 24 shows highlighting the cast at the top of their game. In my opinion, only the second season tops this one for sheer entertainment.From the first episode "Frasier's Imaginary Friend", everyone is in perfect form, especially Kelsey Grammer as he takes his character to new highs & lows all in one show.Personal favorites include "Voyage of the Damned", where our happy cast gets stuck on a cruise ship. "Perspectives on Christmas" is done in a Rashamon-ish style where Martin, Daphne, Niles, & Roz tell four different versions of what happened to them. "Room Service" features the return of Lilith (a sexy Bebe Neuworth) who beds down with a Crane, just not the one she expecting. "Bad Dog" has Bulldog (a never better Dan Butler) becoming a city-wide hero for something he didn't do.And the ribald "Frasier Gotta Have It" in which Frasier & his new girlfriend have only one thing in common, so naturally Frasier has to ruin it. This episode has one of the best reactions by David Hyde-Pierce when Daphne tells the story about her rooftop trist.The standout episode is "Ski Lodge", a contrived but perfectly executed farce where the cast spends an eventful evening trying to get into each other's pants...well, everyone save Martin and a very dissapointed...well, you'll just have to watch to find out.My personal favorite is "Beware of Greeks", a riotus episode with Frasier going up against his Aunt Zora, played with absolute charm and malevolence by Patty LuPone (who also did the voice of "Pam" in the first season episode "Dinner at Eight".Although Roz's pregnancy seemed a bit forced at the time, I think it actually worked out pretty well. Having said that, it does become tiresome to hear Roz remind us in virtually every episode she's in that's she's expecting. Also, the bizzare episode "Sweet Dreams" leads to the entire KACL gang getting canned in favor of a new format. This represented a major shift of direction for the show that left myself yearning for the "good ol days".Extras:Sadly, there are no extras in this set either (as with Season 4), only the very annoying commercials for other DVD sets that appear at the beginning of disc one (you can skip through the commercials using your chapter advance button).Once again, I am forced to dock one star from my review because of the presentation of the DVD itself. Why "Frasier", the champaign of sitcoms gets the Kentucky Deluxe treatment is beyond me, especially when compared to the Seinfeld DVD sets.Overall, I highly recommend this collection as one of the most hilarious 24 episodes you'll ever see. If you're a fan, you gotta buy this today.Tidbits:- You probably knew that the episode "The 1000th Show" is also the 100th episode of "Frasier". But what's even more interesting is that the stinger, in which Kelsey Grammer sings the "Tossed Salad & Scrambled Eggs" theme live on stage is the first time we actually SEE him sing the theme in the show's history.- "Beware of Greeks" features previously unseen members of Frasier's family, particularly Walt, Martin's brother. However, in the first season episode "Author Author", Martin declared that he never had a brother.- Also featured in "Beware of Greeks" is a man with a camcorder named "Eddie". Interestingly enough, Martin's dog "Eddie" is not in this episode.- "Sweet Dreams" is the first episode where Kelsey Grammer does NOT sing the theme song "Tossed Salad & Scrambled Eggs". Plus, it's sung in Spanish (appropriately enough) which is again interesting because Frasier is fluent in Spanish.

A great addition to my comedy collection.

Season 5 of this series is GREAT !

No extras. Fine. Okay. There are ELEVEN seasons of this show. I doubt there are enough bonus materials in the vaults to pile a bunch into each of eleven season sets (assuming they plan on releasing all or most of them), so be patient. I'm sure we'll get some goodies eventually.Season Five still has the writing in full comic swing. The season opens with an episode featuring Sela Ward (hubba hubba!), and if that doesn't get your season started on the right foot then nothing will.Two of the biggest laughs I've ever gotten watching "Frasier" over the years came in Season Five, in particular the episode where Niles sleeps with Lilith ("Room Service") and the following episode where Frasier's cousin is to marry ("Beware of Greeks").In "Room Service" the big laugh for me came from a simple line-reading: the room service waiter says "Okay" to Frasier's insistence that he might rekindle his relationship with his ex-wife, while unbeknownst to him (but known to the waiter) Niles is hiding in the bathroom. The actor nailed the line so beautifully.In "Beware of Greeks", Frasier simply says "And we're back!" following a loopy non-sequitor by Daphne. Grammer nails the line. Big belly laughs all around!The episode that always gets discussed in Season Five is "The Ski Lodge", a comedy of errors Blake Edwards would be proud to have orchestrated for one of his films. That episode is very funny, but still takes a back seat to "The First Date", the episode where Niles comes closest yet to asking Daphne out on a date. While it is not quite the same kind of humor that is in "The Ski Lodge", the "First Date" episode is both funny and tender. That is a hard line to walk successfully in a 22-minute script.Late in the season, a pregnant Roz first meets the paternal grandparents of her unborn baby. The writer of that episode really had a nose for sniffing out the cheap laughs without being mean-spirited.Don't know when Season Six will arrive, but I'm already ready for it. Season Six may be the first "Frasier" season to NOT win a "Best Comedy Series" Emmy award, but I hardly think that qualifies as a failure.If you are collecting these season sets, or merely considering it, don't pass this one over.

Frasier is one of my main go to shows for watching TV before bed. I love to watch light happy shows like this one and The Golden Girls (highly recommended I love those old ladies). They are comforting to watch and won't give you nightmares. I prefer to watch the later seasons of Frasier because I do not have the patience to deal with Niles's constant longing/pining over Daphne. I would always find myself frustrated at Daphne being so unaware of it and at Niles for never growing a pair and confessing his feelings to her. Come On!!! Just get it on already Niles! lmao. I like the silly stuffy banter between Niles and Frasier. I love their dad Marty and his old chair and who doesn't love his dog Eddie!! I find myself laughing out loud at the goofy situations they all get in to especially Frasier. I'm the biggest corniest Television nerd and I hope you enjoy these fluffy nonsense shows. I feel they help to calm the mind and provide a feeling of normalcy, and a sense that everything will be ok, even when at times it isn't. Hope you enjoyed my informal, casual, grammatically incorrect review of Frasier.Sincerely,Your Corny Television NerdSam

I've got the first four series of Frasier and although it's not one of the best sitcoms, they have their moments: "I have to leave now; I have a multiple personality class and it takes forever to write out the name tags". Series 5, however, is garbage; they lost any understanding of how to create humour. 'The 1000th Show' is by far the worst episode of Frasier that I have seen, despite the fact that for once they genuinely go outside. Another episode, set in an English pub, implies that when British people go to the pub they spend their time singing 'My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean' - who knew?? Yet another example of the curse of series 5 is an episode set at a fancy dress party. Rozz turns up in sleazy gear, someone says "What have you come as?" Rozz: "The Story of 'O' " and the people around her say "Oh!", which is quite amusing, but later on this scenario is repeated verbatim, which just kills the humour of when it happened the first time. Stupid. To make it worse the first "Oh" is alt, but the second one is not. It's like that scene in Jaws when Roy Scheider says "You're going to need a bigger boat". It's dramatic, but then he repeats the phrase under much wussier circumstances and it ruins the moment. Sometimes less really is more. So I recommend series 1 - 4, but the rest, forget it. And farce is severely unfunny and stupidly contrived.

Niles to his brother: "Don't punish yourself, Frasier. At least you're deep enough to realise you're shallow."The quote is from episode eight (`Desperately Seeking Closure'), ironically one of the weakest episodes so far, weak with lame laughs. Nevertheless, overall, the fifth series of `Frasier' does not show many signs of any diminution in the high quality of its writing, although there are early warning indicators that things are getting more gooey than funny, such as in the episode `The Kid'. There are still far more four-star shows than three-star ones in this season.There is the usual comings and goings of the regular acting team. Gil Chesterton makes it to a few of the episodes. Dan Butler (`Bulldog') appears more often: indeed, he is credited at the start of them rather than at the end. (He even directs an episode, as does Kelsey Grammer.) Frasier's former agent BB (played by the fantastic Harriet Sansom Harris) appears in `The Zoo Story'. Noel appears. Roz gets pregnant early in the series and has her baby near the end. Sherry makes two appearances and turns down Martin's wedding proposal in one of them, and we finally get to meet Duke (`Where Every Bloke Knows Your Name'). We also get to see inside the men's room of the café for the first time.Some of the best episodes here are `Frasier's Imaginary Friend', where Fraser is not believed that he's dating a supermodel; the one where Seattle celebrates `Frasier Crane Day'; there is also the Feydeau farce set in `The Ski Lodge'; and Lilith hits it off with Niles in `Room Service'. The final episode leaves us in suspense as to whether the station will become the home of Latino music rather than talk-radio. On, then, to season six!Alas, there are no extras with my copy of this season.

Having been disappointed with Season 4 -although it improved towards the end- I was cautious about buying Season 5 but this series was funny from beginning to end. It was the old Frasier. The humour was clever and funny. He was as self-obsessed as ever and Roz's life took an interesting turn. The tension between Niles and Daphne is heightened. Overall, if you liked the previous series, this one won't disappoint. When I watched the last episode last night I couldn't help feeling that I was going to miss Fraiser and all the gang.For those of you interested, this DVD also has subtitles which we need in our home. It would be great if people could always include this information in their reviews as a DVD can be useless to some of us unless it has subtitles.

The serie is great , the only noticeable change is that from serie 5 the french language version has dissapeared.So for some french speakers (if any know about this serie ...)it could be annoying.For the rest they are enough comments on amazon.

Frasier is unmatchable. and it keeps on being good, unlike some shows which lose their way, with time. I recommend the whole series. often leaves me helpless with laughter!