Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me start off by saying that 'Strangers With Candy' the TV series is one of my favorite, if not my all time favorite, television show ever. It is brilliant. The show itself gets 5 stars from me. Now for 'The Complete Series' release. First of all, the packaging is almost unbelievably bad. BAD BAD BAD! Cheap PAPER, I don't know if I can even call it cardboard because it is so flimsy and fragile. I'll just call it thick paper. And the discs themselves are held to this PAPER only by a plastic hub glued on to the paper packaging, rubbing right against another disc on the next page. This makes it very easy for discs to fall out and become damaged. I can't stress enough how much I dislike the packaging. In one word: CHEAP. Now moving on to the content. I haven't watched all of the content yet, but I have seen some of it and can compare it to the previous releases of all 3 seasons. I was really excited about this release in large part because of director's cuts that would appear on two episodes. I watched these director's cuts and wished the deleted scenes had instead been offered as a separate bonus. The editing of these director's cut episodes is so bad it really does take you out of the show. There will be music in one shot and it will abruptly stop when the next shot comes up. Many shots integrated into the footage are of much worse quality making it very noticeable when the transition takes place. The audio as well keeps changing so much that its really, really obvious, even in scenes that were in the original versions of the episodes. Someone will be talking from the front speaker, then suddenly you'll be hearing them talk from your rear speakers for NO REASON. Also, the video gets very bright, then very dark, from shot to shot, also occuring at points in the episode that were in the original version and looked FINE on the previous DVD releases. Then, in some scenes things were changed for NO REASON, like in "Is My Daddy Crazy" when she watches the slide show, it runs like a slow virus-infected computer powerpoint presentation and the voice of the narrator is completely changed from a guy that was PERFECT for it to some woman who SUCKS and is just NOT funny at all! I was really disappointed with the presentation of these director's cut episodes. They actually made these episodes (some of the best) a whole lot less funny. And to me, a huge SWC fan, that is a TRAGEDY. And another thing, they changed the transition sequences where commercial breaks were to a different animation AND recording. The result is certainly inferior to the previous version. Thank god I held on to the previous DVD releases. This set is worth it for big collectors like me who will buy anything with extra features that I don't already have of the show, but for first time buyers just beware that some of these episodes have been altered and the result is DEFINATELY DEFINATELY inferior to the previous releases. Fans, hold on to your old copies. They are the originals, they are the cult classic. This is a nice bonus for fans, but really could easily have been mistaken for a bootleg bought on eBay. I still look forward to the film and will love the show till I die. But I really hope one day it will get a worthy release with good packaging, remastered and clean looking episodes (the ORIGINAL versions), bonus features, and whatever else they've got to give us!