For SATC Completists Only

Sex and the City, one of TV's best comedy series, faced quite a few challenges in its fifth season. To maintain its freshness during such a successful run is daunting enough. On top of that, the crew, specifically the directors and costume designers, had to pull quite a few tricks to disguise Sarah Jessica Parker's pregnancy (and did so successfully, might I add.) But the biggest challenge was to keep the show lifted out of the shadow of 9/11 which coincidentally occurred between the airing of the two seasons. That's why it breaks my heart to rate the fifth season of Sex and the City with 3 stars.

The themes running through the episodes in this season weren't nearly as engaging as in past seasons. The only thing that comes to mind about Season 5 is Miranda adapting to life as a mother. Most of the other stuff is just a blur.

"Critical Condition" is THE best show of the 5th season where Carrie questions,"when it comes to life and love, why do we believe our worst reviews?" This is also the episode where Samantha decides to play "Mary f**kin' Poppins" by babysitting for Miranda. Check out how creative Sam gets when Brady's vibrating chair gives out.

Unfortunately, the other 7 (yes, SEVEN) episodes aren't good enough for me to recommend the purchase of the fifth season set unless you're a rabid completist who collects all things SATC. Furthermore, as other reviewers have pointed out, the price can't be justified. With only 8 episodes in this set, why is it the same price as the other sets that contain more shows.

However, DO be on the lookout for the outstanding Season 6.

Only For Die-Hard Fans

Okay. First let me first say that I am writing from the perspective of a 20 year-old male college student. Not that being a guy matters. Well. It does.

Let's be stereotypical for a moment. Guys are tight with their money. And in my case, poor college guys are really tight with their money and are really skeptical about buying things unless it's really worth it. I happened to come across the 5th season today and saw if for sale for $30. I am secretly in love with "Sex and the City" (so are my fellow college buddies) and own all the other seasons. I remembered that I bought the last season for the exact same price, but with much, much more episodes. I held it in my hands and thought to myself, "is this worth it?" Common sense told me no. But my obsessive compulsive alter-ego who was dying to have a complete set told me yes. So I bought it. The moment I got to my apartment, I popped it into the DVD player hoping to convince myself that this was more valuable than the groceries that could have lasted me for a week.

There were two disks.

The first contained:
~Four episodes (Anchors Away, Unoriginal Sin, Luck Be an Old Lady, Cover Girl)
~Audio Commentaries (which are always interesting to listen to)
~A Season Index

The second contained:
~Four episodes (Plus One is the Loneliest Number, Critical Condition, The Big Journey, I Love a Charade)
~Audio Commentaries
~A Trivia Game (Fun for only about 5 minutes)
~A Behind the Scenes feature with Costume Designer, Patricia Field (About 22 minutes long, only for those interested in women's fashion. It talked about all designs for all four girls)

So did I convince myself that it was worth it? Kinda. Truthfully, buy it if you're a die-hard fan. If you're even wondering about whether are not you should even pick it up, don't. I sucked it up like a man and watched a couple of episodes. And some of them are really great. Mr. Big sorry for everything that he did in "The Big Journey"? Man that guy is cool. But still, right now, I wish I had a frozen pizza. But of course, afterall, this is coming from a guy.

Too short

wish there were more episodes than just 8!