The fourth season, for me, is when the show started to go a bit downhill. This is due in large part to the fact that Rob Morrow's contract dispute saw his character seeing less and less screen time and thus, removing a large part (Joel's fish-out-of-water and acclamation story) of what made the show great in the first couple of seasons. Season three did continue the Joel and Maggie love-hate relationship, and introduced a new potential love interest for Maggie in the form of Anthony Edwards, who played Mike Monroe, an environmental lawyer who is allergic to everything and lives in a hermetically sealed bubble in the middle of the woods. Edwards would end up leaving toward the end of the season after he landed the series lead on ER so his storyline kind of fizzles out. The season continues to be a story-of-the-week procedural, with each episode focusing on a different character's storyline. Pretty much every character gets a significant story arc for at least one episode, including Ruth Anne, who attempts to learn to drive, an episode in which Chris loses his voice, and an episode in which Maurice is modeled for a wax sculpture. Shelly also gets a considerable storyline this season when she becomes pregnant in a story arc that continues on into season five (if you read through some of the other reviews, it is not that confusing that she does not have the baby during this season).
If you get the DVD set, the extras, much as with the prior seasons, include deleted scenes and gag reels. The one plus is that there are no more double-sided discs, at least on the set I have. The issue of the music is a big sticking point for the US releases. Again, Universal replaced some, but not all, of the original music with canned instrumental tracks so they did not have to pay for the rights to some of the songs that were used in the show. Of course, the show aired in the early to mid-1990s and the DVDs were released in the 2000s, so the rights to use the music likely had to be renegotiated when the DVDs were released. This resulted in some songs being ditched if they were too expensive, which did detract a bit from the storylines as there are times when the specific song choice was made because it tied into the story in the show. That is not to say they are unwatchable with the replacement music (at least not for me), but they are different if you see the show as it originally aired.
Overall, the season is good, but as I said before, not as good as in the earlier seasons. You can definitely tell that Rob Morrow is in fewer scenes, especially as the season goes along, and the show is just not the same with Joel as a more ancillary character. That said, all of the actors really step up and brought great performances this season and their contributions should not be overlooked. The show continued to have very good, although sometimes quirky and silly, and raised topics like homosexuality, and climate change (yes, it was a known thing even back in the 90s), long before any other network television show was. And, it is still one of the only shows I can remember (along with another 90s series Due South) that extensively used Native American actors and incorporated Native American culture. So, even though it was not as good as the first couple of seasons, I do think it is worth watching.
If you get the DVD set, the extras, much as with the prior seasons, include deleted scenes and gag reels. The one plus is that there are no more double-sided discs, at least on the set I have. The issue of the music is a big sticking point for the US releases. Again, Universal replaced some, but not all, of the original music with canned instrumental tracks so they did not have to pay for the rights to some of the songs that were used in the show. Of course, the show aired in the early to mid-1990s and the DVDs were released in the 2000s, so the rights to use the music likely had to be renegotiated when the DVDs were released. This resulted in some songs being ditched if they were too expensive, which did detract a bit from the storylines as there are times when the specific song choice was made because it tied into the story in the show. That is not to say they are unwatchable with the replacement music (at least not for me), but they are different if you see the show as it originally aired.
Overall, the season is good, but as I said before, not as good as in the earlier seasons. You can definitely tell that Rob Morrow is in fewer scenes, especially as the season goes along, and the show is just not the same with Joel as a more ancillary character. That said, all of the actors really step up and brought great performances this season and their contributions should not be overlooked. The show continued to have very good, although sometimes quirky and silly, and raised topics like homosexuality, and climate change (yes, it was a known thing even back in the 90s), long before any other network television show was. And, it is still one of the only shows I can remember (along with another 90s series Due South) that extensively used Native American actors and incorporated Native American culture. So, even though it was not as good as the first couple of seasons, I do think it is worth watching.
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