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List Price: $49.98 | | Label: Universal Studios
Salesrank: 116
Released: September 2, 2008 |
| Our Price: $2.00 |
| Used Price: $20.00 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Steve Carell (Get Smart) returns in his Golden Globe®-winning role of “The World’s Greatest Boss,” Michael Scott, in Season Four of the hit comedy series The Office! This must-own four-disc set includes every irreverent episode from Season Four, including the five extended full TV-hour specials, plus hours of hilarious deleted scenes and bonus features! Rejoin Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) as they bring romance to the workplace, Dwight (Rainn Wilson) as he continues his quest to be Michael’s right-hand man, and newly deemed “Wunderkind” Ryan (B.J. Novak), who’s working to drag Dunder Mifflin into the digital age. Developed for American TV by Primetime Emmy® Award winner Greg Daniels (King of the Hill, The Simpsons), The Office is the intelligent and edgy Primetime Emmy® Award-winning series that critics are hailing as “the funniest show on TV” (Gavin Edwards, Rolling Stone). You’ll enjoy the inappropriate remarks, uncomfortable silences and petty behavior again and again!
Description of The Office: Season Four:
Is a season of The Office with less episodes still a great season? That seems to be the debate among the Emmy-winning sitcom's faithful audience in regard to season four, which like every program in 2007 and 2008 suffered due to the Writers Guild strike. But even a truncated season can't dispel the fact that The Office remains one of television's funniest and most consistently inventive programs. If a theme can be grafted upon season four, it's Things Fall Apart: former temp Ryan (writer-producer B.J. Novak) is promoted to executive position and then squanders that power, while Dwight (series MPV Rainn Wilson) attempts to recover from his breakup with Angela (Angela Kinsey) and her apparent relationship with the hapless Andy (Ed Helms). Elsewhere, HR's Toby (writer-director Paul Lieberstein) finally flees Dunder Mifflin for that long-threatened vacation to Costa Rica (and is replaced by Oscar nominee Amy Ryan), and Stanley (Leslie David Baker) reaches his own breaking point in "Did I Stutter?" The center of office entropy is, of course, boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell), who is knocked off his pedestal throughout the season; his sweetly naïve television spot is disparaged in "Local Ad," he's passed over for the executive outing in "Survivor Man," and in the season's highlights, he is forced to twice endure humiliation at the hands of his own girlfriend Jan (Melora Hardin), first in the heartbreaking "Deposition," and then immediately after in the Emmy-nominated "Dinner Party," which puts their disintegrating relationship in sharp focus. Even office lovebirds Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) experience some rocky moments as Jim anguishes over the right time to propose to her. But don't let that laundry list of disasters fool you into thinking that season four is a downer; if anything, many of the episodes are among the funniest the show has produced to date. Most notable among these are the opener "Fun Run" (the Scranton team participates in Michael's charity race for rabies prevention), "Job Fair" (Michael attempts to hawk Dunder Mifflin to high schoolers, while Jim struggles to land a client), and the aforementioned "Dinner Party" and "Goodbye, Toby." Longtime viewers may wince at some of the broader gags in the season, like Michael and Dwight driving into the lake in "Dunder Mifflin Infinity," but the best episodes are so strong--and Carell and his fellow players so dead-on in their performances--that it's hard to make a case against the season for those relatively few low points. Extras in the season-four set are fewer than in previous releases, though that may have to do with the reduced number of episodes. Deleted scenes are offered for every episode, and many are real gems, most notably those in "Dinner Party" and "Goodbye Toby." A smattering of commentaries is also included; Carell and Krasinski are noticeably absent, but Wilson, Fischer and the writing and directing staff more than make up for their absence. And the featurette "Writer's Block," which includes footage of the writers' panel at an Office convention, gives an amusing alternate to the usual behind-the-scenes coverage. Michael's complete ad for Dunder Mifflin, a battery of amusing faux PSAs for rabies, and a gag reel do much to fill out the supplemental features. --Paul Gaita
Stills from Season Four of The Office (Click for larger image)
The Office: Season Four Reviews:
The Weakest Season on DVD, but still very good 
2009-11-28 - As far as The Office on DVD goes, this is a little bit weaker than the other ones, obviously, since it's a little bit shorter, and there are fewer extras. However, hey, it's still the Office, it's still good, so who are we kidding; if you have the others, you're going to buy this one. And you're not going to be upset.
THe Office,4 
2009-11-25 - The series was received promptly and in good condition. It was forewarded as a gift so was not viewed by myself. However, previous series have always been well received.
hilarious
2009-11-15 - if your an office fan, this has to be the greatest season of the office by far. each episode is non stop laughs.
Short on episodes, short on success 
2009-10-27 - 14 episodes
SPECIAL FEATURES
1. Deleted scenes
2. Rabies: the more you know
3. Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin ad
4. Blooper reel
5. The Office convention: writer's block
6. Summer vacation promo
7. 4 episode commentaries
Total Viewing Time: 717 minutes
It seems to be standard procedure for fans to label season four of The Office the "worst" of the series (so far). Many state that this is because of the strike shortened season, and because of the number of hour long episodes, which work against the show's great pacing. I personally did find season four to be disappointing at times, and some episode seemed to come out of nowhere ("Did I Stutter?") and some major moments had no build up ("Goodbye, Toby" - I would've loved to see a scene where Toby tells Michael in his office that he's leaving) which kind of ruined the feel.
There are some classic episodes here however (most notably "Dinner Party") that bring the season back from some "okay" outings. The thing with The Office though is that even its "bad" episodes have some absolutely phenomenal writing and some terrific moments. Few shows have the ability to have greatness mixed in with some standard muck, but The Office has it.
The box set is short on special features. This disappointed me greatly. I thought, "maybe they'll load up on special features since there's only 14 episodes" but I was terribly wrong. Only four commentaries are here. Really? Four? Was everyone extremely busy? Maybe the writer's strike had something to do with this... I have no idea, but either way I was let down here.
The deleted scenes were great again, as was the blooper reel, but there's really nothing else to sink into. The "Writer's Block" discussion was pretty good, clocking in at 30 minutes and it offered some interesting tidbits about the show and whatnot, but I don't think a lot of people want to sit at home and watch people talk behind a table, but that's what we get. The rest of the special features are extremely short or seem to just be added to make it seem like there's a lot here to digest. The Rabies feature wasn't even two minutes! Overall the special features, weren't very special (zing!).
Season four certainly dropped the ball quite a bit from season three, but obviously that should mainly be blamed on the writer's strike. But still, starting the season off with four one-long episodes I think was a bad choice. It works against the show for the most part.
The packaging is the same as previous seasons. My two complaints here is how plain the packaging looks. There are still some pictures of the season, but the rest of the art layout is just "bleh" and very "serious" looking. My other complaint is the extremely cheesy (and useless) "Dinner Party" table draft that comes with the box set. Why? Because it comes packaged IN the slip cover case. Which means if you lose it, the slip cover case doesn't fit and is too big for the fold out disc set. Why couldn't they just put this behind the slip cover so I can throw it away? Granted, I keep my collections neat and orderly, not everyone does, and many people will lose this "extra" they gave us.
8.5 THE SHOW ITSELF
8.7 VISUALS
9.0 SOUND
7.0 PACKAGING
7.7 EXTRAS
8.7/10 FINAL VERDICT
It's The Office, what more can I say?
2009-10-15 - Regardless of the fact that it has fewer episodes than season 2 or 3 (due to the writer's strike at the time), season 4 does not disappoint. On top of all 14 episodes, it includes deleted scenes from each episode (some being up to 30 minutes long), bloopers, Michael's ad (stand alone), and about an hour of The Office Convention: Writer's Block about the writers and the show.
Buying the season 4 DVD box set with these bonus features is significantly better than buying the whole season on Itunes without them.
