The Good

John Lithgow is as good with comedy as he is with drama.

The Bad

I just wish I "got" this show more.

Having never watched an episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun in my life, I have to admit that I probably shouldn't have started in the third season of this show. Having done that I feel that I didn't really give myself every opportunity to really like this show. What can I say, I wasn't given the other two seasons to review? I know I have come on in shows even later than the third season and had no problem orienting myself, but there was just something about this show that felt off to me. Maybe it was psychological as I kept wondering if having not watched those other seasons I was missing something?

The premise of this show is that a group of aliens come to earth to study our civilization. Since they can't look like aliens they take on the role of human beings in a family. The only probably is that these aliens can now feel "human emotions," and because of this their lives are thrown upside down in very interesting ways. While I get the show and I like the premise, I just didn't get the warm, cozy feeling that I was hoping 3rd Rock from the Sun: Season 3 would give me.

Features

Bloopers

Random scenes are on display here where actors blow lines, drop things and generally fall all over the set. There is a degree of physical comedy on a show like 3rd Rock from the Sun that all but lend themselves to bloopers occurring on the set. This featurette should elicit some giggles.

French Stewart Interview

The man who plays Harry Solomon shows that there may not be that much difference between himself and his character in this interview. When you are as comically talented as someone like Stewart is, it seems that almost any situation you are placed in could be ripe for comedy. Try as he might, he never seems 100% convincing as he plays it as straight as he can here.

Wild About Harry-Favorite Harry moments

While I can understand that America seemed to fall in love with this character, putting together a "Favorite Moments" segment seems a bit redundant. Especially when one considers that they can just watch the shows to see all this stuff. Still, if you are a newbie to this show (like I am/was) than this featurette could give you a nice thumbnail of what's in store for you later.

Interviews with the cast: The Superest 2-part Episode Ever!

The cast of this show sits down here and discusses making the show, working together and the material that they had to work with week after week. Highly focused on is a two part episode for pretty self explanatory reasons. I could explain why and what that episode is but I think that might ruin some of the fun. It was neat seeing all the actors out of character even when it seems like their roles aren't too far from who they are.

Audio commentaries

Various commentary tracks from the people who created this show give us some enlightening insights. We find out what the on set atmosphere was like, what it was like in specific scenes (especially the more comedic moments involving things like romance) and just about everything else. While I might have been behind in coming to this show, I think people that followed 3rd Rock from the Sun when it was on will find these tracks to be a real treat.

Season Three Highlights

A nice primer to this show if you haven't seen it. As I hadn't, I watched this first to get prepared for what I was going to see later. If you are a fan of this show and you have purchased this set, what's the point of watching this when you don't need any convincing to own it? Basically, this highlight reel breaks down the characters, the show and some of the more interesting situations.

Video

Full Screen - The 27 episodes that make up this third season look really nicely compressed here. While this show is of the the standard sitcom variety, I can very much appreciate how hard it might be to keep up the quality over 594 minutes worth of episodes. With all the soft light and simple camera moves we have come to expect from the genre of sitcoms, I was sadly let down that this show didn't allow me to embrace it as wholeheartedly as I had hoped to.

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. Sadly, I don't have a lot to report about the sound. From what I saw and obviously heard, this show did a fine job of keeping all the audio components in order. Also (and I guess this is a big deal), I didn't have to turn up my television that loud. Everything played in a nicely leveled way and with all the audio content on these discs, I didn't hear anything that marred my viewing experience.

Package

The front cover gives us the "family" as they all stand at a pool table waiting for "mom" to take a shot. In this instance, the pool balls happen to be planets. The back gives us a description of this show, a "Special Features" listing and some technical specs. All of the four discs that make up this set are housed inside some easy to manage packaging, with more pictures from the show laid out throughout the artwork. There is a even a 16 page booklet of sorts that comes with this set, so that fans and the newly initiated get that much more of a treat.

Final Word

I may not have been converted into being a fan of this show (I just didn't really become engaged by the humor), I will admit that John Lithgow (Dr. Dick Solomon), Kristen Johnson (Sally Solomon), French Stewart and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tommy Solomon) were all very good in their roles. There isn't any one reason why this show did and didn't grab me. The bottom line is that I just wasn't attracted to the writing. It didn't have that easy, sitcom zing that I am used to. Perhaps this is precisely what set this show apart and allowed it to run for six years?

All in all, if you are a fan you will welcome 3rd Rock from the Sun: Season 3 on DVD. If you don't think you are missing anything, you probably aren't.

3rd Rock from the Sun was released .