The Good

This set is a nice time capsule from the 1980s.

The Bad

Extra listing is a bit misleading and confusing. This show really lost it toward the end.

All things must come to an end and Moonlighting: Season Five - The Final Season certainly accomplishes that. Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) and David Addison (Bruce Willis) are on hand for 13 episodes spread out over 3 discs. The Blue Moon Detective Agency is where the hub of the action takes place and in this swan song season it is at it's most zaniest.

We open with "A Womb With A View" which features a show that is inside the pregnant Maddie Hayes's womb. This episode is filled with quick dialogue, musical numbers, and just about every type of post modern reference imaginable. "I See England, I See France, I See Maddie's Underpants" makes corpsesitters out of Maddie and David when a man dies in her office. Between many other actors this could have made for many claustrophobic moments, but these two work very well off one another. Lastly, "Lunar Eclipse" is the final episode of this show and it goes out with as much pizzaz as it can muster. The Blue Moon Detective Agency closes down, couples get together, and stars appear out of the woodwork.

While I wish this show had gone out on a stronger note, I think ultimately Moonlighting: Season Five - The Final Season probably appeased it's hardcore fans.

Features

Audio Commentary Track

Creators Glenn Gordon Caron and director Jay Daniel start off strong on this commentary track. They are making jokes, telling us what's happening on the screen, explaining how the characters in the movie are breaking the fourth wall, and then they just seem to run out of things to say. They do admit that focusing so much on Cybill Shepherd being pregnant (which she was in real life) hurt the show, and Glenn Gordon Caron mentions that by this point he had left the show and was only back working on it at that time as a favor to his friends in the cast and crew. After all this, there's still about 35 minutes left to go and these guys seem to be grasping at straws in terms of what to say. Also, on the artwork it mentions that "cast and crew" are on these commentary tracks, but to my knowledge there is only this one track on her.

Maddie and David in the Making

These are screen tests of Cybill and Bruce and they are done with the two of them playing a scene. They are in an actual set and I was trying to figure out if they were going from a script, or if they were ad-libbing their way through this scene. Whatever the case, it is apparent that this stuff is older just because the characters have none of the outrageous qualities that pervade the episodes in this season. One thing that was always apparent was the obvious chemistry between these two characters.

Video

Full Screen. These shows looked decent. They weren't bright, they weren't dark, but they didn't look that great. Or, maybe a lot of the subject matter just didn't grab me and I am taking it out on the look of the show? There were so many over the top situations thrown into the mix that I had a hard time taking it seriously. While the actors were more then up to par, I just didn't find myself that happy with the way this final season looked. In some ways, this final season and this set feels thrown together.

Audio

Dolby Digital. The audio for this release was more than adequate. I didn't notice any audio hits on any of the episodes, and I found that once I leveled it with one DVD it remained consistent with all of them. I also didn't have to turn up my set that loud which was nice. I guess I was just thrown off by the musical numbers. I don't recall that those were ever that prominent on the earlier shows, but all of the singing here simply took me out of the story.

Package

Bruce and Cybill, all dressed up and glitzy, seem to sit on a half moon that hangs above the city skyline against an orange, night sky. The back of this slipcase cover has a very tiny description of the show, a Bonus Features listing, and some technical specs. For some reason ABC and Lionsgate have packaged this 3 disc set in a bulky, oversized amaray cover with multiple trays for the enclosed discs. Also inside is the aforementioned episode index that doesn't list out where the extras are on these discs.

Final Word

This show could have lasted longer if David and Maddie had either A) gotten together later or B) gotten together but then followed the Cheers blueprint, which was have them immediately break up and then keep the sexual tension in the air by throwing in other love interests. I just find it hard to believe that a show that started off as hot as this one did, simply petered out so quickly. Granted, Bruce Willis was getting a lot of heat because of a little movie called Die Hard, and I sort of wonder why the studio and network didn't try to cash in on that a little more? He didn't seem like he was pulling a Caruso and trying to quit, but maybe Moonlighting had really run it's course and it's good that things ended when they did?

All in all, I was somewhat disappointed by just how zany and slapstick this show eventually became. I really took these characters seriously. I believed in them and it seems that in the end, they became jokes of the very people they were supposed to be. Then again, maybe I just didn't get it but I recall liking the earlier seasons of Moonlighting a lot more.

Moonlighting was released .