The Good

An engaging show that examines the bond of sisterhood.

The Bad

Paltry Extras.

The Tyler sisters, Valerie (Jennie Garth) and Holly (Amanda Bynes), are thrown together by circumstance in What I Like About You: The Complete First Season. With their father sent overseas, Holly finds herself taking up residence with her big sister in New York. The only problem is that these two girls are big time opposites. Holly is spontaneous, always looking for fun and takes life as it comes. Valerie is older, she has responsibilities and it is obvious that she wishes she could be as carefree as her younger sister. She's also cultivated a certain lifestyle for herself, and Holly's mere presence comes into direct conflict with that. These girls being sisters they come to understand one another and half the fun is seeing them get there.

What I Like About You: The Complete First Season is a fun show filled with light comedy, semi-serious ideas and enough laughs to turn even the hardened heart.

Features

Gag Reel

Something tells me that Warner Bros. never envisioned releasing these outtakes in any way shape or form. I say that because these things don't look that good. This being a Gag Reel I don't think they need to, but I was surprised by how grainy their quality was. They feature messed up lines, actors who can't keep a straight face, and other kinds of things we're used to from gag Reels. My favorite moments are when actors think they can say a line that they've been messing up and then they continue to mess it up.

Video

Standard Version presented in a format preserving the aspect ratio of it's original television exhibition. These episodes are only from 2002, so I would have been surprised if they didn't look that good. The compression process that Warner Bros. does really seems to strengthen the way this show look. The colors seem to be bumped up and overall the picture looks brighter than TV shows on regular TV. This might have something to do with the way my picture is set, because I find that some things look really dark on my set and then on other sets they look fine.

Audio

Dolby Digital. English: Dolby Surround Stereo. I turned the audio on my set about halfway up and I found that things played fine when I did that. I didn't have to adjust the audio at all over any of the other discs (except for the Gag Reel section, but I don't think that stuff was recorded the same way as the actual episodes), but overall it's not like the audio was really booming. This is a heavily dialogue-laden show that doesn't really even have much of an ambient soundtrack, as such it seems like the audio is as good as it can be.

Package

Amanda Bynes is front and center on this cover which displays a blue colored shot of her and Jennie Garth in the background. There is also a pink pattern that wraps all the way around to the back of this cover. There is a description of what this show is about, four shots from some of the episodes, a Features listing, a cast list and system specs. The three discs that make up this set are stored in two slim cases, both of which list out the episodes, their airdates and a description for each. Not the most amazing packaging but it is economical.

Final Word

While this show can't help but be sugary sweet, there are a lot of interesting points made in spite of that. In the episode "Cool Older Sister" we see Valerie try and play it off when Holly spends the night somewhere else. Yes, the storyline might not seem complex, but I found it interesting seeing Jennie Garth handle the role of sister/mother. "The Cheerleading Incident" continues this idea when Valerie tries to show Holly's friends just how cool she can and can't be. At it's core, this show seems to be about sisters but it's more about age, generation gaps and getting to know your true self. Lastly, the season ends with "The Talk" in which Valerie tries to explain to Holly where babies come from. As you can guess, there's very little that Holly doesn't already know.

While not on the same playing field as shows like Seinfeld, What I Like About You: The Complete First Season works fine simply being the fun show that it is.

What I Like About You was released .