Remington Steele: Season 3 [DVD]

My wife loves these shows, highly recommend. I like them too.

There should be separate star ratings for dvds--one rating for the show itself and one for the dvd special features. I can't bear to give the third season of Remington Steele any less than 5 stars, but the dvd special features have a lot to be desired.The show itself is as delightful as ever. The witty banter and clever but light-hearted mysteries that characterized the series are all back in full force in the third season. And the writers continue to string us along with Laura and Mr. Steele's relationship, as Steele's attempts to entice Laura into a romantic vacation are constantly thwarted, often by Laura's own fear and skepticism. Although the pseudo love affair is a bit of a tease, the show continues to charm me as much as it did when I was an adolescent.A few reviewers have mentioned that RS goes on location a lot in this season, which is usually a sign that a show is jumping the shark. However, that is not the case with this season. The on-location episodes are some of my favorites, especially the ones in Las Vegas and San Francisco. And the show continues to stay grounded in Los Angeles despite a fair amount of traveling. (As I recall, when the show finally did jump, the episodes were on location.)My only complaints about the Season 3 dvds are related to the special features. The set includes three featurettes-"'Steele Trio' Revealing Character Profiles," "The Baking of Steele in the Chips," and "Steele Michael"-and three episode commentaries: Michael Gleason, Doris Roberts, and writer Jeff Melvoin on "Diced Steele"; Michael Gleason and writers John Wirth, Brad Kern, and Jeff Melvoin on "Now You Steele It, Now You Don't"; and Michael Gleason and Stephanie Zimbalist on "Steele in the Chips."The problem is that none of the people interviewed or doing commentaries has seen the show for 20 years. This is certainly understandable, but why don't the producers of the dvds give them a few episodes to watch ahead of time to jog their memories so they will have more intelligent and interesting things to say? This lack of preparation is especially a problem on the episode commentaries because none of the people commenting have seen the episodes they're supposed to be talking about, and they can't follow the plot at the same time that they're talking. So it ends up with commentary that has almost nothing to do with anything going on on the screen. Also, Michael Gleason tends to tell the same stories over and over again, so if you have the Season 1 and Season 2 dvd sets, be prepared to hear anecdotes for the third, fourth, or fifth time. And the #1 sin of dvd commentaries-the repetitive praising of actors-gets committed over and over.Not that the special features aren't worth watching. The featurettes are pretty interesting. It's nice that they were able to get all three of the actors for interviews. And the commentaries have a few interesting tidbits if you can stand to sit through all the rambling. One very nice treat is that we get to hear a lot more from Stephanie Zimbalist than in previous season sets, particularly in the commentary and mini-feature on the cookie episode, which she co-wrote with a longtime friend who later went on to be hired as a staff writer on the show. I have to admit that, despite my childhood crush on her, I never thought I would like SZ much in real life, but on the commentary she is quite charming and has a lot of interesting things to say. There is also another guy (can't remember which one) on the "Now You Steele It, Now You Don't" commentary who keeps trying to steer the conversation toward something relevant and occasionally succeeds.I just wish they would put a little more thought into it if they're going to bother doing the extra features. It would also be nice if they addressed some of the issues and challenges they faced putting the dvds together. For example, all the music they had to cut. Also, I wonder why they chose to put the episodes on the dvd in the order they were aired instead of the order they were filmed. The current order removes all continuity from the development of Laura and Mr. Steele's relationship. I know the fact that I care about that makes me a big geek, but hey, geeks who sit around watching dvd commentaries are their audience, and they should be aware of that.

Hardly any tweaks were needed for Season 3, as the show rolled along like a well-oiled machine. Laura & Remington still struggled with their double-edged business/romantic relationship; and actress Doris Roberts had, by now, settled comfortably into the Mildred Krebs role by showing her comedic flair as well as the tough & tender duality of her character. The season began with a typically stylish episode ("Steele At It") as Remington returned to a bit of his past as a thief, stealing a jewel-encrusted dagger for a friend...and in true screwball fashion, managing to get Laura & Mildred involved! This was truly the peak season for the show as the cast & crew cooked up some very diverse & entertaining plots. "Second Base Steele" had Laura & Remington posing as ball players (Laura, a natural; Steele, hopelessly inept) to catch a killer; "Steele Your Heart Away" had Remington revisiting his Irish roots...and getting amnesia (a deftly fine comic performance from Pierce Brosnan); "A Pocketful of Steele" had Remington (once again) brushing up against his past when he befriends a young pickpocket (remember the curly-haired, impish child star Meeno Peluce?); "Blue-Blooded Steele" reunited Steele with his old pal, the charming con Daniel Chalmers (Stephanie Zimbalist's real life father Efrem, reprising his role) in a royal caper which infuriated Laura; "Lofty Steele" had someone tampering with Laura's digs to find a hidden treasure (they went as far as throwing Laura in a padded cell at a mental hospital, just to get her out of the way; BTW, a terrific performance from Ms. Zimbalist); and even Mildred took the spotlight in "Hounded Steele", finally revealing her personal life (poignantly) outside the office. There were familiar faces galore passing through the agency. Some on the verge of stardom (John Larroquette, Geena Davis, Jean Smart, Judith Light), and others legendary (Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford...and from my fave "Cast in Steele": Dorothy Lamour, Lloyd Nolan & Virginia Mayo).And that's just a handful of the episodes I remember well---but honestly, they're all good.As usual, 20th Century Fox did a fine job packaging these episodes. Included is the dandy featurette "Steele Trio", profiling the three cast members & their characters.Like Steele reminiscing about old movies, this DVD set brings back fond memories!