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The Wonder Years Season 5 DVD Review

The fifth season of the great “The Wonder Years” makes its way to DVD.

In the 24 episode penultimate season of “The Wonder Years,” viewers can expect to see plots involving a summer vacation trip (and a summer fling for Kevin), Kevin’s adventures at McKinley High School, Kevin’s hardware store job, Kevin hanging out with new friends, Wayne in a relationship, Kevin joining the soccer team, a Christmas party, tension and heartfelt moments between Kevin and Paul, Kevin learning to drive, Kevin’s grandfather, a different kind of teacher, Wayne thinking about joining the army, Kevin’s dates and crushes, a house party, Karen’s relationship with Michael, a development between Winnie and Kevin, and more.

Having already reviewed previous seasons as well as the complete series set, my feelings on the series have been pretty clear. It’s a classic ahead of its time coming-of-age series plain and simple. While not the best overall season, there is still a lot of depth to this season as we see plenty of poignant and identifiable stories about family, romance, maturing, and friendship. Above all else, however, the series boasts a ton of characterization. Not only is Kevin evolving as he makes his way through high school, but he’s also making mistakes and learning from them. We also see lots of growth from Wayne (if you can believe it), Karen (whose life is moving in another direction), and even Kevin’s best bud Paul (who is at another school for a time anyway).

Last, but not least, I should point out that that this season boasts a lot of fun “before they were stars” guest stars like Seth Green, Alicia Silverstone, and David Schwimmer. Schwimmer in particular has a big role as Karen’s love interest Michael.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: Fullscreen. How does it look? It looks as is it did when it aired on TV. Make of that as you will.

Audio Track: Unspecified Audio Track. How does it sound? The audio track is flat, but it does the job.

Extras:
* Interviews with Olivia d’Abo and David Schwimmer about their time on the series (among other topics).
* “Will You Love Me Tomorrow: The Wonder Years’ Love Stories”- A featurette that explores the various romances/relationships in the series.
* “That’s A Wrap! Mark B. Perry’s Farewell Set Tour Season 5”- A video diary of the writer/producer.
* A booklet featuring episode plot descriptions, facts, an intro by Fred Savage, pictures, and credits.

Note: The first four seasons are available individually on DVD as is the complete series set. An individual release of season 6 is forthcoming.

May 8, 2016 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | David Schwimmer, Fred Savage, The Wonder Years Season 5 DVD Review, The Wonder Years TV Series