Starting off strong, this season premiered with two excellent episodes in "Season 4" and "Into the Crevasse," and just continued to bring one good episode after another. I know that our TV reviewer Robert Canning voiced his displeasure in the middle of the season in his Season 4 Review, but personally I was thoroughly entertained with the entirety of the season. The best episodes to be found on this set are: "Dealbreakers Talk Show #0001," "Klaus and Greta," "Anna Howard Shaw Day," "Don Geiss, America and Hope," "Lee Marvin Vs. Derek Jeter," and "I Do Do."
As mentioned before, Season 4 brought in new guest stars and storylines to keep the season fresh throughout. While we've gotten used to Liz being a down-on-her-luck loser, this season gave her two fun romantic interests with her "Future Husband" Wesley Snipes (Michael Sheen) and the man of her dreams, Carol (Matt Damon). Michael Sheen's US-ignorant Wesley was a blast to watch, as he and Tiny Fey had great chemistry as complete opposites. Likewise, Alec Baldwin was given two impressive actresses for Jack Donaghy to find romantic conflict with – Elizabeth Banks and Julianne Moore. Both Liz and Jack's romantic problems made for some of the funniest television in 2009-10.
As for the DVD, the quality of the transfer is actually pretty good. While it doesn't boast the best video quality possible, the audio is a thing of beauty. Using every speaker in the 5.1 mix, this Dolby Digital sound does a great job of bringing you into each scene with ambient noise, music and directional audio finding its way into every one of the channels, making for one of the better audio transfers of a sitcom that we've ever heard.
For those who knew that they were going to be buying this set regardless of the technical transfer quality, you will be glad to know that the set comes with multiple extras that are worth your time. While the Photo Gallery isn't totally necessary, the extended episodes (for "Secret Santa" and "I Do Do"), deleted scenes, audio commentary tracks, full Tennis Night in America promo, behind the scenes features and the full episode of Ace of Cakes are all very funny and informative.
Personally my favorite extra on this whole set is the Ace of Cakes episode "30 Rock (and Roll)." The deleted scenes and behind the scenes extras were very good, but getting to watch a full episode of an entertaining television show, that promotes and elevates 30 Rock while standing alone as a decent bit of TV at the same time is appreciated. The more that other TV sets can add extras like this one, the better.
All in all, this is a great set that is well worth your money. Not only is this season of the show hilarious and very rewatchable, but the extras help to expand your experience and will keep these discs in your DVD player long after you've finished watching the episodes.
