PERFECT STRANGERS: THE COMPLETE SEREIS (1986-1993)
17-Disc Blu-ray Set
Label: Warner Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: TV-14
Duration: 3675 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono (Season 1-2), 2.0 Stereo (Seasons 3-8) with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Directors: Joel Zwick
Cast: Bronson Pinchot, Mark Linn-Baker, Melanie Wilson, Rebeca Arthur, and Belita Moreno
Perfect Strangers (1986-1993) was a buddy-comedy sitcom confection I adored as a teen, it was created by Dale McRaven, the co-creator of hit TV show Mork & Mindy (1978-1982), offering viewers a fun, if formulaic, frothy episodic comedy series, each episode running about 30-minutes each with commercials. The series chronicles the lives of nuerotic Wisconsinite Larry Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law) and his distant cousin, Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot, Beverly Hills Cop), an recent emigree from the tiny fictitious Mediterranean island of Mypos. The sitcom follows their exploits with the situational comedy stemming from their mismatched cultural differences, creating a comedic clash of cultures, as Larry attempts to Americanize his fish-out-of-water cousin, which leads to some fun sitcom shenanigans as they attempt to follow their dreams and get better jobs. Later seasons see the pair moving out their apartment featuring the mismatched pair employed at the Chicago Chronicle newspaper, with Larry married to Jennifer (Melanie Wilson, Facing the Enemy) and Balki to Mary (Rebeca Arthur, Scrooged), the series ended with a short six episode season that saw the cousins becoming first-time fathers.
The show was wildly popular, my brother and I would often imitate the hard-to-place Mediterranean accent of Balki to each other and quote lines from the series, and of course Balki's signature 'Dance of Joy'. Rewatching it now the sitcom premise is still a nice frothy confection of two people comically mismatched forced to cohabitate and endure their differences. It's a tried and true comedic set-up that's worked in many earlier sitcoms, including the all-time best of the bunch The Odd Couple. They find themselves in comedic situations that range from bowling, to game shows and ill-fated air travels, and of course romantic entanglements and their own friendship. The show is a nice time capsule of late '80s/early '90s fashions and styles as well, offering a nice trip down memory lane for a Gen Xer like myself. The show even had a successful spin-of by way of Family Matters (1989-1998), carrying on the storyline of the characters of Harriette Winslow (Jo Marie Payton, Disorderlies) and her police officer husband Carl (Reginald VelJohnson, Die Hard), which is the show that introduced the world to annoying charms of Steve "Did I do that?" Urkel (Jaleel White, Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus), for better or worse.
Audio/Video: The series arrives on Blu-ray from warner Bros. in 1080p HD framed in the original 1.33;1 broadcast aspect ratio, with uncompressed DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio with optional English subtitles. The image looks solid, easily surpassing previous the previous DVD editions with superior depth and clarity. I could find no information about the transfers but these appear to be HD scan from original elements, there's a fine layer of film grain and plenty of textures in the early 90's fashions and close-ups, that are superior to even the HD streaming counterparts I've seen on Tubi and Hulu, with nice color throughout. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with optional English subtitles, the track is clean and well-balanced, there were a few soft spots where the audio drops low or feels weirds, which I would attribute to age related source issues, and not so much a fault of the transfer. This is a very nice HD upgrade on disc, if you're a fan of the show or curious about the beloved 80's era sitcom have no fear, it's certainly worth it if you can buy it at a price you can live with.
The 17-disc set Blu-ray set arrived in a Epik Pak keepcase with a 2-sided wrap that features an episode guide on the reverse side. While I am not a fan of the cheap, high volume keepcase, as opposed to individual season keepcases, at least there are no stacked discs.
Special Features:
- None
- None
Screenshots from the Warner Bros. Blu-rays:
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