Greek Chapter 5 DVD review – Get set for the final season!

Tomorrow Greek premieres for its latest — and final — season. We’ve been through a lot with our favorite gang of sorority sisters and fraternity brothers, and the truth is that there’s still a lot of ground to cover. Hell, we haven’t even seen a single one of them graduate from the illustrious CRU. But graduate some of them must, and the final season will aim to place all of our characters in their next life stages (I assume).

But before we get there, let’s rewind to what has been. I had the opportunity to get an early peak at the Chapter 5 DVD set — out January 11 — or what is being billed as the complete third season. A lot happened in those 20 episodes.

From the “End of the World” party where Cappie stood Casey up, to Myrtle Beach where he dumped her, the third season covered a lot of ground. If you’re looking to review, check back at my chapter five and chapter six (which apparently wasn’t what it was called) coverage. Want to see the episodes again? Let me tell you whether it’s worth it to pick up the DVD set.

Three of the six discs have a handful of extras each. But the first thing I noticed was the Gotcha! theme applied to the main menu — remember when Jordan was the Jackal? Anyway, the home menu is way too tiny. It’s almost impossible to read the options, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some people even missed its existence on first glance. Seems an odd choice for a menu that you need to navigate.

The Day After Commentary – With nothing but executive producers chatting through this one, I was pretty bored with the direction of the conversation. A lot of chitchat about technical stuff didn’t go down as interestingly as I think they imagined it would. The worst part was when they posited that everybody loved Rusty and Jordan … excuse me?

The Half-Naked Gun Commentary – This was more like it. Along with show creator Patrick Sean Smith, this commentary featured Scott Michael Foster (Cappie), Dilshad Vadsaria (Rebecca), and Johanna Braddy (Jordan). There was a lot of giggling throughout, though I have to say that I enjoy these a lot more with Spencer Grammer (Casey). We pick up some interesting tidbits, but the main thing I walked away with was how left out Johanna Braddy was; what was she doing there?

Gotcha! Featurette – This was a two-part Gotcha! party on-set that took place sometime in the middle of the night (I assume to avoid messing with their shoot schedules). Part one featured Scott Michael Foster, Spencer Grammer, Clark Duke (Dale), Amber Stevens (Ashleigh), and Jacob Zachar (Rusty) all armed with Nerf dart guns and Flip video cameras. The battle was a free-for-all, and while it was hard to follow at times, it’s fun to see how nutty the actors are.

Part two added Jake McDorman (Evan) to the mix, and played more like the Gotcha! from the season three episode — each player was assigned a target, and killing your prey won you a new target until there was only one assassin standing. Somewhat of a continuation of part one, but after learning that Scott Michael Foster and Jake McDorman are close friends in real life during some previous extra, it was fun to see them interacting, however briefly. Foster is, by all measures of these extras, just as cool as Cappie appears to be.

Episodes 1-10 Gag Reel – I’m not sure why the gag reel was broken into two parts, but if it means we got more bloopers as a result … this segment was a healthy 17 minutes long, and while it didn’t have me laughing throughout, it was pretty good. The best nugget I gleaned from it? Jacob Zachar curses like a sailor.

A Conversation with Nora Kirkpatrick – Boring. No offense to the actress that plays Katherine, but I dislike her character, so why would I be interested in getting some extra time with her? She also isn’t really central to anything that happened on the show, so the spotlight on her kind of took me by surprise.

Episodes 11-20 Gag Reel – At a robust 18 minutes, the second half of the gag reel provides us with one thing that the first is somewhat lacking in: more Cappie! Now, is it good or bad that Foster’s involved in so many of the bad takes? Who cares, because it’s enjoyable to see!

Hip-Hop Video – Embarrassing. Don’t watch it, and feel sorry for those of us who did … and for the guy who raps the song, whoever he is.

All Children…Grow Up Commentary – Creator Patrick Sean Smith returns with Scott Michael Foster, Amber Stevens, and, inexplicably, Aynsley Bubbico (Laura). No offense to her (or Johanna Braddy in the earlier commentary), but the supporting characters are much less familiar to us viewers. Where was Spencer Grammer, or while we’re at it Paul James (Calvin), who didn’t make a single appearance on the bonus features of this set?

Anyway, the season three finale commentary was enjoyable; the production extras thrown in whenever a Nerf dart appeared on-screen were hard to understand, and even harder to hear, but the discussions are definitely worth your time. I find that to be true in general with Greek episode commentaries. In fact, I’m wondering why a 20-episode season only featured three.

All in all, worth the $30 on Amazon? No question about it. Twenty episodes of Greek, plus commentary, 35 minutes of bloopers, and a handful of more and less enjoyable bonuses are definitely worth the price. And don’t forget — the final season of Greek premieres Monday night, January 3, at 9:00 pm on ABC Family. Be there for the end.

Disclosure: This review is based on a commercially available copy, provided complimentary to CliqueClack TV by ABC Family for the  purpose of review.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jan 02, 2011 @ 12:00 EST5EDT