Fuller House: The Complete Third Season - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

Fuller House: The Complete Third Season



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
As a child of the 80s (I’m actually only a few days younger than Jodie Sweetin) Full House was mandatory watching if you wanted good clean comedy (along with Family Matters, which I’ve been binge watching on Hulu recently). It was one of those quintessential sitcoms that many of us grew up watching, so when it was announced that Netflix was going to be rebooting/continuing the series with Fuller House, I immediately suffered from eye rolling syndrome as I thought “great, another crummy reboot”. Well, in many ways I was surprised as the series chases quite heavily after the nostalgia factor in it’s story lines and casting of characters, but does a good job at creating it’s own tone and feel with the addition of new children and romantic interests. This season continues on with a slight decrease in story lines with the main characters, but makes it up in spades with the addition of Juan Pablo Di Pace’s “Fernando”, who joins the cast full time in his pursuit of “Kimberlina”.

Season Three started with a bit of a rocky stumble as we get a massively cheesy musical sequence with Max (Elias Harger) having a dream about the first day of summer. It sets the bar wince worthily low, and the series has a bit of a difficulty getting on it’s feet for the rest of the season. AT LEAST in regards to the main cast. However, the series is really saved by a single cast member going full time, Fernando (Juan Pablo Di Pace). Fernando has finally won back (mostly at least his lovely Kimberlina (Andrea Barber) and is going overboard in his efforts to woo and please her. Even going so far as to buy back her family home across the street and deck it out EXACTLY as it was when she was a kid. There’s a big scene where Fernando takes the entire cast over to his newly restored house and we get to finally see the inside of it, something fans of the show have been wanting to see since the 1980s. Not only that, but we get to see exactly WHY Kimmy and Jimmy Gibbler turn out the way they did (it seems that their parents would velcro them to a wall and they had matching “fart” chairs as children).

While Fernando is the walking highlight of this season, the main cast still has quite a bit of fun with their roles. I like D.J. as a mom, but her romantic life with Dr. Matt Harmon (John Brotherton) is one of the weakest part of the show, and I was glad to see Ramona (Soni Bringas) and Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin, who I had a MAJOR crush on back as a child) get beefier role this year. It helps smooth out some of the cheesier moments and makes it a bit more fun. One of the big “nostalgia” pulls is the continued drop in performances from Bob Saget and, John Stamos and the rest of the cast in occasional episodes, and the old fan in me loves it every time they drop in.

This is the first time that the series has bumped up from it’s original programming of 13 episodes a season, and we get a full on 18 this time around. The results are more filler episodes, but still fun fluffy comedy to enjoy. Nothing special, and I really see no reason for the bump in episodes. That being said, the series finale actually had my jaw on the floor, as it gave us one of the best episodes of the season as well as an insane cliffhanger that pretty much guaranteed we’d get a fourth season (which just aired last month on Netflix for those wanting to binge it before next years DVDs)




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

I'm almost going to be regurgitating what I said for season One and Two, but season 3 pretty much imitates the previous two seasons in terms of visuals. The 18 episodes are spread over 2 DVD-9 discs, and even though it's 9 episodes per disc instead of 6 or 7, the show really doesn't look any worse for wear visually. The image is clean, clear and free of any issues outside of the soft "sit com glow" that is so prevalent in the series. The same two story house is the backdrop of most of the series and familiar fans will recognize the trappings and setup of the old house. There's plenty of fine detail to go around and the colors really do pop off the screen with good saturation levels and artifacting is kept to a minimum. There's a little macroblocking and some soft focus shots in the show itself, but overall this is a very solid looking image that doesn't show any major faults. Pretty much par for the course in regards to Warner's handling of the show to date. The complete lack of extras may be disappointing for collectors, but it keeps enough room on the disc to allow for a solid bitrate in order to keep the show looking nice with 9 episodes per disc.




Audio:

The same thing goes for the audio review as well. The last 3 years have been near picture perfect identical in specs, and this year continues that trend with a solid 5.1 Dolby digital track that ticks off all the check boxes for a sit come. It's front heavy, VERY dialog intensive, and doesn't use the surrounds much at all except for the laugh track and the score, but that's what is to be expected of a low key sitcom. There's nothing wrong with the mix at all, it's just that the dialog is literally 95% of the focus and that is firmly planted up in the center of the room where it should be, and the rest of the speakers are just ambient noises and a little bit of music. Said dialog is always clear and intelligible at all times, and I had zero problems with the balance of the music and laugh track with the rest of the dialog. It's a simple track, but one that is still more than effective considering its purpose.





Extras:

• nothing

Final Score: ​

I really have enjoyed Fuller House the last 3 years. It's not going to blow the doors off the sitcom world, but it has remained very stable and consistent from year to year. The characters already have a partial backstory due to their involvement in the famous Full House, but the new ones add a fresh dimension to old faces, and the cameos from the big cast stars from years ago make a for a fun and nostalgic adventure for us old timers. I originally hated them, but Fernando and Ramona have actually become an integral part of the show, and some of my favorite characters along with Jodie Sweeton's Stephanie. If you liked what you saw in seasons One and Two then season Three will be right up your alley, as it continues on with another solid season. Warner's DVD still continues to have zero extras, but the audio and video are quite pleasing for a DVD. However, if you want an HD version then you'll have to hit up Netflix, being that we don't even have a Warner Archive release for a Blu-ray. Fun for a good watch.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Candice Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin, Andrea Barber, Michael Campion, Elias Harger, Soni Bringas, Juan Pablo Di Pace
Created by: Jeff Franklin
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Mpeg2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 502 Minutes
DVD Release Date: January 22nd, 2019

Recommendation: Solid Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will have to catch this series.