Quick Review: THE OFFICE Season 5 on DVD

We are just over two weeks away from the season 6 premiere of THE OFFICE.  Bizarre.  To think back to 2005 and the six-episode first season, when no one thought the show would last. It was back before GMMR even launched and at the time I felt like a one-woman megaphone for the show. Fast forward just a few month later – I had my own little TV blog and one of the first posts I ever wrote was “Why Won’t You Watch THE OFFICE?” Everyone expected it to fail. It had no chance at season 2. And here we are with Season 6 right around the corner.  Forgive my sentimentality, but it’s my favorite show and I can’t help but feel proud.

Perhaps what’s driving my melodrama right now is that I just finished watching some of the bonus footage from THE OFFICE Season 5 on DVD.  One of the many featurettes is “One Hundred Episodes, One Hundred Moments”, which picks one small but oh so memorable moments from every episode of the season thus far.  It was a nice walk down memory lane. And I’m such a chick that I got a little teary.

For me the quality of the bonus footage is what the DVD sets are all about. I’ve seen all the episodes (many times over), but the behind-the-scenes footage and commentary you can get from the DVDs is the gravy. That’s why when I opened up the DVD today, I skipped right to Disc 5…where are the good stuff is.  I’ve already watched the tear-inducing gag reel, all the deleted scenes from the last few episodes of the season, and I’ve watched the season finale, “Company Picnic” while listening to the commentary of Executive Producers/Writers Paul Lieberstein & Jen Cellota and director Ken Kwapis.  Clearly I’m in heaven right now.

I’ll be treating myself the remainder of the DVD goodies over the course of the week.

For the die hard Dunder Mifflinites that haven’t already pre-ordered their copy, THE OFFICE Season 5 on DVD hit shelves on September 8th in both DVD and Blu-ray.

In addition to the 26 episodes, here are the other features you’ll find on the S5 collection.

Blue-ray owners are in for a little something extra. Blu-ray™ Hi-Def bonus features include:

• “One-Liner Soundboard” – Allows the user to string together one-liners and quotes from the show to create your own character audio mix that you can share with friends via BD -LIVEä

• BD-LIVE™ – Access the BD-Live™ Center through your Internet-connected player and watch the latest trailers, download exclusive content and more!

The Office: The Complete Season Five on Blu-ray™ Hi-Def and DVD comes with reams of bonus features, including:

• Episode Commentary with the Cast and Crew of The Office
• Over Three Hours of Deleted Scenes!
• Gag Reel
• The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Presents The Office
• Four Webisodes
• The Office Promos: Beijing Games and XLIII Football Championship

Just about everything any OFFICE fan could want.

[Update: Well, almost anything. I guess a true OFFICE fan might expect the last name of one of the stars actually be spelled correctly.  As Sorano916 pointed out to me, somebody goofed BIG time and spelled John Krasinski “John Krasinsky” on the back on the DVD cover.  Wow, that’s completely unacceptable.]

Oh and get this – two of the DVD copies of THE OFFICE: Season 5 hold hidden “Golden Dunder Mifflin Tickets”, if you’re one of the two lucky winners, then you’re heading to the set of THE OFFICE. Here’s to hoping the tickets go to a deserving and dedicated fan!

Make sure you head out on September 8th to get your new DVDs or Blu-ray. Meanwhile, I’ll be watching episode commentaries into the wee hours of the morning.