My Family - Series 1-7 Box Set [2000]

---

---

Customer reviews

review by: The Voice in the Wilderness date: 2008-08-25 rating:
Just How Far Can a TV Series Fall?
The first series of "My Family" might not have been the funniest programme ever made. But later, as the writers ran out of inspiration and half of the cast abandoned ship, the character traits became so parodied and the scripts became so formulaic that watching each episode soon became more of an endurance test than a joy.

In my opinion, the best thing about the first series was Daisy Donovan's portrayal of the upper class, idiotic, hippie dental assistant from Hell. Because even though she didn't appear very often, she always brought a smile to my face.

However, she was the first character to jump ship, and Janey followed soon afterwards. And so as Ben became grumpier with every passing moment, Susan's obsessive compulsion turned into a full blown psychosis and Michael grew up into an arrogant and abusive little prat, Nick was only character left who ever raised a smile. And then, in an attempt to fill the void, the writers created Abbey!

I can only assume that an accident-prone ditz with the IQ of a cornflake must have seemed funny on paper, because after a few episodes, the very sight of this woman made me hit the fast-forward button.

The equally irritating character of Roger, the dentist who worked downstairs from Ben made me wonder why I'd ever bought the damn boxset in the first place. And as Susan became more manipulative, obsessive and controlling, I was praying for the social services or a good psychiatrist to get involved.

In the end, this programme is a classic example of ratings defying common sense; a series that survived long past its time because people continued to watch it, and because the `powers that be' couldn't think of anything else to fill the void in the schedule. And so unless you're actually a fan of every single series, I would recommend buying series one and pretending that the rest were never made.

---

review by: date: 2008-05-26 rating:
Why bother
Good greif, why would you bother buying it. It's on UK Gold all the time except when they're showing the Vicar of Dibley and My Family makes that look funny. It is the "Terry and June" of the 90s except it goes on and on longer.

---

review by: tommytwoshoes date: 2008-05-23 rating:
feel.....soooo......sleepy.

quite possibly the dullest show ever created.

Zoe Wanamaker has admitted that she is no longer impressed with the quality of My Family.

The actress, who plays Susan Harper in the BBC One comedy show, revealed that she and co-star Robert Lindsay even refused to film one episode because it was so poor.

"What attracted me to the first scripts was that they had a slightly quirky, American Jewish quality to them. That's my humour. Critics absolutely hated it. The public liked it. But it's turned into a machine," Wanamaker told The Daily Telegraph.

"Robert and I even refused at one point to do one, it was so bad. That caused a lot of problems, but we just felt it was not good enough. We had practically a football team of scriptwriters working on the last series."

However, Wanamaker added that she is grateful for the financial rewards of appearing on the programme.

"I shouldn't knock it. Hey, I bought three paintings. I also planted 23 trees the other day in my cottage."

---

review by: date: 2008-01-16 rating:
A comedy that never bores me
I just love watching this comedy. I keep seeing the repeats on UKGOLD and can watch episodes again and again - The problem is that like many program repeats they are never shown in production order, so I am now the happy owner of the complete box set so I can watch them back to back from the start.

The acting is superb, and if as one review states, the writing is like that of formulaic American sitcoms (which I hate) then at least it shows that it's the comedy that counts, and the BBC know how to make it funny.

I also still find that the quality hasn't diminished even since most peoples favourite character Nick (Kris Marshall) left the series - the newer characters have fitted in perfectly.

One point to make about Amazon's Synopsis - This is not the first sitcom Robert Lindsey has appeared in since Citizen Smith - He appeared in the 2 series of the very surreal channel 4 series 'Nightingales' in 1990, currently available at a very low price from Amazon. If you haven't seen it then you will either love it or hate it - It is weird (I love it).



review by: date: 2007-11-06 rating:
Very funny!
I have been watching My Family since the first series and I think that it is a great British comedy. I find many of the situations easy to relate to and I think the writers do well to make the audience feel as though they are being allowed inside the Harper family.
Obviously Nick is a favourite character for a lot of people as he provides the majorities of the laughs. I think that Zoe Wanamaker and Robert Lindsay play a very good married couple and they seem very comfortable with each other which makes their roles more believable.

I am so pleased that at last, we can have series 1-7 all together!

---

Similar products

My Family - Christmas Specials
My Family - Series 8 - Complete [2007]
The Vicar of Dibley - The Ultimate Collection
The Complete Fawlty Towers [1975]
The Complete One Foot in the Grave - Series 1-6 Plus Christmas Specials

---

Similar categories

Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Comedy . All Comedy
Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Television . All Television
Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Television . Comedy
Video . DVD & VHS . Substores . Regular Stores . DVD Bargains . By Price . Up to 60% off Box Sets . Up to 60% off DVD Box Sets
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . DVD
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . BBFC Rating (intended_use_browse-bin) . 12
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Editions (feature_two_browse-bin) . Box Set
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Region(feature_browse-bin) . Region 2
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Release Date (feature_three_browse-bin) . 2000 and later
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Language (theme_browse-bin) . English

---