Search - The Job - The Complete Series on DVD

Injustice Served!

Kevin A. Stuecklen | Chicagoland, Illinois | 02/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"No pun intended, but injustice was served when ABC cancelled this fantastic series midway through its second season!
As a pretty discerning TV & Movie watcher, this was a bitter pill to swallow; it's very rare that you find the perfect mix of dark humor with just a hint of drama. All this stems from Dennis Leary who surrounds himself with a wonderful cast.
It hasn't been until last summer's "Rescue Me" on FX that I got over this show being dropped! Now, I must admit, Rescue me (although a bit heavier on the drama) takes the EXACT same approach as The Job - by using the right mix of cast & crew. In fact, you'll see some of the same faces change their uniforms from Detectives on The Job, to Firefighters on FX's Rescue Me! Watch for Season 2 of Rescue me this Summer '05 on FX. In the meantime, I highly recommend adding this "GEM" of a series to your collection. Enjoy!
p.s. My personal favorite is the episode starring Elizabeth Hurley...be prepared to laugh yourself senseless when these two real-life friends reunite in an episode of The Job worth watching again-and-again!"

Don't be different or original...

Jim Player | Rochester, NY, USA | 05/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a mid-season filler for "NYPD Blue", "The Job" turned out to be one of the best shows aired in a long time. With a sharp-witted irreverant script and a uniformly great cast, it should have run longer than 19 episodes.

Denis Leary, co-creator, co-producer and co-writer (with Peter Tolan) stars as unscrupulous Mike MacNeil, a pill-popping chain-smoking NYC Detective trying to keep his wife/family, 26 year old girlfriend and job all in balance. When the show ended, everything was unravelling in his life....

The rest of the cast is just too good to single anyone out, even with the recurring "guest" roles - with one stand out there being Janet Hubert-Whitten. Although listed as appearing in only four episodes as Bill Nunn's (Pip) iron fisted domineering wife Adina, her presence is felt in nearly every episode looming over the whipped Pip like a dark menacing cloud.

Nothing whatever is sacred whether it be race, religion or severed body parts. Case in point would be Lt. Williams, played in the pilot episode by Richard Gant, who can't remember the two Hispanic detective's names and calls them rice and beans ("I've been a detective for 36 years...I'm too old to learn new names")

While many things in the show would be offensive if they were played straight, the brilliant scripts don't pull it's punches on any topic and delivers dead-pan humor with gleeful zest.

The four DVD set comes nicely packaged and has few, but substantial extras, including interviews and a gag reel. Definitely one of the best releases of the year!"

Good Cop. Bad Attitude. Denis Leary On The Job!

Servo | Atlanta, GA USA | 04/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It was on the set of 1999's The Thomas Crown Affair where acid-tongued comedian/actor Denis Leary met Mike Charles, a New York City cop and technical advisor on the film. Sharing a sense of humor and a working-class Irish background, the two clicked so well Leary decided to turn the veteran detective's stories into his first TV series. Originally planned for a series run on HBO, it wasn't until Peter Tolan (The Larry Sanders Show) came on as executive producer that ABC got interested, offering a bigger budget. In exchange for giving up cable's freedom to use the "F-word," ABC let Leary "do the show his way." The result was The Job, an acerbic crossing of Hill Street Blues with NYPD Blue and Barney Miller.

Denis Leary plays Mike McNeil, a good cop with a bad attitude who's made a name for himself by bending the rules; juggling "the job," a suburban wife (Wendy Makkena), a manhattan girlfriend (Karyn Parsons), too much booze and too many pills. Armed with a superbly hilarious ensemble cast and smart & edgy writing, The Job was easily the funniest new show of 2001. The unforgettable supporting cast includes Bill Nunn (Do The Right Thing, Spider-Man films) as Mike's partner Pip Phillips; gorgeous Diane Farr (Roswell, Loveline) as Det. Jan Fendrich; Adam Ferrara and Lenny Clarke as detectives Tommy Manetti & Frank Harrigan; Julian Acosta and John Ortiz as rookie detectives Al Rodriguez & Ruben Sommariba; and Keith David (The Thing, Gargoyles) as Mike's frustrated boss Lt. Tom Williams.

With all 19 episodes from the critically-acclaimed series, it's laughter in the first degree with The Job - The Complete Series. Guest stars include Elizabeth Hurley, Gina Gershon and Janet Hubert-Whitten among others. Here are the contents of this 4-disc collection:


Disc 1: Pilot, Elizabeth, Bathroom, Foot, Massage, Anger
Disc 2: Sacrilege, Soup, Telescope, Gina, Quitter
Disc 3: Gay, Vacation, Neighbor, Boss, Dad
Disc 4: Parents, Barbeque, Betrayal


Special Features:
Commentary: "Pilot", "Bathroom", "Gina", "Gay" and "Barbeque" by Denis Leary and Peter Tolan
Interview with creators Denis Leary and Peter Tolan
Gag Reel
Series Premiere Promo Spots
Behind-the-scenes Footage
On-the-set Cast Interviews
On Location Interview with Peter Tolan

Highly Recommended!
"

Laugh 'til your stomach muscles hurt

Vivian | Seattle, WA | 05/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was probably my favorite t.v. show ever. It was brilliant. Every episode made me laugh out loud and not very many shows make me do that. In fact, for the most part, I hate t.v. But 'The Job' was not only clever, intelligent and funny, but the casting was perfect and it had believable and fascinating characters.

I'm sure Denis Leary's character being addicted to painkillers was too controversial for an ABC show. But I found it to be very insightful because there are tons of everyday working class people addicted to painkillers and you'd never know it. (Doctors really do hand out Vicodin like candy these days and many people get seriously addicted to the stuff and it's more serious than a lot of people realize.) Mike McNeil had demons, but the writing never became wishy-washy....instead, the humor surfaced bigtime and it made for an entertaining show.

I also appreciated how Denis Leary's character did some of the most despicable things, yet he was still so lovable. The writing was simply hilarious. I loved how he put Robert Kelley in an episode playing a character named 'Luiz' when Robert Kelley in his stand up act talks about how annoying it is that everyone in L.A. always thinks he's Hispanic when he's IRISH! Hahaha.

Probably what I liked most about the show though was its top notch writing and comedic intuition- they really knew how to cut the fat, there were no pointless scenes, uninteresting characters, etc. I might be the only one who feels this way, but to me each episode was almost like a mini-movie. They were so perfect!

Anyway, this was a brilliant show. The characters found themselves in some of the most absurd and ridiculous scenerios that you'll remember for years. Insanely original. You won't be disappointed if you watch it."