Moonlighting: Season Five - The Final Season

The 5th season was an odd season for Moonlighting. Many fans berate season 4 for keeping David and Maddie apart so long. But at least David still loved Maddie, and in pursuit of her went through many trials (prison, lemaze classes, parenting books, Maddie's father). At the end of Season 4, we learn Maddie still loves David.

Season 5 starts strong with Womb with a View, which revisits the connection between them. In the following episodes, though, there's no connection or chemistry. There's Maddie pulling away, and David feeling dejected and eventually pulling away. In an odd way, these episodes are reminiscent of Season 1, before anything ever happened between D & M. Except for the white elephant in the room: they hardly even acknowledge their former intense feelings for each other. These middle episodes have a few pleasant moments and some classic Moonlighting comedy bits. But truthfully, getting through them was a bit of a chore, they only remind you of how great Moonlighting was when there was real tension and passion between D & M.

Things look up in the last few episodes, when David meets Maddie's cousin Anne. It seems Maddie is finally over David, though it's not clear he's over her. We wonder if he's using Anne to get back at Maddie for moving on, something that would be despicable. Or maybe David is genuinely happy, maybe this new relationship is the healthy, stable, loving relationship he never had with Maddie. In the end, David once again sacrifices his own well-being for someone else (as we -- but not Maddie -- saw him do so often in Season 4).

Lunar Eclipse ends with a funny wedding, and then our beloved friends (and we loyal viewers) have to come to grips with their fate. Finally, they say goodbye with a bittersweet montage that reminds us how much we have come to love these characters and how much we will miss them.

As other reviewers have said, this set comes with very few extras. I didn't find either of the two commentary tracks especially illuminating. The screen test was kind of neat, though. You can see the chemistry between Bruce & Cybill, even though they hadn't worked together yet.

I'm grateful to have the final scene of Moonlighting to add to my collection, but I am disappointed that there were not more extra features. In way of extras, all that was included are commentaries on the first and last episodes. In the final episode, the commentary is done by Dennis Dugan. This is the actor who briefly played Maddie's husband. This is the worst commentary that I have ever heard. I listened to the whole torturous episode just to see if there was anything he had to say that was worth listening to. There was not.

Again, I am grateful to complete my series of Moonlighting, but it would have been nice if there were more extras of one of my favorite shows from the 80's.

It was great to watch the Final Season of Moonlighting as it brought back a lot of memories. However, I was disappointed that the "Strip For Sweeps Week" opening to "Take My Wife, For Example" is not on this disc. Why did the producers of the show or Lionsgate cut this opening out is a

mystery to me. I'm fortuate to have this episode on tape, but it would be nice to have had this opening in the DVD.

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