Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series (Blu-ray Review)
STARRING: Bronson Pinchot, Mark Linn-Baker,
RATED: UR/Region: O/1:33/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 17
AVAILABLE FROM Warner Bros.
Sometimes a Blu-ray release comes along that makes you wonder if somebody at Warner Bros. finally looked at the shelves and thought, “You know what the world needs? Seventeen discs of Balki.”
And honestly? They weren’t wrong.
Perfect Strangers ran for eight seasons and 150 episodes from 1986 to 1993, and Warner Bros. has now gathered the whole damn thing together in one 17-disc Blu-ray set. This is also the show’s Blu-ray debut, which is pretty impressive considering how long some of us have been waiting for Hollywood to remember these shows existed.
If you somehow don’t know the setup, you’ve got Larry Appleton, a tightly wound Wisconsin guy trying to make his way in Chicago, and Balki Bartokomous, his extremely enthusiastic distant cousin from the fictional Mediterranean island of Mypos, who shows up on Larry’s doorstep and essentially decides, “Congratulations, we live together now.”
Larry is neurotic.
Balki is relentlessly cheerful.
Together, they form the kind of friendship that makes you wonder how Larry didn’t simply move to another apartment after the first week.
And that dynamic is still the secret weapon of the show. Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker have terrific chemistry, and the series gets an awful lot of mileage out of Balki’s complete misunderstanding of American customs and Larry’s increasing inability to cope with it.
You know it’s going to be a good day when your roommate’s solution to a problem involves explaining something he learned from a sheep in Mypos.
The show absolutely wears its late-’80s/early-’90s sitcom identity on its sleeve, and that’s part of the charm. The clothes are loud, the hairstyles are questionable, the jokes are wonderfully corny, and the physical comedy is frequently pushed to cartoonish levels.
In other words, this is exactly what a sitcom from this era is supposed to look like.
And yes, some of the comedy is dated. Some jokes land better than others, and there are definitely episodes where you can see the formula beginning to show its age. But the central relationship between Larry and Balki gives the show enough heart to carry it through the weaker material.
Eight seasons is a long time for any sitcom to keep the same basic premise fresh, and Perfect Strangers eventually starts changing things up with new jobs, relationships, apartments, and storylines. It even produced Family Matters, because apparently Harriette Winslow decided she had seen enough of Larry and Balki’s nonsense and deserved her own show.
Good for her.
The biggest surprise here, though, is how damn good the Blu-ray looks.
Warner Bros. presents the series in 1080p HD in its original 4:3 fullscreen format, and the improvement over the old DVD releases is immediately noticeable. The picture is cleaner and sharper, with better detail and color, while still retaining some film grain. For a sitcom that originally aired in the ’80s and early ’90s, this is a really nice upgrade.
The audio is also clean, with English DTS-HD Master Audio tracks and English SDH subtitles. Even better, the original music appears to remain intact, so Balki can continue singing and butchering songs without somebody from the music-rights department barging into the room with a censor button.
Now, before everybody starts doing the Dance of Joy, there is one significant disappointment:
There are no extras.
None.
Not even a little interview.
No retrospective.
No cast reunion.
No “Where Are They Now?”
Nothing.
Considering we’re talking about 150 episodes spread across 17 discs, I would’ve loved some bonus material. Give us Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker sitting around talking about the show. Give us a behind-the-scenes documentary. Hell, let somebody explain how they came up with the word “Mypos.”
I’ll watch that.
Instead, Warner Bros. basically said, “Here’s all the episodes. You’re welcome.”
And you know what?
I’ll take it.
Because the important thing is that Perfect Strangers is finally available in HD as a complete series, and it looks considerably better than the old DVD editions. The packaging is a little more utilitarian than I’d prefer, but when you’ve got 150 episodes sitting there waiting to be watched, I’m willing to overlook a lot.
The real question is whether the show still holds up.
For me, the answer is yes.
It isn’t sophisticated comedy, and it certainly isn’t trying to be. It’s broad, goofy, physical, occasionally ridiculous sitcom comedy. But there’s something comforting about that. You can throw on an episode and within minutes you’re watching Larry have a nervous breakdown because Balki has misunderstood something incredibly basic.
Sometimes that’s all television needs to be.
Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series is a fantastic nostalgia trip, a surprisingly entertaining rewatch, and a very welcome Blu-ray release. Warner Bros. may have cheaped out on the extras, but they delivered where it matters most: all eight seasons, all 150 episodes, and a genuinely nice HD presentation.
So dust off the couch, grab some snacks, and prepare yourself for 17 discs of Larry yelling, Balki smiling, and the English language suffering a slow and hilarious death.
Don’t be ridiculous.
Buy the damn Blu-ray.
