The New Adventures of Old Christine - The Complete First Season (2006)

The New Adventures of Old Christine Season 1 & 2

I love this show and was thrilled when it came out on DVD. I have Season 1 & 2 and can't hardley wait until season 3 appears. I am married, but you can see how some of these issues with single parenting are all around and the cast is great. They are all very funny and pull it off well. Christine's friend Barb usually only says a couple words, but is hysterical. Got to say I love the show. October 11, 2008

Old Christine is my new favorite

The New Adventures of Old Christine has been a weekly favorite of mine since it began. I've never purchased an entire tv series' DVDs before but Christine's a keeper & I plan to collect each season. In season 1, you're introduced to each of the characters, a huge handful of hilarious flaws Christine lives with on a daily basis, and you'll probably find something in each episode that makes you realize you might be a little more like Old Christine than you'd like to admit... I enjoy the performances of every single cast member of this show, immensely - from Julia's (old Christine) amazing talent for scripted and physical comedy, to Hamish's (Matthew) low-key wit that is the perfect compliment to Christine's frenzied insanity. The only thing better than this first season is the fact that with each additional season the entire show just gets better and better. October 6, 2008

Very, very funny!

I was searching for a new show and "The new adventures of old Christine" was on sale on Amazon.com. I don't live in the US and I have never heard about it however, I decided to buy it. The pilot episode is not so good but the second one is very funny. I kept watching it and I discovered that it is a very, very funny show. My favorite episodes are number 12 "Some of my Best Friends are Portuguese" and 13 "A Fair to Remember", they are hilarious. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and all the cast are doing a great job! August 9, 2008

What's on TV? Ok, good.

This is what should be standard TV. Some of its jokes are funny, and some are tired. And a few ones are truly inspired (restaurant set, an immigration lawyer working for poor people looking for their American Dream, you need to see it to understand how great a moment that is). But that's it by now. I watched half of this first season' episodes and "How I Met Your Mother" is not. However, the relationship between the characters seem (for once) adult-like, and for those people in their forties the subject matter of the series is going to be pretty relevant (hey, 3 stars is good!). July 4, 2008

An Instant TV Classic : Up There with "Seinfeld" and "The Cosby Show"

It pays to watch your first installment of "The New Adventures of Old Christine" with near-zero expectations. I have never been a major fan of Julia Louis Dreyfus, but that's only because I have never considered her a comic genius on the scale of say, Bea Arthur or Betty White. She was great on "Seinfeld", which of course is an icon of a show, but she has finally won my respect and adoration with "Old Christine", a show that could have sunk, but didn't.

Credit the writers for the shows' success. For all Dreyfus' comic timing and slapstick tendencies, she is often overlooked as a great deliverer of dialog, and this first season has a wondrous combination of one-liners as well as your typical American sitcom storylines. They don't always work, and mostly are either over-the-top or gleefully ludicrous, but they are always watchable. Some of the storylines did seem contrived, and you often have to admit that nothing like this could ever happen in real life (some of the situational comedy here is even more unbelievable than the most fantastical segments on "Seinfeld"), but its all very, very riveting.

"Old Christine", as you know by now, follows, Christine Campbell as a divorced mom who lives with her son and no-good brother. She is great friends with her ex-husband, and over the course of the first season we are introduced to "New Christine", who is her ex-husbands' sweet new girlfriend. The casting here is pitch perfect. The show pretty much follows this middle-class mom as she juggles work and family life, but its the huge supporting cast that make this successful - really, this show deserves some sort of ensemble cast award, because never since "The Cosby Show" have I seen a sitcom where every side-character actually adds value to the entire brand.

The best thing about this show is actually its' best actor : Hamish Linklater. I have been a huge underground fan of this mans' work for almost eight years now, and it was "Christine" that finally brought him into the spotlight. I must say that in the scenes with Julia Louis Dreyfus, its always Linklater that walks away with the best lines and indeed the loving attention of the camera - this man is just luminous on screen, and his rendition of the gangly younger brother with an eye for the ladies is quite something. He isn't yet my most favorite actor of all time (I'd have to see him in more stuff to judge his versatility for myself), but he's pretty much at the top. If you are at all interested in discovering a fresh new talent, then Hamish Linklater should do the trick for you.

Despite its' great knack for one-liners and the 'new story each week' syndrome, "Old Christine" manages to succeed by throwing some real surprises our way. The 'Meanie Moms' who were initially my favorite thing about the show, quickly became my second-favorite thing once Hamish Linklater got into the skin of his character, but they storylines with Julia became more and more far-fetched each week. One character who seemed sort of out of place was Wanda Sykes, as Julia's best friend Barb - you will have to watch Season Two to truly appreciate her characters' relevance in the show, but in the first season she's more of a 'guest star' than anything else.

Finally, while "Old Christine" will need at least another three or four solid seasons to prove its' status as "Classic Television", its already a staple for me. The success of a show, to me, is in its' ability to hold up to repeat viewing. The ONLY show that has done that for me so far, is "The Golden Girls", and to some extent, "Mama's Family". This show somewhat succeeds in that department - but there are clearly some episodes in this first season that I would never want to watch again - some of them aren't exactly memorable. But then again, there are some episodes (especially the Pilot, Episodes 6, 8, 11 and the Season Finale) which are definitely essential viewing.

Be aware that this first season only contains 13 episodes. This actually WAS the first season, and the number of episodes nearly doubled for the Second Season. Each episode runs between 21-25 minutes.

Obviously, since I'm a huge supporter of this show and the career of its star Hamish Linklater, I'm a little biased. Still, since I'm one of the few people drawn to "Old Christine" NOT due to the presence of Julia Louis Dreyfus, I believe its quite a recommendation that I've fallen for it so hard. This is indeed the way a sitcom should look like, in this day and age, and it has its solid share of dark humor, 'inappropriate' jokes, slapstick comedy, practical jokes, and hilarious storylines. I can't think of a better comedy on television in the last few years, so I recommend that you buy this gem and discover a sparkling new treasure.

Four and a Half Stars. May 26, 2008

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