"I told my boss I was getting married in order to get a promotion, so now I have to get married. It doesn't have to be a real marriage. Just a marriage minus the love, sex, and intimacy. Which, now that I think about it, is more real than the real kind." - Thomas Haden Church as Ned Dorsey
Ned and Stacey: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jude Clement
Ned Dorsey (Thomas Haden Church, Wings) is an ambitious New York advertising exec. Stacey Colbert (Debra Messing, Will & Grace) is an idealistic but flakey writer for The Village Voice. When Eric Moyer (Greg Germann, Ally McBeal), Stacey's brother-in-law, sets the two up on a blind date, it's hate at first sight. Ned, however, needs to get married in order to get a promotion, and Stacey is desperate to leave her parents' home, so they come to an agreement. The two will get married for a minimum of two years. Ned will get his promotion, Stacey will get a tony Park Avenue address, and both will still get to date other people. It could only be the short-lived Fox sitcom Ned and Stacey, perhaps the most far-fetched sitcom ever produced.and that even takes into consideration shows featuring an alien from Ork, a pig that is treated like a little boy, and a witch who gets married and moves to suburbia.
Sitcoms are rarely known for their realism, but Ned and Stacey really takes the cake. To buy into its conceit for even a moment is a distinct challenge. Even worse, the series is just not funny. Many of the episodes doggedly stick to predictable formulas. Ned does something to piss off Stacey, the two bicker, Stacey threatens to leave, they reach an accord, roll credits. Or Stacey screws up, Ned tries to bail her out, Stacey protests, she eventually caves in, the end.
For example, in "Sleepless in Manhattan," Stacey goes on a quest to find a new bed. For some inexplicable reason, Ned agrees to tag along. After hitting furniture stores in all five boroughs, Stacey finally finds a bed she actually likes. The only problem is that it is a limited edition, the floor model is the final one, and it has already been sold. Fed up with their tour of beds, Ned secretly bribes the salesman into letting Stacey buy the bed. When Stacey later finds out, she decides that she cannot sleep on a "stolen" bed. Ned tries to bribe his way around the store's strict "no returns" policy, but to Stacey, this makes the situation even worse. Luckily, her crisis of conscience proves to be short-lived, and she decides that the bed is much too comfortable to give up. In "Reality Check," Ned again waves his wallet, this time to relieve Stacey's credit card debt.
Unfortunately, the show's characters aren't very likable. Ned is often a bully and a boor. Stacey is equal parts helpless infant and semi-idealistic moron. The actors are left stranded by the series' concept. Church is one-note - and not a pleasant one. In her first sitcom, Messing has not quite reached the comic heights she would display in Will & Grace. Her performance is quite uneven, with only the occasional glimpse of her budding comedic genius. As Stacey's sister, Amanda, Nadia Dajani is appealing but underused. And Greg Germann.well, at least he went on to a healthy five season run on Ally McBeal.
Guest stars in season one include Robert Ridgely (Boogie Nights), Paulina Porizkova, Joanna Cassidy (Six Feet Under), Loretta Devine (Boston Public), Olivia Newton-John (Grease), Kevin Meaney (Uncle Buck), John Slattery (Jack & Bobby), Kathy Griffin (My Life on the D-List), Thomas Calabro (Melrose Place), John O'Hurley (Seinfeld), Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Bill Macy (Maude), and Greg Grunberg (Alias).
Each episode runs approximately twenty-two minutes, so they may have been edited for syndication.
The twenty-four episodes that make up the first season are divided onto three discs. Each disc is decorated with a skyline of New York. The discs are housed in two slim, clear keepcases. The first keepcase holds two discs. The front covers are decorated with photos of Thomas Haden Church and Debra Messing. The back covers include episode titles and brief plot synopses. The double-sided coversheets show through to the insides of the cases. The interiors feature large photos of the New York skyline. The two keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which again showcases the Church and Messing.
The static menus are simple to navigate. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or pick an individual one. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes are divided into chapters.
