Frasier
The Tenth Season
Starring Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce, Peri Gilpin, Jane Leeves, and John Mahoney
Available December 11, 2007
Paramount Home Video

Late night reruns are never enough. A small dose of Frasier and Niles along with Daphne, Martin, and Roz always lifts the spirit and makes you feel a little bit better about being the nerd you always knew you were … ahem … are. With the release of Season 10 of Frasier, witty banter and intelligent humor welcome Frasier enthusiasts back to their little piece of TV home. We fans have been waiting forever for this season to be released and it was not fair that Season 11 beat 10 to the shelves, or more correctly, to Amazon so we could pre-order.

The complete season 10 compilation, which includes all 24 episodes on 4 discs, aims to please. Unlike Seasons 5 and 6, which tried harder to leave the audience interested and humored, Season 10 does so naturally. The writers and directors have returned to what always made Frasier remarkable — its characters.

In this season we finally see Niles (David Hyde Pierce) and Daphne (Jane Leeves) wed in THE RING CYCLE. One may ask how many times a couple can get married, but, like the 10 years of love tension between Niles and Daphne, it is only natural that they make it down the aisle not once or twice, but dare I say it a la Frasier — thrice.

The gang runs into all types of new trouble and fun situations. In ENEMY AT THE GATE, we see Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) at his pompous and self-righteous best. Now, these may seem like negative attributes, but, when listening to Dr. Crane’s Harvard and Oxford educated voice, a 2 dollar stance against driving into a garage by mistake and attempting to leave without paying the fee seems like a righteous plight. I laughed off my rocker at the cameo appearance by Luiz Guzman (Ghost, Carlito’s Way, School for Scoundrels), who calmly explains to Frasier that any portion of 20 minutes costs 2 dollars. Little did he know Frasier’s answer wound be a sit-in protest, of course in the middle of the exit lane blocking all outgoing traffic.

In BRISTLE WHILE YOU WORK (Part I), ROOMS WITH A VIEW (Part II), and DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART (Part III), we learn of Niles’s heart condition, and tragedy and comedy meld together magically. David Hyde Pierce presented a loveable and moving performance in these episodes of the pain and a burgeoning zest for life. Jane Leeves emits that torture of coming close to losing the person that she has loved for so long that could be slipping away. These two actors move these three episodes spiritedly and believably. It is normal for Pierce to steal the scenes with his Niles portrayal, but Leeves holds her own and moves you.

In DOOR JAM, we see the hilarious extremes Niles and Frasier will go to gain entrance to an exclusive establishment. Their miss gotten entry into an over-priced and pretentious day spa ends badly of course, and Niles and Frasier wind up in the gutter, literally, and their visions of social grandeur come to an abrupt halt.

Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives, Transamerica) cameos in the cast as Julia, a fallen from grace financial analyst in THE HARRASSED. Her cougar attitude, self-assured intelligence, and dismissive mannerisms strike both a positive and negative cord within Frasier. Negatively, Frasier cannot stand her, but, positively he wants to date her. This love-hate connection leads Frasier to hit on Julia and land all of his coworers at the KACL radio station in a sexual harassment seminar with him. For once, Bob “Bulldog” Briscoe (Dan Butler) is not the one to be inappropriate and he humorously welcomes Frasier into the womanizer club.

Now it’s time to talk about my favorites. Favorite episode by far is DAPHNE DOES DINNER. In this episode Daphne forces Frasier and Niles to allow her to plan a dinner party to celebrate the donation over a “great American painting.” But, like every dinner party of which the Cranes are a part, disaster strikes. Alice (Roz’s daughter played by Ashley Thomas) paints all over the painting, Daphne burns the Cornish game hens and secretly enlists Frasier’s help and special sauce, and the painter shows up only to be as confused as Martin (John Mahoney). The episode ends riotously with Daphne’s mom Gertrude Moon (Millicent Martin) and the painter smashing through the ceiling into the living room in bed!

My favorite character is — little guess here — Niles. Being a “pale child” myself, I can relate to him (for all who do not know of this term, it is the kid that we all know as allergy-ridden, not the first to be chosen for kickball or baseball, preferred reading a good novel to playing tag or going to the park, has the vocabulary of someone twice their age, and aimed to score perfectly on the SATs). Niles’ gently demeanor, quirky habits, and clever retorts stole just about every scene that he is in.

Regretfully, the packaging has no bells and whistles, and the compilation does not add any extras. Only a tasteful cast shot, with dog Eddie, adorn the DVD cover, and there are no bloopers, cast interviews, commentary, or deleted scenes. What we get is straight Frasier episodes and the option to select “watch all episodes” on each of the four disc in this DVD set. I guess we don’t really need to hear Kelsey Grammer or David Hyde Pierce speak in their real voice, right? I much prefer their character voices (no offense Mr. Grammer or Mr. Pierce, but, you’re so much funnier on TV). No aired commercials were enough to make me happy, but maybe a behind-the-scenes look at this season would have been nice. Otherwise, Frasier: The Tenth Season gives fans exactly what they need — every uncut episode of the season.