Anyone who's watched genre TV long enough knows that such series usually catch fire during their third season, and The Pretender is no exception. In this year, it transforms from the same old fugitive-helping-people-out formula that NBC in particular is well known for, and becomes a nicely fleshed-out piece of psychological drama, with Jarod's Good Samaritan tendencies often taking back seat to his quest to find out more about his past. Although we're still very much with Jarod for the entire year, the focus is thankfully divided between him and his pursuers at the Centre.

That shift of focus allows two very good things to happen. For one, it takes some of the pressure off Weiss, who has finally gotten the complete hang of becoming a different person every week. For another, it makes Miss Parker (played by Andrea Parker, no relation) a far more central character, and gives the other regulars their own shots at the spotlight. Between discovering that the hateful and psychotic Mr. Lyle (Desperate Housewives' James Denton) is her twin brother, and that the equally hated Brigitte (Pamela Gidley) is soon to become her stepmother, and getting a new boyfriend (Jason Brooks) only to have him murdered under mysterious circumstances, Miss Parker undergoes a major transformation from bad guy to Jarod's grudging ally. Sydney (Patrick Bauchau), after temporarily losing his sight, gets a son and a romantic love interest. Even Broots (Jon Gries) gets his own episode this season. The time we spend with Jarod becomes slightly less important than the time we spend with the others, particularly with Miss Parker, allowing for some of the show's best episodes.

Pity this disc set doesn't always live up to its contents. The making-of featurettes are nicely done, broken into parts and spanned over the discs so as not to spoil anything for new viewers watching them in order, and the new interviews done for these are a welcome treat. There are only three commentaries, though, all of which are done by the series' creators. What I wouldn't give to hear Andrea Parker talking us though the episode where Miss Parker's boyfriend dies. And worst of all, those thrice-darned double-sided discs are back, cutting down on the package size, but making getting the discs out of it a fiddly exercise. There's only one more season of The Pretender to bring to disc, though, so there's no hope that we'll suddenly get an extra-laden season four set chock full of commentaries and the like. Guess we'll just have to pretend the studio thinks this series is as worthy of such treatment as we do. A- (Show) B- (Disc)