I remember watching a single episode of this show part way through the first season. I don't remember which episode it was, but I sat down a few months later to watch the show again, and it was a rerun of the episode I had already seen. Talk about bad luck! The concept of the show is extremely far-fetched, but somehow they make it work. It's probably due to Michael T. Weiss, and the way he portrays the character of Jarod. We're willing to look past the "he knows everything" aspect of the show because his acting draws us in. Jarod is vengeful, but compassionate, and he fights for the little guy. How can you not like that character.

Here's a list of the episodes, and the discs, along with their lengths:

I feel the need to point out Fox's ultra-slim packaging for this set. They've put the season onto 3 DVD-14 discs (double-sided discs with one dual-layer side, and one single-layer side), and one DVD-10 (dual layer, single-sided), and then packed those into 2, 2 disc slim cases. The package that takes up the same amount of room as single Amaray case, but packs the same content as a 6 disc set. The size of the packaging can be very deceiving.

I'm not surprised by the quality of this set at all; it's standard Fox fare. The show, which premiered in 1996, was shot for standard television, and is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. I noticed a bit of grain in certain scenes, more so in the pilot than others, and some bad grain in stock footage shots (like a soaring eagle). There's a little dust, with a few spots in each episode, though the stock footage shots cause problems again (there aren't many of them though). The colors in the transfer look great; vibrant, but not overdone either, and the blacks look black, and not a muddy grey. There are chapters set after the opening of the episodes, but the discs lack a "play all" option.

You'll notice that the pilot episode is a lot shorter than the other episodes. I'm not sure if this was how it originally aired, though I suspect it is. I'll contact a regular reader of the site (that's you, Todd) since I'm sure he has an original recording of the episode to check. If there's anything wrong with the episode I'll report back here.

Fox has provided three audio options for the release; English, French and Spanish Dolby Surround. I found the surround mix to be a little underwhelming. There are some rear effects, but they're very, very quiet, and I couldn't hear them unless I put my head close to the speaker. Due to the quiet rear speakers, which are probably a result of the original mix, I felt as though I were watching a stereo show, which isn't to say that's a bad thing, the tracks just didn't make full use of the audio format. There were some nice panning effects, and everything came through clearly. There are English and Spanish subtitles, and the episodes are closed captioned.

Pretender is featured as one of Fox's "Starter Sets," which allows you to sample a show by buying the first two episodes for a low price. The disc carries a suggested price of $9.95, but you can find them as low as $6.99 from DVDPlanet.com. The best part is that you get a coupon for $10 off the season set, which leaves you $3 ahead, AND you have the first two episodes you can loan to a friend and get them hooked as well. There's a tip from me to you.

Thankfully there aren't any reruns on DVD sets, so I could watch the set knowing I wouldn't repeat my experience from the broadcast run of the show. I got sucked into the show after watching the first two episodes, which is a good thing for Fox and their "Starter Set" promotion. If they can get people to buy the single disc, then I think it'll result in a sale of the season set. The show is complex, with plots that run through the entire series, and then a plot contained in the single episode. I like shows that have large story-arcs, though The X-Files abused it a bit too much (okay....a lot).

I think Fox put together a decent set for the first season. It may be a tad light on the extras compared to some of their other releases, but I like how they did it. Notice the packaging doesn't list 11 featurettes, but just one. That's because Fox respects the consumer, and our ability to spot an obvious deception when it comes to bonus materials. It seems that some studios are eager to get more bullets on the box, so they break up one featurette into smaller chunks. I hate that! Fox broke up one featurette into three pieces on three discs, but they didn't try to hide what they did; they still list it as one featurette.

There aren't many notable guest stars in these episodes, but I saw the future Darth Vader (Jake Lloyd), and laughed when William Sanderson and Ray McKinnon showed up in back-to-back episodes, since they're both on Deadwood.

I think The Pretender is a show which can appeal to a lot of viewers, if they give it a chance. If you're sitting on the fence then I'd recommend picking up the starter set and giving it a shot. You won't be out much money if you hate it, and if you like it then you'll save on the season set.