The King of Queens: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

The King of Queens: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 4, 2020

When The King of Queens was still in the conception stage, swirling around inside Michael Weithorn's head, would-be star Kevin James was under contract at NBC. That network ultimately rejected the KOQ pitch, James' contract with NBC expired, and CBS picked up both him and the show. The King of Queens, conceived to be a modern-day spin on the classic black-and-white 1950s TV legend The Honeymooners, premiered on September 21, 1998 and would run for nine seasons, wrapping with a double length finale on May 14, 2007. While awards and nominations were few and early critical returns were mixed, the show ultimately bore much fruit with fans, gaining traction for its humor, heart, and focus on a contemporary big city marriage with relatable (and plenty of comically absurd) problems and agreeable solutions.

Official synopsis: 'The King of Queens' consistently delivered laughs for nine seasons, making it one of the most popular and longest-running comedies in television history! Kevin James stars as Doug Heffernan, a lovable regular guy with an adoring wife, Carrie (Leah Remini), and a frustrating father-in-law (Jerry Stiller) under his roof. Packed with a crazy cast of characters, hilarious situations and plenty of great guest stars, this is one show that brings the goods!

Writing and acting. Those are the bread-and-butter components for any good Sitcom and they're certainly what made (or still makes, really) The King of Queens one of the top Sitcoms of its time. Though not particularly high concept, the show found success in its grounding depiction of absurdity meets reality. Bumbling humor and innuendo abound, but so does the feeling that these people are real and relatable, facing the same ups and downs as everyone else, staring down the same crises that test so many, and rejoicing in the same high points in life and marriage as might anyone in the audience. Their experiences are just accompanied by a laugh track. James and Remini sizzle on the screen, their chemistry unmistakably authentic, particularly as the series found its footing and the relationship's more subtle and organic moving parts bore fruit and began to supersede the baseline ebbs and flows of fictional television marriage.

Much of what makes the relationship tick exists beyond the characters' physical characteristics, most obviously the contrast between Doug's rotundness and Carrie's more svelte, classic lines. Certainly the show -- and James, for that matter -- is unafraid of using its star's excess weight to drive any number of gags and make it an ever-present characteristic of the relationship and his life, but never are bulk and pounds truly the defining elements in the couple's married life. Instead, fats and figures give way to who the characters are on the inside, what defines them individually and, by process of their emotional and physical intimacy, as a married couple. The show concerns itself with their everyday ordinary lives (even if things tend to get a little absurd, such as in one episode when Carrie works nights leaving Doug to find comfort with Arthur in his bed, or when Doug accidentally staples his manhood to his IPS shorts), the crude outer workings of their daily routines and the more personal details that shape their responses and give birth to the longstanding togetherness that truly shapes their relationship and propelled the show to great heights. The characters are tested, both inwardly and outwardly, oftentimes to humorous effect, sometimes more seriously, but The King of Queens never loses sight of its end goal of building real characters, with James and Remini bringing nearly unmatched authenticity, chemistry, and lovability to the roles throughout nine very memorable years.

The writers smartly keep the cast size small and maintain focus on Doug and Carrie. Lisa Rieffel briefly portrayed Carrie's sister Sara out of the gate but was dismissed from the show only a few episodes in. Gary Valentine portrays Doug's cousin Danny, who would become a series regular partway through (Valentine is James' real-life brother). Victor Williams, Patton Oswalt, and Larry Romano (who exited the show after several seasons) play Doug's friends. The series' primary secondary character is Arthur Spooner, portrayed by Jerry Stiller, who is Carrie's live-in widowed father who tends to get in the way and stick his nose where it doesn't belong. His burden becomes great enough that the Heffernans hire Holly (Nicole Sullivan), a professional dog walker, to spend time with him. It's an unassuming collection of characters who are not relegated to small parts but who do stay out of the way of the show's core characteristics, supporting rather than defining, rounding rather than chiseling, appearing rather than carrying.

The King of Queens: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The King of Queens: The Complete Series makes its Blu-ray debut with an AVC-encoded 1080p, 1.78:1-framed presentation (note that the pilot episode is presented at 1080i resolution). The set gets off to an inauspicious start with the pilot episode, which is riddled with fuzzy details and a low resolution softness. Macroblocking is severe and the picture is sometimes borderline unwatchable. Afterwards, starting with "Fat City," a fairly substantial uptick in clarity and overall presentation stability is obvious and most welcome, even as macroblocking artifacts remain in abundance. Earlier seasons are still more problematic than those which come later, with softer textures and ringing artifacts appearing regularly. The picture only improves with each season until it plateaus several in and presents with still troublesome stability but the leap over the pilot and early season episodes is so great it almost masks the shortcomings, at least for a time. Indeed, as the mid seasons and the series progress, the Blu-ray maintains a base status quo of generally effective texturing and color in the midst of ever-present, but usually not egregious, compression artifacts and spiky, messy noise. Essential character details are fine, by-and-large, and various environmental details, particularly around the Heffernan household but also other semi-regular arenas (Carrie's office) or various one-off episode specific locations present with agreeable, though hardly noteworthy, textural might. Colors are of satisfactory stability, offering good fundamental tones and balance with no evidence of severe fade or excess contrast. Skin appears healthy and accurate while black levels linger around a healthy normalcy, not pushing too pale and rarely appearing to crush out any important detail. The picture quality is fine within context, but Blu-ray royalty The King of Queens most certainly is not. It could be hypothetically better, sure, but Mill Creek has served up a fairly average presentation that suits the material well enough.

The King of Queens: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The King of Queens: The Complete Series features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. The presentation is consistent in its qualities, never serving up anything worthy of being labeled a sonic treat but certainly carrying the show's fairly modest needs well enough. The opening title music pushes far to the edges. There's a nice feel for expansion and even clarity, but the downside is that lyrics also expand beyond center. Dialogue in-show images fairly well to the middle but occasionally falls off a bit further to the sides than is ideal and sometimes, though not frequently, plays with a mild tininess about it. The laugh track is hearty and engaging but never drowns out critical dialogue or in-camera ambience. Scattered sound effects, usually generated more for comic or sometimes dramatic effect than for authenticity, enjoy good stage presence and balance along the front end. The track doesn't miss additional channels. It misses a more careful presentation along its front end but the front two channels ultimately prove more than enough to satisfy the series' core sound needs, which ultimately boils down to dialogue, laughter, and some music with everything else presenting in support.

The King of Queens: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The King of Queens: The Complete Series contains supplements sporadically throughout the set, many towards the beginning and several more at the very end. The twenty discs ship in two oversized Amaray cases within a slip box that's less than tough but more than sturdy. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase.

Season One, Disc One:

• Audio Commentary: For Pilot: Co-Writer/Co-Creator Michael Weithorn and Actor Kevin James discuss cast chemistry and the intimacy between James and Remini, gags that worked and didn't, what remained from the pilot and what was scrapped afterwards, alterations and edits, and more. This is a good, engaging, informative, well-rounded track. This track adds some real, positive value to the experience.

Season One, Disc Three:

• Behind the Scenes (480i, 27:45): This supplement begins with James discussing his initial meeting with Michael Weithorn and their collaboration on the early pitch ideas (a modern-day Honeymooners), battles with NBC over character development, transitioning the program to CBS, the chemistry between Kevin James and Leah Remini, casting additional roles including Jerry Stiller, humor, character construction and relationships, the reality and buy-ability of Doug and Carrie's marriage, the show's New York flavor, working in front of a live studio audience, episode and character highlights, and working to keep the show fresh. This piece was put together after the show's fifth season.
• Laughs Montage (480i, 4:14): A string of humorous moments accompanied by hearty audience laughter.

Season Two, Disc Two:

• Audio Commentary: For Net Prophets: Co-Writer/Co-Creator Michael Weithorn and Actor Kevin James discuss season two's Christmas episode: its then-timely relevancy, decorating the set for Christmas, syndication edits, and even special graphics made for the episode. This track is a little more episode-focused than the one from season one, which is more broadly interesting as it pertains to the greater King of Queen world.

Season Nine, Disc One:

• Series Retrospective (1080i, 16:13): Crafted just after the show wrapped after nine seasons. The piece explores the series' longevity, emotions at the series' end, favorite episodes, and more.
• Thanks to the Fans (1080i, 4:48): Cast and crew talk up how much the fans meant to them.
• 200th Episode Celebration (1080i, 1:48): A terribly brief look at the 200 celebration festivities, intercut with some quick interview clips.
• The Writers of King of Queens (1080i, 12:33): This piece talks up the quality of the writing throughout the series.

The King of Queens: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Strongly developed characters on the page and heartily performed characters on the stage both lift The King of Queens to near legendary Sitcom status, sitting towards the top of that second tier right behind history-making efforts such as Friends and Seinfeld. Funny, real, and relatable, the show's air of timelessness remains even more than a decade after its final episode aired. Mill Creek's 20-disc set for The King of Queens: The Complete Series delivers OK video and audio presentations and a few scattered extras that add some value but that will leave fans wanting more, particularly in the audio commentary arena. Highly recommended.