Promised Land: The Complete Collection

I just finished watching the entire series on DVD last night. It holds up as drama today far better than I thought it would. I don't know why I distrust my memories of its first run so, but I always like to check myself from time to time just to make sure my memories aren't getting overly gilded.====WARNING. SPOILERS FOLLOW========YOU'VE BEEN WARNED====Seasons 1 and 2 are absolutely classic, with very few average episodes (though they are there, especially in a couple of unfortunate "topical" episodes, similar to when the TV show Quincy stopped being a crime drama and instead became a "political hot-topic of the week" show). I kind of enjoyed the fact that though the Greenes were more or less on their own, Monica, Tess, and Andrew could show up at any time and the Greenes just had to deal with it. Richard Thomas as Russell's brother Joe was very effective as Nathaniel's troubled hothead absent father. His ultimate redemption was satisfying, even if a bit hurried.The main cast is nothing short of inspired. Every man would be privileged to have a family like Russell Greene's. Heck, every man would love to BE Russell Greene, played with understated homespun wisdom and strength by Gerald McRaney.Wendy Phillips' eyes as she plays Claire are a wonder to behold; all of Claire Greene's care, compassion and concern is there, right in those eyes as she inhabits the character so naturally.Celeste Holm was already long a Hollywood legend. Amazingly, all of that star-power does not diminish or upstage any of the other actors. She is as comfortable in an ensemble as she is as a major Hollywood star. She plays Hattie with an impish twinkle in her eye that is endearing.Austin O'Brien, Sarah Schaub, and Eddie Karr, as young as they were then, were already amazing, world-class actors. Fortunately, the writers gave them great material to play every week. It's sort of a shame that none of them are on stage or screen today, though I'm sure all of them eventually found their true calling.Season 3 remained strong, despite some rather soapy subplots and Mr. Moonves' meddling in the series format. The presence of God in the Greenes' daily lives was sadly downplayed. However, "A Day In The Life," which I never saw in the first run because they pulled it from broadcast following the Columbine shootings, was a punch in the gut, even though you could see them telegraph the ending right from the teaser.As Season 3 went on, some of the new secondary characters were inspired. I particularly enjoyed how the writers made Dinah a friend to misfits and social outcasts, sometimes with failure, always with pathos. My favorite of these was Margot (with a "t", played by the delightful Ashleigh Norman). As different as she was from her peers, it actually showed she had a self-confidence she would never have admitted to in order to completely embrace her "born-out-of-time" persona. Unexpected among these characters was "Mouse," the tech geek who had resigned himself—with some healthy good humor—to the fact that he would never be any more than a joke in student society. I would have loved to have seen how his character might have developed in a hypothetical Season 4.There must have been reasons why Hattie was absent for most of the second half of the season, and for Josh's gradual transformation into a morose, angsty teenager who didn't get very many storylines beyond pining for unwed mother Bobbie. Shuffling Hattie off to visit her sister suddenly was unsettling. Instead of engaging me, it made me wonder what was going on behind the scenes of the Promised Land production.I missed Josh's presence in the series as he gradually got upstaged by LT. LT grew on me, though, but I thought the writers softened his hard edges perhaps a little too quickly. I did not like that his sister seemed to disappear after their father's funeral.I also sorely missed the recurring appearances of Ossie Davis' Erasmus, though he did make a brief appearance early in the final season.Had Les Moonves not monkeyed with and eventually cancelled the series, it would have been interesting to see how the Promised Land producers—and our beloved Greene family—would have handled 9-11 (which would have happened probably just before a hypothetical Season 5 premier) and our subsequent entry into war.Overall, I'm very glad I had the privilege to rewatch Promised Land, truly one of the best television dramas of the 1990s. In a few years, I'll pull it out again, and be just as entertained as the very first time.As for the quality of the VEI DVD release, the picture quality is quite good considering the video source material—which can never be updated to HD. The disappointing feature of the set is the audio. Except for the pilot episode on disk 1, all the audio for all episodes has been mixed down to mono, so the "Dolby Surround" logo on the end credits of each episode is unfortunately misleading. I don't know what the reason for choosing mono audio over the original stereo broadcast audio, but it unfortunately made the episodes a little less absorbing and immersing as it was when it first was broadcast on CBS.Despite the audio problems, I highly recommend this set, as this is currently the only way to view this incredible series.

It appears to be new and isn’t a knock off.

Great spin-off of the touched by an angel series. Very enjoyable!

Family friendly, well-written, and thought provoking. Highly recommend this series! The 3rd season is a little hard to watch for those who have not lived in the inner city. It's eye opening and provides a gentle discomfort for the passive, comfortable life.

Love the messages and powerful storylines following the Greene family. Highly recommend this!

I love how they use Touch by angel and Promise land together.

Yes, it's an older series but can't the glitches be fixed?

Have been waiting for this series to be released on video, as soon as I saw it, I ordered it and have watched all the seasons included. I am very pleased with the quality of the video and the packaging. It also included the crossovers from Touched by an Angel, which is what this show was spun off from, which is awesome! So many of these sets do not include the crossovers and so even if you did not care for the show that the crossover is from, you still had to buy it so you had the complete series.. thank you Promised Land publishers for including the crossovers!!! If you liked Promised Land when it was on the air, don't wait to get this collection, you will be very happy!!

I like the diversity of Gerald McRaney. Bought this because the quality online was so bad. Liked the first two seasons, but they lost the plot in the third. McRaney was good throughout, but the characters changed too much in a short space of time. Still a good watch if you want something to relax with.

I cannot think of anything bad to say about this series. Except I wish it was still going on. There is so little good decent tv series to watch. NO swearing, no nudity, and no sex. It teaches good morals. You cannot go wrong getting this for your family or just yourself.

I'd not previously seen the "Promised Land" tv series, but I knew that it was a spinoff of "Touched By An Angel", which is one of my all-time favourite tv shows! The Green family falls upon hard times when Russell Green, the man of the household loses his job after job downsizing. When it seemed as though things couldn't get any worse, he received a "visitor", after which he packed up his family & traveled the country, helping people where possible & learning together! Great series!

I was waiting for this delightful show come out on DVD and finally I have it. Nice to see a show, where there's no course language, sex scenes and violence. I wish they would produce more shows like this.

rrally Enjoyed the series the inside had all the DVDs in a zipper case and better protected instead of DVDs always looseThe sound quality everything is good plus the other series the show was From was in it