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Patterned heavily after 'The Honeymooner', 'The King of Queens' has as perhaps its best feature the fact that is has shown that it is possible to update classic theories and be successful. Kevin James stars as Doug, a delivery driver who is on the seriously husky side. He's prone to schemes and has a generally lazy attitude, much like his 'Honeymooners' counterpart. Leah Remini also stars as Doug's wife, Carrie. True to form, Doug has an inner notion of being in charge, but Carrie is the main pant-wearer. Their brand of banter and general attitude toward their marriage is also an easily read update of the show's predecessor, with a modernized sense of flow and ideals, and a heavier angle on sex. ***

Jerry Stiller rounds out the show as Carrie's retired father, Arthur. He's living with the happy couple, and when the craziness of life settles down, we move on to trying to deal with Dad, who isn't absolutely all there. Arthur is certainly not taking over for Ed Norton though, his brand of antics are almost comparable to the elderly father of 'King of the Hill'. He's stubborn, often obnoxious, set in his ways, and not quite in touch with reality. ***

The situational plots often harken back to many of the running themes of 'The Honeymooners' as well. Strange schemes never quite work out, but in the end we don't really mind that they didn't. Carrie often reaffirms her love for Doug, who has tendency toward momentary lapses in self-esteem. Misunderstandings abound, and lapses in relationship perfection are necessary so that the show can provide a chance to correct them, and re-establish the wonder that is the happiness of marriage in this crazy world. ***

The show may never achieve the status of 'The Honeymooners', but it's good to see someone taking a chance on such an endeavor. The show features most of the elements that made 'The Honeymooners' a classic, and it relies on the simple things in life, touching on aspects of daily life that everyone can connect with. When the couple goes to the store or the bank, that's a show. Once we mix in their particular brand of incompetence that is. It's a solid show, perhaps not great, but aiming at a 'better' brand of comedy realism. The first season establishes our focus, and the pilot episode is somewhere in the list of all-time best first shows. Not because it is especially funny (it isn't actually), but because of the incredible degree to which it establishes every element of the show.

The DVD release has pretty solid picture quality for a television show, but there are some definite flaws. Though the casual viewer might not notice such things, this set really suffers from the compression. Compression artifacts are more frequent than can be easily ignored (for me), and the standard problems that go along with this in terms of dark fuzziness and edge degradation are somewhat plentiful. The set is pretty nice in most other ways though. Colors are as rich as can be expected, and there are no problems with skin tones and the like. Contrast doesn't suffer much, and there is no grain or other picture flaws. Overall, an about average release for television, but it seems it could have pretty easily been better. ***

The audio is 2.0, and I didn't notice any problems with it at all. Levels are delivered well, and dialogue is very clear. There isn't a great deal of effort going into anything beyond a nice, clear sound, but there certainly isn't much need for anything else either.

There aren't many special features on the set, but the aim here seems to be on making the set affordable as opposed to really jazzing it up. To my mind, I can't really fault anyone for that move. Fans of the show are not especially likely to be impressed with a slew of features that might be thrown together just to be able to say there are special features. ***

'Just Havin' Fun' is a thirty-minute 'Behind the Scenes' style feature which gives us a look at the makings of the show. It's pretty standard fare here, but it's a nice featurette which goes a little more toward a following the actors around angle of 'Behind the Scenes' than you may be used to. It's mostly as the title suggests, just something pieced together to have a bit of fun. The set also includes what it calls a 'laugh montage' which is a collection of clips from the entire season which, I suppose, are supposed to be the biggest laugh moments. It's a semi-interesting feature, but it's hard to guess if people will really get much out of it, or feel the need to ever watch it more than once.