The are many reasons why TV-on-DVD sets are so cool. First of all, you can watch the show any time which you want. Secondly, you can watch an entire season all at once instead of waiting a week or longer for a new episode and there's no DVR to mess with. But, there's another reason why some shows work so well in this format. We get to watch certain shows change and grow as they move from the pilot and find their voice. This isn't always noticeable when watching a program when it originally airs, but it can jump out when having a back-to-back viewing marathon. This is certainly the case with Suburgatory, a show whose first season is now available on DVD.

Suburgatory opens with George Altman (Jeremy Sisto) and his daughter Tessa (Jane Levy) moving to the suburban town of Chatswin. They've left Manhattan because George found a box of condoms in Tessa's room and decided that they needed to leave the city. Tessa hates the idea, as she felt at home in New York and she finds Chatswin to be an alien landscape filled with plastic, self-centered people. The move isn't quite as hard for George, as he reunites with Noah Werner (Alan Tudyk), a friend from college. Of course, Noah is now an overly-tanned dentist who doesn't understand George at all. George also makes friends with Dallas Royce (Cheryl Hines), a flirty socialite whose husband is never home. Unfortunately, Tessa meets Dalia (Carly Chaikin), Dallas' vapid, unemotional daughter who is the queen bee of the high school. George and Tessa each try to find their niche in this new world while still trying to maintain their Manhattan level of cool. Will they be able to make it in the suburbs?

Suburgatory is definitely one of those movies which is interesting to watch on DVD, as the series evolved as the season progressed. There's certainly a world of difference between the pilot and the season finale. The first episode plays the comedy very loose and its satire of the suburbs often skews towards the absurd and unrealistic. While the show wants to be grounded in the issues and relationship of George and Tessa, the more fantastic moments push the show towards the silly end of the spectrum. Yes, some of these moments are funny, but it also makes the show feel unbalanced. These sort of jokes continue for the first few episodes, but as the season goes on, the humor moves more towards the middle. This may sound like a bad thing, but it makes the show much more relatable. Trust me, there are still some odd jokes in the latter half of the season, most of which focus on the banality and the eccentric behavior of the rich residents of Chatswin. George and Tessa continue to grow as characters, and we learn more about the rest of the people in the town. This opens the show up to storylines which contain storylines about family, while also exploring the "fish out of water" experience which George and Tessa are having. The show can still show Dallas buying Dalia a ridiculous pet while also bringing us a more down to Earth subplot like Tessa becoming obsessed with money.

The odd thing about Suburgatory is that it's actually two shows in one, and the way which you feel about certain characters will influence your overall feeling about the series. One part of the story focuses on Tessa and her adjustment to high school. While avoiding the trendy kids, she makes friends with Lisa (Allie Grant, a dead-ringer for Michael Cera in a wig) and Malik (Maestro Harrell). We watch as the fights to be the artsy intellectual, while feeling the pull of Chatswin's extravagance. However, Tessa can come across as very self-righteous, and while we admire her determination to maintain her independence, we know that if she were really smart, she'd take advantage of the educational opportunities in Chatswin. The other part of the show examines George's adjustment to the suburbs, specifically his relationship with Dallas. George is single, but Dallas is married, despite the fact that her husband's absence makes her seem single. She is a natural flirt and we immediately feel the spark between her and George. Once we meet Mr. Royce, we really want George and Dallas to become a couple, despite the fact that she's married. This creates an odd moral response in the viewer, and this shows the quality of the show. This storyline gets a huge boost from the acting. Jeremy Sisto had been primarily known for dramatic roles (didn't he play Jesus at one point?), but he show good comic timing here. I don't know what else to say about Hines' performance other than it's seamless and we would easily believe that Dallas is a real person.

I don't know how often you watch ABC, but their promos for their new shows can be annoying. (Especially how every show is "ABC's _______", such as "ABC's Suburgatory". We don't care who "owns" the show.) These commercials claim that all of their shows are great and they have an inverse effect on me and make me not want to watch them. However, I'm glad that I checked out Suburgatory, as it's a clever and engaging comedy which gets away from some (but not all) sitcom norms. The season ends with a nice cliffhanger and I'm looking forward to Season 2.

Suburgatory: The Complete First Season has one of the best alliteration scenes on TV on DVD courtesy of Warner Home Video. The three disc set contains all 22 episodes of the show’s first season. The show has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the transfer has been enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is very sharp and clear, showing no overt grain and no defects from the source material. The show contains a lot of bright, pastel colors, and the colors look very good here. The image is never overly dark or bright. The level of detail is good for a DVD and the depth is acceptable. The amount of artifacting is kept to a minimum. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are good at times, showing nice separation, especially when objects move from side-to-side. The surround sound isn’t overbearing, but it kicks in during crowd scenes at the club or in the school. The music provides some subwoofer effects.

The Suburgatory: The Complete First Season contains a handful of extras. Several episodes contain "Unaired Scenes". On Disc 1, these scenes are available on episodes "Pilot", "The Chatterer", "Don't Call Me Shirley", "Charity Case", "Sweet Sixteen", and "Thanksgiving". Oddly, all of these scenes are also available in a separate "Deleted Scenes" section, which runs about 13 minutes. The same goes for Disc 2, where we have cut scenes on "The Nutcracker", "Driving Miss Dalia", "The Casino Trip", "Sex and the Suburbs", "The Body", and "Poetic Injustice". These scenes are collected in the 14-minute "Deleted Scenes" section. Disc 3 gets the same treatment with "Unaired Scenes" on "Entering Eden", "Hear No Evil", "The Great Compromise", and "The Motherload", or you can simply click "Deleted Scenes" (4 minutes). "Somewhere, Between Heaven and Hell - Life in Suburgatory" (28 minutes) is a mini-documentary which examines the world of the show. Through comments from the cast and the writers and producers of the show, we learn about the ideas behind Suburgatory. There is a lot of discussion of the characters and themes, as well as the look of the show. "Suburban Slip-Ups!" is a 7-minute GAG REEL.