Product Description

Shot on location in New York City this offbeat comedy about a mildly self-destructive police officer and the odd characters in his precinct eschews a laugh track or live audience. Television commercial pitchman Denis Leary (RESCUE ME) plays the Nyquil-addicted cop--a neurotic detective who's married with a mistress literally pops pills like they were M&Ms and remains caustic and abrasive with his co-workers--except for the one he longs to take to bed (Diane Farr). This compilation features the full series run of two partial seasons (19 episodes).Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 826663252194 Manufacturer No: D4D32521

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16922 in DVD
• Brand: UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP DISTRIBUTION
• Released on: 2005-05-24
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 480 minutes

Amazon.com
Network television says they want original programs, but they don't always know what to do with them. Case in point: The Job, the late lamented series that lasted but 19 episodes before being unceremoniously yanked by ABC. So long Mike McNeil; we hardly knew ye. But what we did see of Denis Leary's working class anti-hero made for arrestingly funny television. McNeil, a cop, smokes, drinks, pops pills, and juggles a wife and girlfriend. And it's all beginning to catch up with him. "This stuff is Biblical," notes his partner, an African American whom the squad has nicknamed "Pip" (as in Gladys Knight and the...). The Job is not your typical workplace sitcom. There is no laugh track. Based on a real cop whom Leary befriended while researching his role in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, The Job has the raw sound, rough language, and gritty look and texture of authenticity. It was shot documentary-style on location in New York. The focus of the series is more personal and less procedural than other cop shows. We get to know intimately this flawed and funny close-knit band of brothers, including straight-arrow Pip (Bill Nunn); Frank (Lenny Clarke), an old school cop and great bear of a man; and Det. Jan Fendrich (Diane Farr), a capable member of this boys' club in the classic Howard Hawks tradition, and who perhaps might have become a love interest for Mike had the series continued.

A series benchmark is "Barbeque," in which an anniversary party hosted by Pip and his commanding wife, Adina, inexorably descends into chaos when McNeil and company disregard Adnia's "no alcohol" edict. Another classic is the episode in which McNeil suspects that Frank is gay. While it does not jibe with Internet episode guides, the episode chronology on this four-disc set builds to a powerful climax, with Mike's girlfriend en route to confront his long-suffering wife (who may herself be having an affair), and Pip considering cheating on Adina with an old flame, all scored to the Ramones' pounding rendition of "Wonderful World." Whether it was ahead of its time, a victim of network neglect and mishandling, or just too dramatically different, The Job was too good for prime time. That it led to Leary's new hit series, Rescue Me, is small comfort. For faithful and frustrated viewers, it's great to have McNeil back on The Job. --Donald Liebenson

Newsweek
"Denis Leary’s dark comedy breaks every sitcom and cop-show rule — it’s wonderful."

The New York Times
"Explosively funny."

Customer Reviews

Best Adult Comedy - EVER
Writing & pacing are perfect. Still ahead of it's time. Great ensemble casting. Note - on the few selectings available w/commentary, watch the episode first with no commentary. The overdubbing commentary is informative & hilarious, but drowns out the shows dialog at times. ABC executives were idiots to not get behind this show 100%.

The Job
The Job complete season DVD set-- worth every penny, very funny especially the Anger sitcom, was sorry to see the show be cancelled.

Before Rescue
I really hadn't heard of "The Job" until they tried to make a final effort to get more viewers....and then it was cancelled. I knew from the couple episodes I had seen that I would be buying the series as soon as it came out.

If you're a "Rescue Me" fan then you'll recognize several of the same actors are in both series (Not usually to the same extent as they wer in The Job) The humor from the job transferred easily into Rescue, but The Job was basically a comedy where as Rescue is more of a comedy drama.

If you're a fan of Rescue Me then you really should get this series. There are some episodes that are so funny all the way through that my stomache was sore from laughing so much. One of my favorites was when the detectives from the precinct of the main characters was called to invesitgate a corpse of some homeless guy. After questioning a witness they figured that the detective for the adjoining precinct had lifted the body over the fence so that he wouldn't be stuck with the paper work. So the same body kept getting dumped back and forth in different locations until someone at the newspaper caught wind of a series of bodies being found in the two precincts as if there was some muder spree going on.

The Job was so funny and original that I just couldn't believe the show would get axed before it had time to build a bigger audience....Anyway this is a damn good laugh though and through....The bonus interviews were pretty good too.