I haven't watched much King of Queens since moving to England, but when it finally was on TV I was head over heels again. The DVD Box started selling on Amazon on the 26th January for 26.99 I believe, but since it had been out in Germany for years I decided to get it second hand from there for 13 pounds including shipping. Same DVDs, same content and the option to watch it either in German or English…

***Main characters***
For those of you who might have seen it yet, a brief summary of the main characters involved…

Doug (Kevin James) and his wife Carrie are the main characters of the sitcom. He's an overweight parcel delivery man, who's fairly confident and maybe slightly vulgar at times. At one point he gets asked whether he's a Sumo ringer to which he just replies "No, just fat."

His wife Carrie works as a legal assistant at a big law firm in Manhattan and is the absolute opposite from him - at least visually. Played by Leah Remini she's absolutely gorgeous with an ability to pull the weirdest faces at her husband.

After a while you'll realise that despite huge differences in appearance their characters match very well. The whole show would only be half as funny if there wasn't a tiny obstacle that is notoriously complicating their lives - Carrie's Dad Arthur (Jerry Spiller).

Arthur moves in with them after his last wife unexpectedly dies. Doug has to give up his "cave", i.e. the basement that he had furbished to be just perfect to "hang out with the boys". On top of this, Arthur is not the easiest of people to be around and is constantly causing trouble without actually realising it. He's still pretty much stuck in a time where "everything was different" and while you find yourself pitying Doug & Carrie for having to look after him, he's still very lovable in his own right.

You'll also meet some of Doug's friends along the way. There's Deacon who works with Doug and is married himself. He could probably be described as Doug's best mate and helps out in many situations. Richie is more like the playboy-stereotype. You could argue he's quite handsome (I don't think so though...), but he's simply utterly stupid. And Spence, the 30 year old virgin who's still living with his mother - because she doesn't drive (apparently). It's definitely an interesting bunch and they add some charm to the series too.

***The first season - Episode overview***
I'll now quickly run through the episodes and while I'm trying to give you a taste of what the first season is all about, I'll be careful not to spoil the actual experience for you…

~Pilot~ I didn't actually see the pilot until I bought the DVD box and I have to say I was quite disappointed at first. Certainly the quality of the acting and the characters themselves evolve a lot during the next 24 episodes. The first episode mainly sets the scene - you're introduced to Doug & Carrie and see Arthur moving in. But he's not the only one…

~2 - Fat City~ Doug sees a not very flattering picture of Carrie's (fat) mother and tries to convince Carrie to diet.

~3 - Cello, Goodbye~ Carrie accepts a new job in a Manhattan law firm and Doug is intimidated by her boss.

~4 - Richie's Song~ Doug needs to confront his friend Richie with the fact that his wife is cheating on him and has considerable problems with that…

~5 - Paternal Affairs~ Arthur wants to propose to Doug's aunt who's visiting from Florida.

~6 - Head First~ Carrie's pitying her Dad because he doesn't have any friends and she asks Doug to take him out…

~7 - The Rock~ Carrie has her engagement ring cleaned and is told that it's worth about the 6fold of what they thought…

~8 - Educating Doug~ Doug & Carrie go to evening classes on Victorian literature

~9 - Road Rayge~ Doug loses his driver's licence while trying to help the well-known sport journalist Ray Barone (played by Ray Romano from "Everybody loves Raymond").

~10 - Supermarket Story~ The joys of a home-cooked meal for Thanksgiving

~11 - Noel Cowards~ Arthur gives Carrie & Doug a special Xmas present - a tiny new car which they'd rather get rid of

~12 - Fixer Upper~ Carrie wants to set up Doug's friend Spence with a girl from work.

~13 - Best Man~ At a wedding Doug finds out that Carrie's slept with the groom…

~14 - Dog Days~ While Carrie & Doug can't sleep because of the barking of the (new) neighbour's dog, Arthur is convinced that Charlie Brown & the Peanuts is based on his life.

~15 - Crappy Birthday~ Carrie turns 30 and Doug nearly forgets to organise a party.

~16 - S'aint Valentine's~ Carrie & Doug want to spend Valentine's day just with each other but a birthday party gets in the way…

~17 - Court Date~ Carrie gets a ticket for reckless driving and goes out with the cop to avoid a fine.

~18 - White Collar~ Doug gets promoted - and bored.

~19 - Rayny Day~ Ray invites Doug to play golf and he agrees even though he had already planned to spend the day with Richie.

~20 - Train Wreck~ Doug has a good-looking new trainee (played by the same woman who plays "Darla" in "Angel") and expects Carrie to be jealous - but she isn't.

~21 - Hungry Man~ Carrie is invited to a dinner party for an important client and Doug is hungry…

~22 - Time Share~ When their neighbours split up, Carrie & Doug are offered a time share on their house in the Hamptons. However, getting this is more difficult than it seemed at first.

~23 - Where's Poppa~ Doug convinces his cousin Danny to work in his pizza place so that he'll have a weekend alone with Carrie. This however, turns out to be ruined by things other than Arthur…

~24 - Art House~ Arthur moves out after an argument with Doug

~25 - Maybe Baby~ Carrie thinks about getting a baby and then there's a promotion…?!

As I hope I've shown, most of the episode's themes are things that happen every day and in any household. This obviously helps you to relate to one of the characters (probably depending on your gender…) and makes you not just grin throughout but also recognise yourself.

While it is not a comedy as such, there are many occasions where I found myself laughing out loud - either because of something that Carrie or Doug or Arthur said, or just because of a certain weird situation or gesture…

One of my favourite scenes is where Arthur and Doug play monopoly. Arthur throws the dice and shouts out "6" and counts from 1 to 6 until he lands on a street and shouts "I'll buy it". Doug looks slightly irritated and says: "Arthur, just one thing. I already own it. And you're not the thimble. And you threw a 5." Arthur's response is to just simply throw the whole monopoly board of the bed saying "Fine" - doesn't seem so funny now when I'm writing it down, but it's hilarious.

***The Box Set***
Ok, to finish this a few things about the DVD box itself. The cover shows Arthur, Doug and Carrie under a green street sign that says "Queens". To get to the DVDs you have to remove the inlay

Pictures of King Of Queens - Series 1 (DVD)

Front cover

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from the surrounding box. This inlay has the picture of a house on it and when you open it you see the whole neighbourhood. Open it again to find the 4 DVDs that you're after.

The first DVD has Carrie's & Doug's house on it while the 2nd, 3rd and 4th each feature the face of one of the main characters (i.e. Carrie, Doug, Arthur). There's also a little booklet with an overview of the various episodes.

I really like the DVD menus. The buttons to navigate look similar to the street sign on the front cover and the background is a bright red brick wall - somehow exactly the cliché you'd have in mind when thinking about King of Queens.

Each DVD has between 6 and 7 episodes on them, that can be individually selected or played at once. The German version has an additional audio feature for playing it in English, but I'm afraid for those of you into languages this DVD won't be terribly exciting since the UK version only features English.

When it comes to bonus features the DVDs are a bit disappointing really. Despite advertising on the back that there's plenty of bonus material available, what it boils down to is an commentary on the pilot which is quite interesting but not *really* exciting, a making-of which is alright but rather average and a 5min piece of the funniest scenes all in one go.

***Conclusion***
All in all if you like sitcoms then you'll probably enjoy this one too. It's down-to-earth humour and while the jokes are probably not the most clever thing you've ever heard, they'll still make you laugh. My boyfriend calls his "LCD - lowest common denominator" which has a slight negative connotation, but I've enjoyed myself immensely during the 25 episodes.

In all honesty, I wouldn't spend 27 pounds on it, but for about 15-18 it's good value. They could have done a lot better with regards to the bonus features and I was especially missing deleted scenes and alike - they're just so much fun and show you stuff that you just don't get to see on TV. Moreover, the bonus features are a little hidden and you actually have to look out for them in a sub-menu, which I don't think is terribly clever.

***Rating***
Overall 4 stars probably reflect the wit and good entertainment of the show while taking into account the lack of good bonus features.

***Pictures***
I've uploaded some pictures mainly to show the DVD box and illustrate some of the things I've talked about. The first picture is simply the cover of the DVD box. The second picture shows the inlay while the 3rd and 4th picture show only the inlay - in the former it's opened once so you can see the neighbourhood and in the latter it's opened all the way to show the DVDs themselves. The fifth pictures is a screenshot from the menu so you can see the brick wall and street signs I was describing.

Thanks for reading, rating & commenting.