In terms of quality, the show has been on an upward curve since the end date of the programme was announced, and season six arguably finds Lost at its most confident to date. Never mind the fact that it’s juggling lots of proverbial balls: there’s a very clear end point here, and the show benefits enormously from it.

Naturally, Lost naysayers will probably find themselves more alienated than ever here. But this boxset nonetheless marks the passing of a major television show, one that has cleverly managed to reinvent itself on more than one occasion, and keep audiences across the world gripped as a result. There’s going to be nothing quite like it for a long time to come… --Jon Foster ....read more

Larry continues to offend Stiller until he drops out of The Producers and, in the fifth episode (The 5 Wood), David Schwimmer steps in. The following episode (The Car Pool Lane), in which David attends a Dodgers game--with a prostitute, so he can use the carpool lane--made history when it set an innocent man free. Unused footage from the show, entered into evidence by the defense attorney, confirmed his client's alibi that he couldn't have committed a murder because he was at the game (alas, the Braves still trounced the Dodgers). Other guests include Ted Danson (The Weatherman), Russell Means (Wandering Bear), and Gina Gershon (The Survivor) as a Hasidic hottie. In addition, the hour-long season finale (Opening Night) boasts a bevy of stars, including David's old colleague Jerry Seinfeld, Nathan Lane (Broadway's original Bialystock), and fellow Tony Award winner Anne Bancroft. As they've done since the early days, Cheryl Hines (Cheryl David), Susie Essman (Susie Greene), and Richard Lewis and Wanda Sykes (as themselves) do what they can to keep one-man demolition derby David in check. --Kathleen C. Fennessy, Amazon.com ....read more

David plays himself (as does his friend, Richard Lewis) although his manager and wife are played by comedians Jeff Garlin and Cheryl Hines. Although this first season is a comedic gem, one can't take more than an episode or two at a time--it's caustic, biting comedy. The episodes are often built like a house of cards, which the irritable David will surely collapse by the end. --Doug Thomas ....read more

On the DVD: With eight episodes split over two discs, there is little room for any substantial extras. The scene selection process is clear and concise and there is a rather pointless photo gallery. The standard behind the scenes footage is brief but certainly entertaining, not least the material surrounding the cast's location shoot in Nesbitt's home town in Northern Ireland--including a memorable drunken ride in a police wagon.--Phil Udell ....read more

Steve Coogan's creation fell on hard times later--as chronicled in the magnificent I'm Alan Partridge Series 1 and Series 2--but here he's revelling in his prime-time exposure with no thought of becoming clinically sad or gorging on Toblerone bars. Co-writers Armando Iannucci and Patrick Marber lovingly recreate everything that's fake and contrived about the whole chat-show genre: the shameless plugging, the recalcitrant celebs, the novelty acts and, most of all, the insufferably smug host oblivious to his own tediousness. Coogan's regular guests are ably played by some faces familiar from The Day Today: Rebecca Front, Doon MacKichan, David Schneider and Patrick Marber himself. Other game guest stars are John Thomson (as a naval officer also called Alan Partridge) and Minnie Driver (as a transsexual agony aunt), not forgetting Steve Brown as disconcertingly gay music director Glen Ponder.

The high-water mark of Alan's career arrived with his Christmas special Knowing Me, Knowing Yule in which his own living room was lovingly recreated at Television Centre. Unfortunately, and despite the presence of Mick Hucknall, the new Chief Commissioning Editor of BBC TV, Tony Hayers, is deeply unimpressed with the show and gets punched in the face by Alan, who, it turns out, is handy with a turkey. On that bombshell, Alan's career took a downward turn.

On the DVD: Knowing Me, Knowing You is a two-disc set including all six episodes and the Christmas special. There's a group commentary throughout with contributions from Armando Iannucci plus Patrick Marber, Rebecca Front, Steve Brown and Dave Schneider speaking in and out of character. Other extras include the original pilot show, Alan on Comic Relief, Alan's rural rambles, his TV trailers, plus stills and cast biographies. --Mark Walker ....read more

The theme that (loosely) ties these 10 episodes together is Larry's involvement in upscale eatery Bobo's, in which Danson and Michael York (yes, that Michael York) are co-investors. As expected, the restaurant will serve to complicate Larry's life in every conceivable way--and vice versa. But the funniest (and most profane) episode must surely be Krazee-Eyez Killa, starring Chris Williams (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) as the fidelity-impaired gangster rapper to whom Wanda has become engaged. This riotous installment, which sends up Jewish, Italian, and African American gangsters alike, won an Emmy for Robert B. Weide's direction and features that old master-of-direction himself, Martin Scorsese, who first appeared in The Special Section (in which Larry bribes a gravedigger to relocate his mother's gravesite). It's also the episode in which Larry gets a hair stuck in his throat. That hair, which once belonged to someone rather close to him, will remain lodged there for the next several episodes, until a divine intervention in Mary, Joseph and Larry dislodges it once and for all--along with the last of Larry's dignity. --Kathleen C. Fennessy ....read more