King Of Queens (Series, The) (DVD)

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Well, Doug and Carrie Heffernan beat the odds. They made it two years past the traditional "seven year itch." Then again, this was a couple that had problems from the very beginning. A family therapist might wonder why they were even together in the first place. Doug (Kevin James) is a beefy guy who likes to eat, while Carrie (Leah Remini) is a beanpole who cares about looking good. Doug is an ambitionless fellow who's content to deliver packages for IPS and spend the rest of his time in front of the TV watching shows with his (loser) friends. Carrie is a social climber who feels stuck in the class rut into which she was born. Doug has an almost antagonistic relationship with his live-in father-in-law, Arthur (Jerry Stiller), while Carrie is a little less acerbic in her intolerance. Doug is always doing things that drive Carrie nuts. Carrie, meanwhile, gets even part of the time, and gets over it other times.

So how did this couple last as long as they did? Simple. It made for great TV comedy. With its ninth season, "The King of Queens" joins a select group of sitcoms that managed to turn out consistently funny shows week after week for the entire run. You don't have to get too deep into this season's scant offerings (just 12 episodes) before you find yourself laughing out loud at Doug and Carrie's antics.

This season, their best friends, Deacon (Victor Williams) and Kelly (Merrin Dungey) seem more solidly married than ever, after going through a long period when they were more down than up, and more apart than together. But as Doug and Carrie spend more time with this new "perfect" couple and get a taste of what other families experience, they become more painfully aware of the shortcomings of their own relationship. It's bittersweet, because you see it coming, and yet the material is also handled in such a way that it's downright funny . . . even hilarious at times.

This season, Patton Oswalt gets more airtime as Spence Olchin, the friend who's evolved into a whipping-boy project of sorts for Carrie's despicably manipulative dad, while Gary Valentine, who returns as Doug's cousin, mopes about like a whipped puppy, pining for more time with his roommate, Spence.

But the focus is on Doug and Carrie, where it's been for the past nine seasons, and James and Remini deliver the same charismatic performances and believable relationship as they always have.

Twelve episodes are contained on two single-sided discs and housed in a cardboard and plastic fold-over case with a sturdy cardboard slipcase:

1) "Mama Cast"--Doug makes Carrie angry when he's sent to invest their tax savings and instead returns like Jack with a handful of magic beans: an ice cream truck that Doug plans on using to moonlight and eventually replace his tedious job with a more engaging one. Carrie, meanwhile, ends up subbing for an actor hired to play the mother in a family of four who pretend to be real in order for a realtor to sell the house. And she likes it more than her home life.

2) "Affair Trade"--Doug gets phone messages from a woman who made love to another Doug Heffernan and thinks he's the one, but when Carrie laughs it off it hurts Doug so much that it leads to more pretense.

3) "Moxie Moron"--When the IPS supervisor checks into rehab, he leaves it up to Deacon and Doug which one of them will replace him. And it turns into a battle of sorts, and highlights again which of them is more competent . . . or not.