The Guild: Season 5

- For people abroad : First of all, it works in France with my zoned DVD player. :D I ordered it on January 15, it was planned to arrive on Feb 23. I thought it was Jan 23... >_< But eventually I received it on Jan 27, which is great. (But DHL-global tracking sucks, according to it the package is still in Illinois). - For all : I like this series very much. I watched previous seasons online, and wanted to see the new season before it becomes online. The quality of the video is very good !!! 720x480@60fps (real, doesn't look like ugly upscaling, no noise even in dark environment) English soundtrack AC3 stereo 48kHz 224kbps English subtitles. The script is even included in the DVD, as a PDF file. I like Felicia Day very much, as an actor but also as the creator of this show. I recommend buying it, at least to support the making of this show.

What more need I say? Felicia Day is adorable, funny, quirky, her antics are highly entertaining and she is backed by a wonderful cast of actors and actresses who turn gaming clichés into a brilliant webseries.

I don't know if the cast only had the locations for a short time or if they had other time concerns, but the normally rapid-fire dialogue of "The Guild" seems to turn into almost inaudible auctionspeak in the first few season five episodes. I was worried that the cast had lost interest and was just "phoning it in," but I'm glad to say that my paranoia was not justified. Once the major plotlines are established the rhythm is found, the show seems to blast off. Maybe the reason for the hyperactive pace is that Season 5 is positively *crammed* full of cameo appearances. Some of these you may expect and some you will definitely not. It almost seems like spoilers to list them all, so I'll avoid that in case you wait for the DVD releases to watch the whole season for some reason. All of your favorite (main) characters are present and accounted for, but this season they mostly operate on their own. This is another aspect of season five that is off-putting at first, but Felicia Day proves once again that she can write "geeks with hearts of gold" and manages to bring the Guild together for a stunning finale. Most of the drama of this season (and a lot of the laughs) comes for the ever-developing relationship between Codex (Day) and Tink (Amy Okuda). These two are a blast to watch as a pair. Tink is her usual acerbic self, but finds herself sharing secrets with Codex, only to have Codex light the road to relationship hell with her good intentions. The plot with Codex and The Game's designer is less interesting, besides serving to move the drama forward later in the arc. However, as a writer Day tends to be generous with "the good stuff" and uses Codex mostly as a rallying point anyway, so this is a non-issue. Vork (Jeff Lewis) teams up with Bladezz (Vincent Caso) in what can only be described as a scam to make money off of Bladezz's sublimely ridiculous internet commercial from Season Four. I like Caso's character because he never seems to learn his lesson. Any time he admits fault is largely by accident, and yet he remains extremely likeable (many fans protested the virtually unknown Caso being fake-ousted from the Guild in Season One). Not much can be said about Jeff Lewis that hasn't already been said. He's just an incredibly funny guy. It must have been really hard to not put Lewis and Parikh together again this season, and I understand the decision to cut back on that pairing, but I don't like it. I'm a greedy fan and I want more. Clara (Robin Thorsen) gets a solo plot involving a Steam Punk cosplay troop. For what seems like a pretty minor subplot, it pays off in a big way. Clara is definitely something special and I kind of wish she had a another chance to play off the others like she did with Okuda in Season Four. Her childlike sense of fun and self-centered cavorting do clash very well against the cold and haughty cosplayers, though. I'm not sure if this was intended, but Clara has that brilliant "Homer Simpson" appeal. She's a lousy parent, she's not smart, but she finds so much joy in things it's impossible not to like her. If I had to pick a lamentable subplot it would be Zaboo's (Sandeep Parikh) "seat-savers" arc. It served as a framework to bring in some incredible cameos, and Parikh played Zaboo's Kurtzian insanity *perfectly*, but I really missed the good-natured Zaboo of earlier seasons. Is the arc hilarious? Yes. But I really wanted to see Zaboo grow as a person and come to the conclusions he makes through introspection and development as a grown man instead of rushed lack of interest brought on by ultra-fandom. Day always gets the characters where they need to be, but in this case it feels sort of like a shortcut. I will say it was amazing to see Parikh steal scene after scene no matter who was placed in front of him. Overall this is another great season of "The Guild." If I seem to be too hard on this little webseries it's because I don't regard it any lower than the scripted network shows with millions of dollars in their budget. Felicia Day and company are simply excellent at what they do and deserve praise as well as honest criticism. This season sort of feels like the end of "The Guild," but let's hope that I'm wrong and there's more to come from these talented people. ***EDIT: I'm not being a doomsayer, it just seems like the end of this season could be considered the "Series Finale" because of where it puts the characters (especially Codex). I'd personally love to see plenty more stories with these characters.

Felicia Day is a talented actress, writer, web entrepreneur and the sweetest girl on earth. The Guild her creation is a beloved runaway hit! Felicia plays Cyd Sherman a painfully shy girl whose life is out of control. While playing a game leaves her unbalanced, her online persona Codex gives her the courage to act. Following my own philosophy of supporting the arts and the small guy or in this case the cute little redheaded girl I have bought all five seasons of the Guild.

I don't normally do reviews on Amazon, but I feel like I have to at least be honest with this item. I love The Guild. It's one of my favorite web shows, and it's something I could watch over and over again without getting tired of it. That being said, this is easily the weakest "season" of the series so far. It may be because they aren't playing "The Game," or it may just be a little too far out in left field for me, but I didn't find myself enjoying this season as much. Don't get me wrong, it has its moments. But there were times when jokes seemed a little too cliche, or there were cameos of people who I had no idea who they were...yet they were treated like people who I should immediately recognize. I would recommend that people watch this one online first before buying it. It's not a waste of money or anything, but you may want to try to get it at a discounted price, if possible. Or buy it anyway to support the show.

This show kicks. I loved it the moment I first seen it. This is a must have for any gamer or lover of games. Trust me you'll be laughing your self with each minute. Or you'll have a "I went threw that, when I played games" moment like I did so meny times.

I purchased The Guild Season 5 back in January (2012). Now they release it with new packaging? What else did they change? Is this Day and co. double-dipping, or Amazon trying to pull a fast one. I looked up the disc I purchased three months ago to find very little information remaining here with the note that they didn't know when to expect (that version) to be back in stock. (Just went and checked) The version I purchased (for the same price) has all of the special features and looks to be one of Amazon's "burn on demand" discs. Still, I wonder, aside from a new cover, what else this second (and I might presume "official"?) release has that mine doesn't. I've purchased every season of The Guild as it has become available, despite already seeing it when originally "aired." Do I have to start approaching these disc releases with more caution in the future? Otherwise, great season, okay special features, etc, presuming it is *exactly* like the disc I bought in January (though I kinda like the cover on the "new" release). If you haven't purchased it already, here's your chance.

I love The Guild, however I absolutely hate this DVD. This manufacture on demand DVD-R is horrid. Between my 2 computers, PS3, and 3D Bluray player I have 6 ways to to play this DVD and each reproduces the same problems. When each episode starts the audio takes a few seconds to start so parts of dialog are missing and when the episodes end it cuts off a few seconds. Example of this is the end of episode 5 when Tink and Codex kiss, Bladez turns around sees them and does a spit take. The whole spit take is cut off. This is a major unacceptable flaw to me. I'll be exchanging this DVD in the hopes I just got a bad copy. The replacement DVD-R plays a lot better then the first one, but still has a couple glitches with it. I'm shipping back the replacement and waiting for a normal production run DVD.

Perfect condition.