Bewitched gets the DVD treatment for its eighth and final season with all 26 original episodes on 4 discs. No bonus features.

Having critiqued a few seasons of this show its easy for me to suggest that the show went downhill in its final season. The edge that made the show funny and relevant seemed to fade out to make room for silly sets and seemingly make the show more kid friendly or to family oriented. The first complete disc has Samantha and Darrin traveling Europe and finding themselves involved with regional legends like Henry the VIII and The Loch Ness Monster. Plenty of footage of Rome and what not but sets seem to be shared by more then one episode. For example; in How Not To Lose Your Head Sam and Darrin visit a museum in England and then again visit a different museum in Rome, the set changing only in props and not layout or color scheme. There are lots of backdrop hiccups in season eight though.

The story of Bewitched is that a mortal falls for a witch and despite it all they marry and endure the wrath of the magical in-laws and drop-ins and remain in love but for some reason this season just seemed to be to annoying for many different reasons. The relationship between Sam and Darrin is always on the strain and not for a second do you believe they are actually in love when Darrin is always so oppressive making jabs at Sam’s family and sometimes at Sam herself. In one episode, TV or Not TV, in which Tabitha appears suddenly on a kids show to tell a puppet to stop hitting his wife Sam explains to her that the wife puppet just isn’t associated with Women’s Lib when asked why she allows herself to be hit. Funny and also edgy, which is what the show used to be about, but also ironic as Darrin is constantly berating his wife. Another annoyance is the relationship between Darrin’s employer Larry Tate who makes Darrin into a spineless little wimp even when the issue comes down to Sam or their kids. It makes the show unrealistically monotonous and is a real turn off. Other then that I found it a bit annoying that every episode begins with Elizabeth Montgomery doing the same introduction for the show or a break spot, the kind that would announce the show’s commercial break, separating the conclusion in every episode. Its short but pointless to have one at the forefront and one at the end of every episode. If you’re an avid fan of the series its an obvious must have but for me, if the need hit me, I’d wait for television re-runs or rent it.