Pretty Good

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

First of all, I must admit I'm not a big fan of David E. Kelley. Some of his famous TV shows are average in my opinion, just to enjoy one episode on a lazy Sunday afternoon and that's all. I would never buy them on DVD because all the TV shows I own on DVD must be above average, have to be something special. And Picket Fences was something really special!!!The show was broadcasted in 1992 and run for 4 seasons. In my home country only the first 3 seasons were shown on TV so you can imagine my surprise when 20 years later I saw the new episodes. Unfortunately, Season 4 has nothing to do with the rest of the series....The absence of Mr Kelley just made the show flopped. Nothing is right in Season 4....characters behaving in a different way, stupid plots and dialogs, etc. So, my advice...enjoy Season 1-3 and forget Season 4. Season 3 had a perfect ending for the show so it's better to be remembered that wayI was lucky to watch the show again 20 years later....time enough to check if it has aged well. The answer is YES!!! The show still rocks. That strange combination of black humor, tenderness, provocation and moral dilemmas still Works perfectly. No wonder the show was a favorite one from critics and won several Emmys.

I was an addicted Picket Fences fan while it was playing on TV. The first three seasons were so atypical of television that it redeemed the rest of the garbage shown. Season Four suffered terribly at Kelley's absence, but it still had some good episodes. I recently purchased Season 1 on DVD and realized it had been two years since it had been released? Where's the rest of them? Why is every schlock TV series on DVD and not this? I've read it has to do with music rights and disputes over that. Actually, if you really want to, you can purchase all four seasons from various sites. The DVD discs are video transfer and the quality looks like video transfer, but if you really crave the series it will assuage your yearning until something better comes out. There are two episodes missing from season 3 and the first disc of Season 4 had a lot of break up interference, but the rest of season 4 was almost DVD quality and was captioned to boot. Superlative acting, exceptional writing, thought provoking and a haunting theme music. Picket Fences fans, unite!

Unfortunately due to my hours I wasn't able to watch it when it was originally aired, but I would hear my family mention it in passing about what they watched. Then in the latter 90's I was flipping around to try to find something to watch in the early afternoon after I got off work and came upon a program where the courthouse of a small town was under siege from American Indians I believe and from that day I was hooked. I loved this program, yes some parts of it were weird to crazy, but it was very enjoyable. Yes they went through quite a few mayors, and as much as they died off I wouldn't want to be a mayor there, but I would love to move to a town like that.

I must say I was amazed, when I began to look for the DVD series of Picket Fences, to find that there was none. This show was amazing, and most likely the best drama I have ever seen on television (with the possible exception of the current Nip/Tuck). It launched Don Cheadle's career, and was full of amazing characters and plot lines. Heck, as a promising young attorney, I will even say that this show was a huge boost in the development of my eagerness for the profession, even at a young age. Ray Walston's part as the small-town judge is a model of fairness and candor that many of us can follow in any walk of life. Whoever does currently own the rights and/or has a voice in this, if you're listening, do yourself a favor and release the series on DVD. You WILL make money. A small sample of the comments in this site should give you some insight as such.