Cheap Everwood - The Complete First Season (DVD) (Gregory Smith) Price

Prepare to get hooked on Everwood, a family drama-comedy from the WB television network that looks and feels like a hybrid of Northern Exposure and Picket Fences--both shows, incidentally, being major influences on Everwood's talented creator, Greg Berlanti (Dawson's Creek). A fish-out-of-water tale with unusually high stakes in the relationship arena, Everwood gets much of its charge from near-perfect performances by Treat Williams (The Deep End of the Ocean) and Gregory Smith (The Patriot) as a contentious father and son trying to keep their family going after a catastrophic loss. Williams plays Andy Brown, a world-class neurosurgeon whose Manhattan practice caters to the rich and famous; it also keeps him far removed from daily life and big events within his family. After Andy's wife (Brenda Strong) dies in a car accident, he finds himself raising a gifted 15-year-old boy, Ephram (Smith), who hates him because of years of neglect, and the much younger Delia (Vivien Cardone from A Beautiful Mind), who is scared and confused without her mom.

Andy, often seen in the first couple of episodes speaking to his late spouse, decides the best way to honor her memory is to move the family to little Everwood, Colorado, a special place in her memory. Not just a move--more of a wholesale re-invention, beginning with Andy's new salt-and-pepper beard and including a no-charge medical clinic he opens in Everwood's former train station. The free practice puts Andy at odds with the unpleasant Dr. Abbott (Tom Amandes of the syndicated The Untouchables), whose daughter, Amy (Emily VanCamp), develops a friendship with lonely Ephram while she also pines for her boyfriend, Colin (Mike Erwin), long lost in a deep coma. Over the course of the first season, many lines of connection will be drawn between these folks. Andy will be asked to attempt a risky operation on Colin, with ramifications affecting his son, Amy, and others. Abbott's sour relationship with Andy will lighten up enough for the former to join Andy's practice, and other surprises are in store.

The series is filled out by other, sweet and eccentric regulars, including Debra Mooney as Andy's nurse (also Abbott's plain-speaking mom), John Beasley as her husband and Delia's bus driver, and Stephanie Niznik as Andy's neighbor, Nina, a surrogate mother. Surprisingly gutsy storytelling, generally understated dialogue, heartfelt performances, and gorgeous Colorado exteriors keep one coming back for more. --Tom Keogh

ACTORS:	Gregory Smith
CATEGORY:	DVD
THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE:	2002
MANUFACTURER:	Warner Home Video
MPAA RATING:	NR (Not Rated)
FEATURES:	Color, Closed-captioned, Box set
TYPE:	Television
MEDIA:	DVD
# OF MEDIA:	6
UPC:	085393343828