The transition from Year Nine (1980-81) is basically seamless. The Korean War rages on, and a short distance from the front lines, the doctors, nurses, and support staff of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, M*A*S*H, cope with life and death during and between long rounds of meatball surgery on wounded G.I.s and Korean civilians. They include doctors "Hawkeye" Pierce (Alan Alda), BJ Hunnicut (Mike Farrell), Charles Emerson Winchester (David Ogden Stiers), and Col. Sherman T. Potter (Harry Morgan), also commanding officer; head nurse Maj. Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Loretta Swit), company clerk Max Klinger (Jamie Farr), and camp priest Father Mulcahy (William Christopher).

The fact that many in the cast were anxious to move onto other projects inadvertently may have worked to the advantage of the series in some respects, for while the comedy is increasingly labored and unfunny, the dramatic writing stays at a high level, the key creative staff appear to have been given greater freedom to film darker, edgier scripts. The ninth season ended with one of the darkest episodes ever, "The Life You Save," with Charles's existential obsession with the process of dying, and in year ten other characters sink further into deep depressions and show signs of heavy psychological scarring.

In one good especially good show, "Pressure Points," psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Freedman (Allan Arbus) calls on Col. Potter, who flips out after overlooking a piece of shrapnel during surgery. Watching (usually overly) folksy Col. Potter lose all control around his fellow officers is unnerving, just as it had been watching Maj. Winchester hovering over dying men like ghoul the previous year.

Interestingly, Hawkeye's once notorious love-'em-and-leave-'em reputation gave way to a characterization not unlike Alda's offscreen image as "Mr. Sensitive." By Year Ten something altogether different is implied. In "That's Show Biz," Hawkeye finds an admirer in a USO entertainer (Gail Edwards) recovering from appendicitis, but he declines her advances, not so much out of gentlemanly behavior but rather because he knows the war has left him too messed up to have a normal love relationship, at least for the rest of the war. "I've seen too much ever to be wide-eyed again," he says. "It"s not worth the risk."

All of this offsets the show's all too clear signs of age, especially in terms of the writing of comic "B-stories" that fall on character cliches. In these scenes the characters almost become parodies of themselves, what with Father Mulcahy's "jocularities,' Hotlips' shrillness, Col. Potter's homespun malapropisms and grotesque mispronunciations of anything Spanish or French. Unfortunately, Klinger is still the dumbbell par excellence, though this is toned down a bit from before.

Guest actors this season include Gwen Verdon, Stefan Gierasch, Nicholas Pryor, Eileen Saki (continuing her role as Rosie the bartender), Gene Evans, Tom Atkins, 20-year-old Laurence Fishburne, and Dick O'Neill.

Video & Audio

This season's transfers continue to improve though they're still nothing special. They are, however, uncut, not time-compressed, and in their original full-frame form. As usual, they're spread over three discs, with episodes 1-7 on the first, 8-14 on the second, and 15-20 on the third. The season's one-hour show, "That's Show Biz," is presented in its original, non-syndicated form. The Dolby Digital 1.0 mono, available with or without the canned laughter (which has been greatly reduced on most episodes anyway by this point), is fine. French and Spanish tracks are available, along with English and Spanish subtitles. There are no Extra Features.

Parting Thoughts

M*A*S*H Season Ten Collector's Edition improves slightly on the season that preceded it, possibly because its writers saw the writing on the wall, that the end of its long run was on the horizon, and that now was the time to get those last great ideas on the page.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf - The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune and Taschen's forthcoming Cinema Nippon. Visit Stuart's Cine Blogarama here.