The third season of Wildfire arrives on DVD full of teen angst, money problems, love triangles, and a few horse races. The thirteen episodes of the third season sees the show stretching past its formula feel of past seasons, and even managing to end with a cliffhanger for season four.
Wildfire follows reformed bad girl Kris Furillo (Genevieve Cortese) as she continues to distance herself from her past life and discover a new home at the Raintree Ranch and the Ritter family. She also finds continued success as the jockey of the race horse Wildfire, but the success seems to come at a price.
Season 3 starts off with trouble as the Ritters discover the winnings from Wildfire’s big victory at the end of season two have been stolen and the ranch is once again facing tough times. To make matters worse, it seems that the family feud with the Davis family and their Davis Farms is back in full swing with Kris caught in the middle.
Kris starts pushing herself too hard to get back the money she feels she owes the Ritters, and also has to deal with romantic feelings she has towards Junior Davis (Ryan Sypek) and Matt (Micah Alberti) – which puts her at odds with Matt’s current girlfriend Gillian Parsons (Charlotte Salt) and Junior’s sister Danielle (Nicole Tubiola).
The season also sees Pablo Betart (Greg Serano) leave Raintree to go work for Davis Farms, and the beginning romance between Pablo and Jean Ritter (Nana Visitor). Danielle also gets a new romance with rodeo bull rider R.J. Blake.
After Kris breaks his heart again, Junior discovers that riding bulls is a good healer and hits the rodeo circuit with R.J. – which has an effect on Danielle towards the end of the season.
We also get to see the horse equivalent of street drag racing when Kris agrees to race Wildfire against Gillian on Avatar in a cross country no rules race for $2 million. The race has drastic consequences for Raintree, Kris, and Davis Farms. It also sets up Season Four (which would be the last for the series).
Wildfire: Season 3 continues all the elements that made the series a fan favorite, but also stretches it a bit into more mature storylines and deeper plots. At the same time, some of the problems that have plagued it from day one (such as limited acting skills for some of the cast and storylines that are a bit too sweet) continue to hurt the series.
The DVD is also light on special features with only commentary by cast and crew on certain episodes. Since there are only 13 episodes stretched out on three discs, it would have been nice if Lionsgate would have sprung for a few more features to make the set worth the $29.98 suggested retail price.
If you are a fan of Wildfire, you will want to pick up the third season. A lot of changes take place during the 13 episodes, and the series continued to improve as the season played out. I have heard season four was the best of the series, and it is clear the show’s writers were looking to expand from the series’ formula with season three’s deeper plots, love triangles, and real world economic struggles for both ranches.
Wildfire: Season 3 is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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