Wow, Melrose Place just keeps getting better and better and The Fifth Season: Volume 1 is no exception! Following last season's cliffhanger with Richard (Patrick Muldoon) having been "murdered" by Jane (Josie Bissett), but surviving the event, he comes back to haunt her and make her and Sydney's (Laura Leighton) lives miserable. He places little reminders all around, tormenting them and ends up blackmailing them, then stealing their money. It all culminates in a situation where he plans to kill them right where they buried him, but a forest ranger ends up intervening, costing Richard his life, but freeing Jane and Sydney from him permanently. And they even get their money back! But Jane is left pretty unstable from Richard raping her and the trauma that follows, and when Allison (Courtney Thorne-Smith) and Jake (Grant Show) find love together and their secret relationship is revealed to the apartment complex, Jane goes nuts and starts stalking them. When she finally comes to terms with the fact that she has lost Jake forever, she opts to move back home to Chicago, but not before finding out that she is adopted and discovering her birth mother.

Newcomers to the show include Taylor McBride (Lisa Rinna) and her handsome husband, Kyle (Rob Estes), who move to L.A. to open a new restaurant. But Taylor has ulterior motives and we later find out that she is obsessed with Dr. Peter Burns (Jack Wagner), her dead sister's former husband. Jack is freed from prison on the charges of Bobby Parezi's murder when Kimberly (Marcia Cross) finally regains her memory following her fall in the nut house last season. But the good times come to a swift end when she is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Wanting to spare Michael (Thomas Calabro) the pain of watching her die, she alienates him and sends him running to a beautiful hooker that she hired to entrance him named Megan (Kelly Rutherford). When Michael and Megan fall in love, things become complicated, especially since Kim decides she doesn't want to give Michael up after all. When she finds that her cancer has gone into remission following Michael's loving care, what will she do?

Sam Riley (Brooke Langton) continues to work at Jane's boutique, which Jane gave to Sydney when she left, and she and Billy finally find happiness together, but not before some bumpy roads. Another newcomer is Craig Field (David Charvet), son of the dastardly Arthur Field, Amanda's (Heather Locklear) nemesis at D&D. Craig is quite the handsome manipulator and will stop at nothing to climb his way to the top and into bed with Amanda, with or without Daddy's help. There's plenty of treachery that goes on between he and Amanda, but suffice it to say that Amanda comes out on top financially, finagling her way into 50% of D&D, but costing her Peter's love and sending him into Taylor's arms and bed.

There is so much more that happens, but you'll need to see it all for yourself. If you've been following the show, then don't miss Melrose Place: The Fifth Season: Volume 1. I can honestly say that I have had as much fun watching these shows now as I did when they first aired and they just keep getting better and better with each season. I have been totally left on the edge with this volume and can't wait until Volume 2 is released. Go buy this now.