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DVD Mr. Show - The Complete Fourth Season
Season 4 of HBO's Mr. Show is particularly strong, with a number of original ideas and exceptionally funny sketches scattered over all 10 episodes. Stars Bob Odenkirk and David Cross are in good form from the season premiere's opening bit about medical marijuana--specifically, Cross's prescription to help him with the anxiety of working with Odenkirk. The duo also work a comic rivalry theme in a dueling bloopers sketch that includes "embarrassing" footage of Odenkirk as a male prostitute and Cross as a wannabe rock star.
But the best material is positively surreal, such as a Jerry Springer-like talk show taking place on a life raft, and a variation on The Paper Chase in which a curmudgeonly law professor (Michael McKean), suddenly called away from class after a ritual assault on his students' intelligence, is replaced by a less-articulate tyrant (Odenkirk). Also superb is a politically incorrect piece about two guys vying for a blind woman's affection via competing (and increasingly bizarre) descriptions of a sunset, and the "501st Olympics," pitting the Dalai Lama and his monks against fat kids from a summer camp. Special features include Bob and Dave's not-to-be-missed appearance at a Comic Relief cable special, in which a gullible Odenkirk bares all for the sake of his craft. --Tom Keogh
Review(s): DVD Mr. Show - The Complete Fourth Season
"Is this funny still? Yet? I honestly can't tell..."
Seasons One, Two, Three: "Go Man, Go!"
Season Four: the one to forego.
Speaking as a fan who was first stupefied (amazed; astonished) by Bob and David back when they were the Kings of Megaphone Crooning ("People didn't want to hear songs about things that hadn't even been invented yet! They wanted to hear songs about NEW things."), that is, speaking as the rare fanatic, the rare "Mister Mr. Show" raising his voice on Amazon who laughs just as hard at the good G rated sketches as he does at the good NC-17 rated sketches, I find "Season Four" the most generous sampling of limp and lifeless MS sketches available in one package.
Funnyguy Bob Odenkirk, reputedly a rather gruff fellow in real life, says that Four was the season when "well-crafted" sketches were "in", "absurdity for absurdity's sake" was "out". No longer, he claims, was Mr. Show a comedy show best appreciated by other comedy writers.
Translation: they dumbed it down for the audience (and/or: horsing around in the writers' room suddenly earned you an hour in a pointy hat, facing the corner). Enticing as the term is, "well-crafted" here seems to mean "warmed over SNL type stuff", as in: spicing up the world's 1000th Jerry Springer takeoff by setting it on a lifeboat (momentarily forgetting that incongruity usually works best when it is "funny" incongruity) and ladling on the same gay panic, the same class anxiety that makes the real Springer show such a howl. Overall, MS4's concepts become less novel, less thinky, less left-field-funny, with a stronger than ever reliance on the tried and true. What I mean is: a stronger than ever reliance on stoopid-guy raunch humor. But at least SGRH is a species of comedy. I haven't nailed down a label for what fills the cracks and crannies, and accounts for at least 75% of of the ones and zeroes on these here digital donuts. Excelsior? (ex-cel-si-or (n.) Slender, curved wood shavings used especially for packing (originally a trademark)).
This set did make me grin a few times -- over the course of five and a half hours. One, and only one, sketch makes me laugh out loud: the phenomenon of "Monster Parties" (as documented in novelty songs such as "Halloween Shindig", "Dracula's Pajama Party" and the like) examined with pitch-perfect tabloid TV grammar. Original, bent premise anchored by yet another simultaneously vicious and sympathetic David Cross performance.
For the most part, the gang seems tired, like they're having an exhausting time at this point telling funny from not-funny. Surely, anyone who makes a living intuiting what will make people laugh must at one time or another come to such a pass.
Blinds are like regulars, now.
THIS IS THE ONE!
The other DVD collections for seasons 1, 2 & 3 were pretty funny (OK...some of the funniest stuff of all time, especially "Druggachusetts," and "The Chip on the Shoulder Club") but THE FOURTH SEASON WAS WHEN IT ALL CAME TOGETHER. It doesn't get any better than the episode called "Show Me Your Weenis!" The first time I saw this, in 1998 when it first aired, I realized that this was the absolute pinnacle of intelligent, over-the-top American comedy. Surreal, sharp, better than any British zaniness, and full of bizarre ideas like "furniture for the blind" that lets you know where you are with pre-recorded celebrity voices; and the all-time greatest, "Wyckyd Scepter," which must be seen to be believed.
Bob and Dave, you are SO naked!
Better than Monty Python ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. BETTER THAN ANY OTHER SO-CALLED "COMEDY" SERIES I CAN THINK OF.
IF YOU GET ONLY ONE OF THE MR. SHOW DVD SETS, GET THIS ONE.
Best season, but not without flaws
I had never seen Mr. Show on HBO before I got the DVDs as they came out. Like previous seasons, this one has a mix of good and bad stuff, with a lot more good than bad. There are tight, smart pieces like the prenatal beauty pageant and the life-raft talk show, but then there are dragging, corny sketches like the "Date with the Queen". It's evident from the commentary that even Bob, David, and the rest of the cast feel that there are some real clunkers that just didn't work. On the other hand, Bob is is often critical of sketches that work just fine, so maybe he's just on crack.
There's a nice expansion of the cast in this season. Tom Kenny doesn't show up much, but B.J. Porter and Scott Aukerman have some hilarious roles. Jay Johnston is also more prominent, and he's always funny.
If you liked the previous three seasons, this is definitely worth picking up. The writing, performing, and production values are the best of all Mr. Show seasons.
Related DVD's Mr. Show - The Complete Fourth Season
Who knew that the "Ratings Man," repository of all records concerning television viewership, is actually Santa Claus? Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, stars of the frequently inspired sketch-comedy program Mr. Show, did, and they've got an absurdist skit to prove it on this DVD collection.
Culled from Bob and David's 1997 appearances on HBO, The Complete Third Season includes the wonderful "Hail Satan Network" (a "Praise the Lord" for devil-worshippers), bogus movie-of-the-week "The Bob Lamonta Story" (about an athlete with retarded parents), a Beatles parody ("The Fad 3"), and the hilarious "Hunger Strike" (in which a starving, Gandhi-esque leader wishes to be buried in mashed potatoes). Cross proves a superior performer who salvages several underdeveloped bits, while... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): David Cross (II) - Bob Odenkirk Director(s): Stacy Peralta - Keith Truesdell - John Moffitt - Jonathan Dayton - Peyton Reed DVD Release Date: Released the 26 August 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Hey, everybody, it's Bob and David on DVD! In 1995 comics Bob Odenkirk and David Cross were simply "two people you've never seen before." Since then, each has insidiously entered the mainstream with appearances on TV (Just Shoot Me, The Drew Carey Show) and movies (Scary Movie 2, Dr. Dolittle 2, Men in Black 2). But to quote Odenkirk's bio (which is included on the first disc), Mr. Show is the thing you should see if you want to check them out. Like the late, lamented The Ben Stiller Show, on which both toiled, and Monty Python before that, this midnight-hour HBO series gave a subversive twist to the traditional sketch comedy series. Classic characters include Cross's white-trash poster boy Ronnie Dobbs, the superstar arrestee on a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): David Cross (II) - Bob Odenkirk Director(s): Stacy Peralta - Keith Truesdell - John Moffitt - Jonathan Dayton - Peyton Reed DVD Release Date: Released the 04 June 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Winner of the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy its first year out, Arrested Development is the kind of sitcom that gives you hope for television. A mockumentary-style exploration of the beleaguered Bluth family, it's one of those idiosyncratic shows that doesn't rely on a laugh track or a studio audience; it's shot more like a TV drama, albeit with an omniscient narrator (executive producer Ron Howard) overseeing the proceedings. Holding the Bluths together just barely is son Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), the only normal guy in a family that's chock full of nuts. Hardworking and sensible, Michael's certain he's going to be given control of his family's Enron-style corporation upon the retirement of his father (Jeffrey Tambor). The fact that he's passed over instead for his mother... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 19 October 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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