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Mr. Show - The Complete First and Second Seasons

Mr. Show - The Complete First and Second Seasons

List Price: $34.98
Your Price: $27.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Give it a shot...
Review: That's really the best advice that I can give regarding this show. Seriously. I don't want to get into the "you must be dumb and only watch Full House if you don't like this" vs. "this show is so overrated and you people only obsess over it to be different" debate, because it's pointless and juvenile.

There really is no rhyme or reason to whether or not you'll like Mr. Show. People have compared it to other satire like the Simpsons, Guffman, etc...but I've shown it to people who love those things but surprisingly didn't get into Mr. Show at all. Then I've shown it to people who I'd never think would get into it and they loved it...it's very odd. The satire is delivered in a different way than almost anything I've ever seen.

I can tell you this, though...if you DO get into it, it's very difficult to not get completely immersed in it. Even the skits that don't jump out at you as hilarious after one or two viewings, you'll find yourself laughing about them later and not even really knowing why. The skits are totally random and yet completely logical.

A lot of people say that the third and fourth seasons are much funnier...I don't know about that. I just think that the satire and humor of the first two is more implicit. The later seasons did manage to keep the same level of quality with more accessibility though.

In short, if you typically like unconventional humor, and you find "normality" to be completely humorous like myself, you should probably spend $$$ for these discs. If you don't like them, well, I'm sure you've blown $$$ on worse. If you do, trust me, it will have a permanent effect on your sense of humor.

Advice: The first episode (not the first SEASON, just the first ep.) is VERY subpar. Don't write it off after that though, trust me. You'll probably need to watch at least three or four episodes, maybe more than once, before even trying to formulate an opinion on this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Comedic Gurus
Review: Bob and David are the most outragous new comedians of today. There is not a single sceen I can get through without laughing out loud. These guys are geniuses and the cast is epic. Everything seems to come together and play out perfectly. This is by far the funiest show I've ever seen. Saturday Night Live? BORING!!! These guys and gals are hilarious! A must see!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Comedy Show Ever.
Review: It doesn't get any better then the first 2 seasons of Mr Show. While all 4 seasons of Mr Show are great, the first 2 are what the show is really all about. Nothing has ever, nor ever will be as funny as Mr Show was. Hopefully seasons 3 and 4 will also be released on dvd, completing the collection. Run Ronnie Run!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fans of the D will love it too
Review: Jack black has some must see scenes in a few of the episodes, so I recommend this highly to any tenacious D fan.

Aside from jack and other tenacious D friends appearing, the show itself is some of the best comedy ever produced, even though it is a little too sophisticated for some.

If you like monty python, or upright citizen's brigade, or the humor of Frank Zappa, or sarcasm and mockery of any sort, you will love this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BEST COMEDY SHOW EVER?
Review: "Mr. Show" just might be the best comedy show ever. Only time will tell if it starts to become dated. Tops "Monty Python" (the other greatest comedy show ever) barely, but just because Python is starting to look a little silly after 30+ years. No modern comedy comes close to "Mr. Show." Makes "Kids in the Hall" look like college TV and SNL look like "The Little Rascals Live at Rockefeller Center."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I know, 4 stars... it's a crime... but...
Review: Okay, so normally I would give this DVD a 5-star rating...but I had to give it a 4-star rating because Seasons 3&4 are even better than the first two seasons. Now, I'm not going to tell you what sketches are in the first two seasons, because the humor is lost if you have any idea what's going to happen next. Well, not really. I guess the impact is lost, not the humor. Because I've been watching these episodes since they first aired on HBO all the way back in the late 90's and I still laugh...

But, when I first watched them I didn't laugh. It wasn't that I was shocked, but more that I was amazed at some of the ideas they put into skit form and somehow made them work. To top it off, they blend every skit into the next, usually through a news program of some sort. Now, that isn't entirely original, but to make the transitions just as funny as the skits before and after is quite remarkable. Sometimes I'll find myself laughing harder at the "in between" stuff then I do at the main skits.

Now, some of the skits aren't all that funny. Some are downright not funny at all, but even those few (and there really are only a few) duds are still very well written and sometimes thought provoking skits that work more as a thought provoker than they do as a laugh provoker. Some of the skits drag on for a little too long. Even Bob and David themselves will agree. Seasons 3&4 are much more fast paced satire.

Ah, satire. Some people love and understand satire. Some people don't. Some people need an obvious joke to make them laugh. Other prefer a well constructed joke that you have to think about. And sometimes the joke isn't even that funny, but you'll still laugh your ass off because of the social commentary that is being made. For example, the whole Ronnie Dobbs idea is funny, but only because a part of you (those with a brain) know that in this sick society someone like Ronnie Dobbs could actually exist.

Now I'll admit, a lot of you won't get this show. You'll think it's stupid. You'll think it's boring. You'll think it's [bad]. And you'll use big intelligent sounding words to try and take away from this brilliant and highly original sketch comedy show. And that's fine, only because, a lot of you out there will see this show and love it. You will love it and you will see why so many people have been and are still raving about this very short-lived series. And those of us that love it can all agree that HBO is stupid for letting this one go. But luckily, they realized that Mr. Show has a very loyal following and it's continuing to grow. And hopefully, Season 3 is going to come out soon and then some of you will get to see a definite 5-star DVD.

But, as always, go rent it or borrow a tape of Mr. Show from some geek like me who has all or most of the episodes on VHS. Then, if you like it, buy it. If you don't like it, well, I feel sorry for you...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing
Review: This is not for fans of MadTV. This DVD set is for smart people, so if you love MTV and corporations, this is not for you. Bob and David are absolutely brilliant, you'll understand why they have such a huge following. Make yourselves familiar with this DVD and their other works.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Strangely enough, not for everyone...
Review: I pre-ordered the DVD and came here only to read the reviews from those who gave it only one star, just to see what people didn't like about it.
I have given tapes of the shows to my friends to watch, and there was a definite "adjustment period" for some of them, people whom I thought were going to really enjoy it. I think that maybe it takes more than one viewing for some people to really get it-- the people that didn't like this were those that had rented it and only watched it once.

Honestly I can say that it will appeal to a particular type of humor that is extremely select and has a great deal to do with what you were doing in the 90s and what you thought was funny then. Lest we forget, SNL wasn't terribly funny then even though it produced supposedly comic genii like Adam Sandler et al. It won't appeal to the Sandler idea of funny, more to the Onion/Brunching Shuttlecocks idea of funny.
Funny comes and goes, but proof of how staying many of the Mr.Show sketches are is in the fact that they are still performing a couple of them in "Hooray for America", the Mr.Show Live tour. Admittedly when I attended the audience was completely Mr.Show fans, so there was the air of an "inside joke" most of the time, but nonetheless, their approach is always fresh and almost exalted in its unwillingness to succumb to the current "sacred cow" attitude toward American pop-culture.
In short, get this and watch it over and over, and you will love it and them.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not so good...
Review: I remember watching Mr.Show on HBO, and I really thought it was funny. They had 4 seasons, and I gues all I saw was seasons 3 & 4, cause I didnt really enjoy the first 2 seasons, which is on this disc. I was very dissapointed, cause I was really looking forward to this DVD. I guess it was good to watch once, but I would never pop this in my DVD player to watch again. But for fans, the DVD was made very well, with commentary on every episode and a best of special which is very good. So if you are a fan but it, if your not and just interested in seeing it, just rent it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great time to rediscover Mr. Show!
Review: Obviously, not everyone is going to love Mr. Show. Not everybody loves Raymond, or even Lucy. In fact, if you are a fan of HBO original comedies like "Sex and the City" or "Arliss", you are probably not the kind of person who is going to love Mr. Show. Still, those with even the mildest affinity for the unfortunately short-lived program are going to enjoy taking a break from their Code-Orange CNN vigils to meet an inept multi-ethnic terrorist group who are too disorganized to actually hate anyone, much less plan an attack. Sketches like this make a person wonder just how much good Odenkirk and Cross could have done with the steaming pile of current events we've been wading through in the past year. (Of course, we may have known if only Odenkirk's sketch comedy "Next!" had not been passed over by Fox due to a lack of "hooks", which presumably translates into "no Kelly Clarkson appearances".) This duo is probably responsible for many of the laughs you've had in the past two decades, whether they were from Odenkirk's turn as a Saturday Night Live writer during the Second Coming era of 1986 through 1991 - or from Cross' television and film appearances as the Funny Bald Chap Whose Name No One Ever Seems to Remember.

The combination of writing and performance talent not only works, but raises the bar. Instead of relying upon direct parodies, they take the surrealist approach of Monty Python (there's that name again! Perhaps you have to have a Brit's understanding of the Python Gestalt to see the similarity) and run amok with vague archetypes. In their parallel universe, no one plays Bill Clinton; Clinton does not actually exist, but becomes a host of white-haired, disinterested, forgettable politicoes with names like Guy "Whitey" Corngood. After all, the concept of celebrity has little meaning in comedy. At times, they get ahead of themselves; the touching song written to honor victims of the Devastator, the world's cruelest roller coaster, seems to be a risky parody of the post-Columbine fracas...until one discovers that the sketch was performed two years before Columbine actually occurred. ("The Devastator" may have belonged to season 3 or 4; so if you've never seen the show, apologies on the spoiler.)

Odenkirk and Cross simply have as great an understanding of the way American culture always has and always will work as Chapman and Cleese did in their own place and time. They, like any other pair of humans, may not bowl a perfect game every time; but if you purchase this DVD, I am at least 67% sure you will not be disappointed.


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