It’s A Wonderful Red
Green Christmas (Canadian TV
Comedy)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: C
I had heard about the popularity of The Red Green Show,
but the few clips I had seen were nothing memorable. Like a few other shows of the 1970s, the point of the series is
to deconstruct the conventions of TV talk shows and/or self-help shows. Being from Canada, it has shades of Second
City TV, but focuses on the same characters throughout and never clicks
with anything outright humorous. The
Wes Anderson school of comedy might like It’s A Wonderful Red Green
Christmas ands like programs, but I was not as amused.
This single disc is intended to be a holiday title, has
two half-hour programs and has “hick-like” characters in Edgar, Hap, Bill &
Harold. I did not know who these
characters were, and still cannot remember who is who if you showed them to me
now. Maybe it is a Canadian thing, but SCTV
tended to make me laugh more. This is
for fans of the show and very laid-back humor only.
The 1.33 X 1 NTSC image is adequate throughout, all in
color, usually on the same set over and over again. The shows are from 1998 and 1999, so the claustrophobic aspects
of such TV might be lost on those who only know the curse of “reality TV” and
the like. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
is also adequate, but has silly music and no surround information. The second show is considered a bonus, but
we will only count the character biographies and star Steve Smith’s
introduction pieces. Maybe a regular
version of this would be funnier, but that would be a stretch.
- Nicholas Sheffo
