Comedy Central’s Home Grown (DVD-Video)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: C-
Listed as
a ‘Comedy Central Experiment’ this reviewer can conclude after extensive
research that it was a blazing FAILURE! Comedy Central’s Home Grown is a
compilation of tid-bits of episodes that in some way, shape, or form center on
marijuana. Series such as The Sarah Silverman Program, TV Funhouse, Strangers With Candy, Root
of All Evil, Reno 911, Chappelle’s Show, Drawn Together, Crank
Yankers and Viva Variety all
make appearances in a very lack luster way.
This reviewer thought that Comedy Central would have the know how and
insight to at least include full episodes of some if not all the programs, but
no, only partial episodes appear to appall and disappoint long time fans.
The set
is supposedly meant to appeal to ‘pot heads,’ but this reviewer can not even
begin to imagine the amount of drugs that one would have to do to enjoy this
atrocity. Most episodes do have a drug
reference or two, but it is annoying because they are not even quality episodes
from each series. All in all the set is
just a lame excuse to loosely lump together drug referential material.
Saddest
of all is the fact that an excellent comedy central series, Via Variety, appears on this set but
has never surfaced on DVD in any other form. COME ON NOW! We need some variety in our life…some Viva Variety to be exact.
Also on
the set (for ‘pot heads’ I guess) is a series of random programs such as 40
minutes of Bob Ross painting God knows what, an outdated drug program on
marijuana, and a mock program on spiders that get high and make webs; ok that
last one was probably the only funny thing on the set, but everything else
about this set made this reviewer angry.
The
technical features are nothing special and just barely slide by as
adequate. The picture is a simple full
screen format that varies in quality from sketch too sketch, ranging from quite
good too quite disgusting. The sound is
presented in a simple Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo that is not bad but does often
times sound distant and drab. There are
no extras, unless you consider the whole DVD release to be one big extra that
should have been released as a supplement for some better Comedy Central
series; but what do I know?
In the
end, this release feels more like a disc you would get for free by walking into
an electronics store. Save your money
and buy whole season sets, even a drug addict knows that.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
