The Man Show - Season Two
Picture: B- Sound:
B- Extras: C+ Episodes: B
Out of all the shows to
ever hit the air, The Man Show has to be one of the most ridiculous,
degrading, offensive, obscene, and above all else…funny! Why would a show like this become a success
and even more than that, why does it have a large following of women
viewers? My theory is pretty simple and
it goes back to men reading Cosmopolitan
Magazine, which is essentially a magazine targeted towards women, by it also
happens to be read by men as well, but only in private as no man would admit
they read the publication. That is not
to say that all men read it, but a few tend to nose their way through the pages
because they are trying to understand the opposite sex better, which is the
same with The Man Show and the
viewers that watch it.
Of course this is not a
show that intends on teaching any lessons, but it cracks jokes about the way
the typical male behaves and indulges itself on the things that women tend to
criticize men for the most, whether it be too much beer, too much sex, or just
too many gross habits in general. The
show has honesty going for it, which makes a statement about the current
situation in our society today that says the average male is pretty mediocre
and not necessarily the strong character that he should be.
By the shows second season
it was pretty much holding very little back when it came to its content and
became more outrageous as time went on.
It became a contest to see just how far it could go, which in the end
became a little too much, but that’s what drives the ratings these days. Look at how other shows try to compete when
it comes to outrageousness. We are
living in a sad modern world, which indulges itself on crudeness and we are
becoming too comfortable being mediocre and are too satisfied with being
lazy. This is a generalization, but
with the world moving at its current rate we hardly have time to control the
snowball effect that we have created with just about everything.
One thing that certainly
can be said about The Man Show is
that it can be addicting, especially on DVD because you have all the control
over how many episodes that you watch, plus they don’t have those commercials
in between. This makes the viewing
experience all the more pleasurable.
You can certainly see how the show attempts to almost be like an
upgraded version of Benny Hill, but adds the two hosts (Jimmy Kimmel and Adam
Corrola), who consider themselves the epitome of the average man. Their skits range between quite brilliant to
really pathetic in certain cases, but at least they are trying something new
here and there to add flavor to the show.
The Man Show Season Two DVD box set is broken into six discs, which cover
the entire season. This is better than
what they did with the first season, which was have it broken into two separate
volumes. Here we have the entire season
into one box, and disc six is a bonus disc with mostly outtakes and other
material that did not make it into any of the shows. The presentation maintains the intended TV aspect ratio of 1.33 X
1 and holds up a tad better on the DVD format.
A show like this produces many skits that go along with the in studio
work, so it bounces back and forth a bit, which means that the quality ranges
from good studio lighting and sound to average off set material, depending on
what the situation is. The audio is in
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and works as good as the show allows for.
Certainly if you are a fan
of this show you are going to love having it onto DVD for the longevity of
owning it on a format that allows easy access to certain episodes and maintains
its quality over time. Since Adam and
Jimmy have moved on and the show has new hosts, some are more eager to keep the
ones with those two because they were the founding force behind the shows
popularity and success. The episodes
are broken down quite nicely and chapter stopped in good places for you to
access your favorite parts very quickly and smoothly, which is a nice bonus and
the extra disc provides some content that you have no other way of seeing
outside of this set. A must have for
any fan. For those that are new to the
show, this might be a good place to start because once you do the show has this
bizarre effect of making you want more.
It’s like a disease that you aren’t even sure if it’s a good thing or
bad and the only cure is more of it!
- Nate Goss
