Pimp My Ride – The Complete First Season
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: B- Episodes: B
Most reality TV is garbage, but occasionally, a show rolls
around that rises far above the junk, and Pimp My Ride literally takes
cars to be junked and brings them back to life. For those who do not know how some good auto body work, mechanics
work and how far talented customizers can go.
The Complete First Season offers 15 such resurrections and is
hosted by top rapper Xzibit and the remarkable West Coast Customs group.
There are many ways to take the show. There are those not used to the Hip Hop
culture or current car customizing culture who will go into total shock at
where both are these days. There are
fans of either or both who will be thoroughly entertained, and then there are
car fans like myself who will enjoy the fun culture clashes, or game show fans
like myself who like to see people win.
That makes Pimp My Ride an MTV original that works and is in the
true spirit of the network, something they need to do much, much more often.
Instead of talking about the restoration targets, which
may initially discourage viewers who base watching the shows on the makes and
models covered, it is important instead to just get you to take the leap and
check the show out. As DVD product, it
falls neatly between the custom car DVD titles and regular car DVDs (including
the most extraordinary ones) as a hybrid like nothing that surprisingly has not
been attempted before. It is an
original bridging the gap between the two and is fun for all ages to boot.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 image looks good and is recently
taped on professional NTSC tape, maybe one of the last such productions of its
kind. The show deserves top go HD and
is a pleasant surprise. The Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo has Pro Logic surrounds and that includes more music than usual for
a TV series, but this is from MTV, so that is expected. DVD 3 has some fun extras, including a
series of outtakes chapterized by the programs on the previous two DVDs, which
show how much fun everyone was having during production. It translates strongly on the final episodes
and all run for about 70 minutes. The
four minutes of outtakes are as hilarious.
Travis Barker of the hopefully NOT splitting up Blink 182 shows upgrades
on his 1954 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, though it is too brief. Three of the vehicles the West Coast Customs
team are featured, as well as previews of seven other MTV shows on DVD and a What
U See Is What U Get Music Video from Xzibit. Let’s see what the guys can come up with for Season Two.
- Nicholas Sheffo
