DVD Review: Chappelle's Show- The Series Collection
Chappelle's Show, for those of you who have not yet feasted your eyes upon it, is a racially-themed sketch comedy show created, written, and hosted by the one and only Dave Chappelle... who also stars. Yes folks, this is absolutely HIS show, no doubt about it. I only caught a few episodes back when it originally aired on television, and it really seemed to be a mixed bag. Some of his sketches were absolutely hillarious and had me laughing out loud, while others were extremely dull and didn't even put a grin on my face.
Now that I have got to see every episode from both seasons one and two, plus the extra material that was to be used for season three, I have say that my original assessment based on only a couple of episodes still held true. Throughout all the episodes there were skits that were roll-on-the-floor hysterical to the I'm-gonna-go-grab-a-snack-so-let-me-know-when-this-skit-is-over BORING. And then, of course, there are the slightly funny skits and the funny skits and the really funny skits, which basically takes the show all over the spectrum of enjoyment. Thankfully, there is much more funny than there is not funny, which easily tips the scales toward making this a series you should check out.
Some of my favorite skits were the blind white-supremacist who doesn't know he's a black man, Chappelle's Rick James opposite Charlie Murphy who tells various stories about what they did back in the 1980s, the "I Wrote This Song A Long Time Ago" about a new song from deceased wrapper Tupac Shakur, Chappelle's R. Kelly parody, and of course Chappelle's Lil Jon impersonation. Not to say that there aren't many, many other great skits and characters, these just happen to be my top picks. And it seems that these are all included on the The Best of Chappelle's Show, so I guess other people must feel the same as I do.
Overall, it's an enjoyable series to watch, though because there is such a dramatic range in how funny the different skits are and because of how explicit he can be, I would recommended renting it first, unless you're already a Chappelle fan. I should also note that the box states "some musical performances featured in original broadcast versions of shows from Seasons 1 and 2 are not included on this DVD set". And this is fine by me. I'm watching this for comedy, not so I can see someone I don't know about perform a musical number. If it was up to me, I'd have Saturday Night Live ditch the two seemingly mandatory musical performances per episode.
Apparently and unfortunately, there will be no more seasons of Chappelle's show. After he flipped out while filming the third season and just up and took off to Africa, production on the show pretty much just stopped, and it doesn't sound like he's ever going to pick it up again. But then again, that could be a good thing. After his "awakening" or whatever, who knows if he's even funny anymore. My wife and I watched that Dave Chappelle's Block Party a little while back, and that was boring to the extreme. I know it wasn't intended to be a comedy, but we still expected some kind of entertainment with him in it.
As a box set goes, this is a good one. It not only contains all of the televised episodes, but also includes unaired footage, bloopers, audio commentaries, AND it's uncensored. Each of the three seasons are stored in their own DVD cases, and all three cases fit snugly into an outer box with a picture of Dave Chappelle on the front. And this box set provides you with over ten hours of viewing material, so you can't complain that you have nothing to do!