DVD Review: Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil

Movie Info:
Cast: Lewis Black, Andrew Daly, Patton Oswald, Paul Tompkins, Andy Kindler, Greg Giraldo, Kathleen Madigan
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Comedy Central

Release Info:
DVD Release Date: September 30, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $19.99

The idea behind Root of all Evil is simple. Two comics face off in a hilarious style of debate with two topics that are either incredibly random or incredibly unimportant. It doesn’t seem to matter if they are important or not because they are completely hilarious. There is just something funny about having two comedians face off in a debate about Kim Jong II and Tila Tequila. That might seem easy to answer for you (Kim Jong II, right?), but there are some more difficult choices included such as Weed vs. Beer (really, who can choose?).

Most of the episodes are more random than anything. For instance, Donald Trump vs. Viagra is one of the episodes that come to mind. I don’t know about you, but I would vote erections over comb-overs any day, but it’s still funny to hear these options fought out.

These episodes are all from the first season. It appears that the random nature of most of the episodes in the first season is seen as a downfall. Apparently, the second season is going to try and be more structured and make a little more sense in regards to the topics that are chosen.

The only major problem I noticed was the length of the show. If there was just one comedian discussing two ideas for 30 minutes with commercials it might not seem so bad. However, removing commercials brings the show to about 23 minutes and that’s not a lot of time for a show that has a structure (opening statements, time to debate, etc) and two people debating. Of course, looking at it from another angle, if it sucked, I probably would have said it was too long.

The episodes included in this set are:

Weed vs. Beer
YouTube vs. Porn
Las Vegas vs. The Human Body
American Idol vs. High School
Donald Trump vs. Viagra
Kim Jong II vs. Tila Tequila
Oprah vs. Catholic Church
Paris Hilton vs. Dick Cheney

If you haven’t seen this show you should check it out. You can catch it on Comedy Central to determine if you like it, though if you’re a comedy fan you should enjoy it quite a bit. I am not sure who will be included in the coming seasons, but this season featured enough of the top comedians to get the attention it needed to offer future seasons and to keep people watching.

Storyline/Plot:
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:

Audio/Visual:
Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil is a fairly new show so the audio and video are pretty close to what you would expect to see on any given current Comedy Central show these days. The aspect ratio is 1.33:1 and the video shown is in full frame. The colors are decent overall and the video appears sharp. This isn’t high definition by any means, but it is without flaw for a basic transfer.

Audio is handled in Dolby Digital 2.0 with Closed Captioning. This is by no means a dynamic soundtrack, but it really doesn’t need to be one. All you need is the ability to properly hear the comedians debating and I was able to hear them just fine. With that in mind the audio did its job well. There weren’t any problems, but considering the nature of the show and its newness, there shouldn’t have been.

Visual:
Audio:

Bonus Features:
The special features here are not too exciting. I’ve never been a huge fan of Comedy Central’s bonus lineups and this is not really any different. Most of these bonuses are all about Comedy Central self promotion or they can be seen on other previously released sets, which doesn’t make them that special.

Things begin with before the show episodes from each episode. There are two problems with this bonus. First problem is that you go hop on the internet and find these same interviews on the show website. I am not sure how special that makes them, but they don’t feel so special knowing you can easily find them. Next problem is that these are censored due to their original placement on the web. This one would be fine, but the DVD is labeled uncensored so why bother putting something that you know isn’t? There also is no play all option from what I noticed, which really became annoying after a minute or two.

Four short videos, “Your Day in Court”, “Meet Judge Black”, “Meet the Lawyers” and “Polibits” are also included. Each piece is meant to be funny with Black or some of the lawyers talking to you about what to do if you have to go to court or how politicians are really liars. Things are wrapped up with some Comedy Central quickies and promos.

Bonus Features:

Bottom Line:
Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil is a pretty good time to be had by all. Sure, I didn’t know what to expect when I received this, but all’s well that ends well in this case. I had more than a few laughs and felt the show was entertaining, if not downright hilarious, from nearly start to finish. Black doesn’t play a major part in this other than being the host, but he does his job well and the comedians that handle the Politically Incorrect style of debate do even better. This one comes highly recommended.

Overall Rating:

Technorati Tags: DVD, Comedy Central, Root of all Evil, Lewis Black, Andrew Daly, Patton Oswald, Paul Tompkins, Andy Kindler, Greg Giraldo, Kathleen Madigan

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Written by Dominicus - Visit Website
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At 23 years old, I feel that I've lived enough life to share my opinion with the world. That's what I'm doing here, as a writer, for Literary Illusions. I was born in Florida, raised in California, and currently living in Colorado, where I go to a small school in the middle of nowhere. Majoring in Business Administration, I have the goal of one day ruling the world. Interests in life include dating, movies, sports, hanging out with friends, drinking, bar hopping, and writing in both an inebriated and sober state.