The Sarah Silverman Program - Season One - DVD Review

Sarah Silverman is offensive, crude, silly, and mean - but that's okay, 'cause after every hateful and bigoted thing that flies from her mouth follows an innocent smile. That's her comedy.

Comedy Central ordered 6 episodes for the first season of the outrageous comedienne's subversive take on the sitcom, The Sarah Silverman Program. Nobody thought it would survive for any longer than a season, due to the nature of Silverman's comedy and of course, it's Comedy Central. Yes, this is quite a short season, but almost all the episodes are fantastic. The show revolves around Silverman playing a fiction version of herself - ala Larry David. If I had to compare the show to another it would definitely be Curb Your Enthusiasm. The two shows aren't really all that similar, however, the set-up of a comedian playing a very distinct version of themselves in a very distinct comedy world is the big similarity. The differences are in their specific comedy styles. Silverman's character lives with and off her younger sister Laura (played by her real-life older sister Laura Silverman). The fact that Sarah makes herself the older sister in the sitcom tells you just the kind of character you can expect - an extremely self-centered child. Her and her sister are joined by Laura's cop boyfriend Office Jay McPherson (Jay Johnston, Mr. Show) and their two gay neighbors Brian (Brian Posehn, Mr. Show) and Steve (Steve Agee, who wrote for Jimmy Kimmel Live!). Over the course of the first season Sarah gets up to a lot of mischief including, getting messed up on cough syrup, taking in a homeless guy, getting AIDS, shitting her pants, and meeting God. Just to be clear, the show isn't at all driven by plot but by twisted and scatological situational humor. The show also plays with sitcom conventions or tropes like the best friends next door and the concluding, 'what have we learned' scene in which Sarah, before going to bed, tells her dog what lessons and morals she learned over the episode - you can probably guess this trope is always subverted to the extreme. Then there's the musical side to the show. Each episode features a number by Silverman that loosely relates to show. Among others there's a poop song and a song on what is wrong with the world.

Now I'll discuss why so many people find the show inaccessible or offensive. When Sarah makes an ignorant statement you can often see social commentary behind it and find it funny (eg. Wonder Showzen). However, the point to a lot of her humour is the awkwardness that comes from the inability to figure out what the joke is trying to say on a political level. One of my favourite gags from the first season is when Sarah wakes up and we see she set her alarm clock for 9:11. It's certainly not a comment on anything, it's hilarious because it's stupidly offensive, frivolous, and pointless.

Video

The image is full frame and I really have no quality complaints.

Audio

The Stereo audio is fine, the musical numbers sound good, but there is an occasional bad mix of dialogue, however, that's sometimes the case with a lot of these low-budget Comedy Central shows.

Extras

Special Features:

• Musical Performances
• Sing-Along
• Audio Commentary

The musical performances are from a live acoustic show with Sarah and occasional Laura making stupid songs about dumb things. The Sing-Along feature allows you to watch the musical scenes from the episodes with subtitles.

If you think it's up your alley then go ahead and buy it. If you have reservations but still want to check it out then maybe a rental would be wise. On a final note, it makes me happy to know there's a very original and funny female comedian doing her own thing and gaining a lot of recognition.