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Best Of The Colbert Report (The) (TV)
R1 - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (4th November 2007). |
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The Show
 Fans of Stephen Colbert would have developed their following from his days as a correspondent on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" (1996-Present), the show has seen several comedians used as correspondents and contributors including Steve Carell, Ed Helms, Lewis Black and Demetri Martin, as well as Colbert himself among others. His style is very ironic and always uninformed; his delivery is deadpan and works a treat for the format of the show. His character became a popular aspect of 'The Daily Show" and that led to his own spin-off show also produced by Stewart's production company, Busboy, for Comedy Central. The show was pitched as Stephen Colbert's version of "The O'Reilly Factor" (1996-Present). This parody format works well with Colbert's style of comedy, delivery and ego-centric persona that drives the show's political opinion engine. The show itself focuses on Colbert himself, who appears as the front man character that's a 'well-intentioned yet poorly informed idiot' who delivers his own opinions as fact and spins stories to his means. The show is broken down into segments which often include a breakdown of hot topic issues, interviews as well as segments such as 'The Word" in which he's coined such phrases as "Truthiness", which Webster's Dictionary proclaimed their 2006 word of the year. These segments have become embedded in popular culture as his persona is imitated often, as the segments have became an internet phenomenon with fans posting clips all over You Tube and watched by many. The premiere episode of "The Colbert Report" garnered huge rating and viewership and remains among Comedy Central's stop shows. Among the finest moments include the 'Green Screen Challenge' where Colbert filmed himself playing with a lightsaber in front of a green screen and challenged fans to composite him in a environment to make him look good. Other features that have become fan favorites is 'Stephen Colbert's Rock and Awe: Countdown to Guitarmageddon' in which Colbert challenges a member of the band The Decemberists to a rock off among many other moments. This DVD includes as the title suggests 'The Best Of' and fan favorite moments from the last three seasons can be found here including those two segments previous mentioned. But Colbert is most entertaining when he's interacting with guests and his interviews have proven to be the highlights of the series with such guests as Bill O'Reilly himself. As well as the incredibly horny Jane Fonda who can't seem to get her hands off Colbert throughout their interview, she even sits in his lap and kisses him while finding various parts of his face, ear and lips. It's sometimes uncomfortable, and the interview seems like a train wreck as Colbert can't seem to talk about her latest film as she continually brings the subject back to the softness of his lips. Other segments featured on this disc include my personal favorites : the Gravitas headline delivery featuring Stone Phillips and the Metaphor challenge with Sean Penn, who I was convinced had no sense of humor until I saw this clip. The great thing about this DVD is that there are many amusing moments to look back on and have a chuckle about, if you're a fan of "The Colbert Report" then perhaps you might want to check out this release, but I couldn't help but want more, if only Paramount had seen fit to release a multi-disc Volume with complete episodes instead of these edited clips, which by the way were readily available on You Tube. This DVD includes the following segments: "The Word: Truthiness", "The Word: Wikiality", "Better Know a District", "Indecision 2006", "Green Screen Challenge", "Barry Manilow", "Guitarmageddon", "Saginaw Spirit", "Papa Bear", "Cooking with Feminists", "Jane Fonda Interview", "Stone Phillips: Let the Gravitas Begin", "Stephen Jr.", "Stephanie Jr.", "Threat Down", "Ice Cream & Willie Nelson", "Hungarian Bridge", "A Rare Correction" and "Meta-Free-Phor-All".
Video
Presented in the show's original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1 this full screen transfer has a few problems which include some compression artefacts, edge-enhancement as well as shimmer and the occasional pixilated line which can be distracting and at times looks like you are watching a downloaded version of the show. While Sharpness is generally consistent and colors appear vibrant with natural skin tones I couldn't help but be a little disappointed with the flaws of this transfer.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is included, this is a news program parody so the major focus is on dialogue and in that regard this stereo track holds up fairly well with clear and distortion free sound, although it would have been cool have included a 5.1 mix as the show has a series of punchy graphics and segment intros that would sound great in surround, but alas this stereo track does an ok job considering it's most likely the show's original broadcast audio. This feature does not include any optional subtitles.
Extras
Paramount has released this show only with a handful of start-up bonus trailers for: - "Christmas Time in South Park" which runs for 1 minute 26 seconds. - "The Sarah Silverman Program Season One" which runs for 1 minute 24 seconds. - "Demetri Martin. Person." which runs for 32 seconds.
Overall
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