Thursday & Friday, May 4 & 5, 2006

Red Dwarf – Season VIII – 1999

     I’m usually not a big fan of comedy. That should be pretty self-evident by this time. However, there are a few comedies that I really enjoy, and very high on that relatively short list is Red Dwarf. British SF humor, interspersed liberally with vulgarity disguised by making up swear words (my kids, ages 8 & 12, use SMEG with startling abandon, since it doesn’t mean anything, and the school officials don’t watch Red Dwarf).

Season 8 is the last, I believe. At least, IMDB doesn’t list any further seasons. And to be fair, I love the earlier seasons better. (Although Season 7’s Blue, with its The Rimmer Experience, may be my absolute favorite episode. I could watch that scene over and over and never stop laughing). But there’s good stuff here, considering that they re-introduce the original crew of Red Dwarf (instead of it just being Lister, Rimmer, The Cat, and Kryton, as in earlier episodes).

This final release is a three disc set, with nearly all the episodes having “commentaries” by the cast. I put it in quotes, because it’s really not much of a commentary at all. They talk, and joke, and poke fun at one another, but talk very little about either what is going on on the screen, or what went on behind the scenes. It’s mostly a “coke and joke’ sessions between good friends. Enjoyable, especially for fans of the actors and the show, but not much of a commentary, really.

The third disc has the usual assortment of extras, including deleted scenes (very good), special effects featurettes (good, but not great), and an assortment of stills and interviews.

This crossed over two days, since although each episode is only 30 minutes long, and there’s only 8 episodes, watching them twice (without and with commentaries) ate up two days. And yeah, I know, this just came out on Tuesday, so I let it cut in line. Hey, it’s my rule, sue me.

Four ales (and a curry) out of five. Seasons One through Five may be fives.