The Sarah Silverman Program: Season Two, Volume One DVD Review

DVD Reviews, Reviews

If you’ve seen even one episode of The Sarah Silverman Program you know this show isn’t for the easily offended or the faint of heart. But if you love Sarah’s inappropriate humor than these six new episodes will have you clapping and cheering with tasteless glee.

All of your favorite characters are back: Sarah, of course, her sister Laura, Laura’s boyfriend, Jay, as well as Sarah’s two best gay friends, Brian and Steve. Season two starts out with easily the best episode of the series so far, “Bored Of The Rings,” wherein Sarah joins a radical church group that wants to stop babies from being murdered. However, things turn sour when Sarah realizes that what they mean is abortion in which she’s had three and is pretty sure she’ll have another. Meanwhile Brian and Steve argue about Brian’s obsession with Dungeons and Dragons and these two completely unrelated stories come together in a most unforgettable ending.

Season one was good, but in Season two The Sarah Silverman Program team really seem to have found their stride as every episode in this season is laugh out loud funny and better than anything from the first season.

Whether licking her dogs nether region, putting on black face, getting on her favorite TV show Cookie Party, rekindling with her ex-boyfriend God or realizing how much she needs her illegal immigrant housemaid Sarah is sure to make you laugh, gasp in shock or at the very least want to write a letter to congress. What really makes this show work though, especially in the case of Sarah going black face, is that Sarah is the butt of the joke as everyone around her in the episode is completely offended by her actions. Sarah exists in a surreal world of her own where she knows no politically correct boundaries, only what makes Sarah happy or at the very least keeps her from being bored.

This collection is Season Two, Vol. One only has the six episodes that were produced before the writers strike put the show on hiatus. New episodes of the show began airing October 8th and hopefully we won’t have to wait a year before the rest of the season finds it’s way to DVD.

Episodes:

Disc 1:

Bored Of The Rings – 10/3/2007

Sarah joins a radical religious group that wants to stop babies from being murdered. However things turn bad when she realizes they are talking about abortions, of which she’s had three, and they plan on bombing the clinic her sister is working at. Meanwhile, Steve and Brian argue over Brian’s Dungeons & Dragons obsession.

Joan Of Arf – 10/10/2007

When Sarah is caught licking her dog’s butt, because she was just curious what it taste like, Doug (the dog) is taken away from her and she must do whatever she can to get him back. Meanwhile Laura and Jay go over to Brian and Steve’s house to play the game of Life where Brian and Steve start arguing about Brian’s thoughts on gay marriage.

Face Wars – 10/17/2007

After Sarah is denied entry to a tennis club, she thinks it’s because she is Jewish and rants to her friends about how being Jewish is the hardest thing. When an African American over hears her he argues that being black is hard than being Jewish. To find out for herself, Sarah goes out on the town with black face and faces ridicule from all races. Meanwhile, Brian and Steve buy medical grade marijuana and get higher then they’ve ever been.

Doody – 10/24/2007

When the Silverman sisters’ mother’s tombstone is stolen and her skeleton violated, Sarah gets them on their favorite TV show, Cookie Party, so they can win the prize to buy a new tombstone and dedicate their winning cookie to their mom.

Ah, Men – 10/31/2007

Sarah starts up her relationship with God again. God gets high with Brian and Steve after a fight with Sarah. When Sarah learns that her high school rival is bringing “The Oh Face Guy” from Office Space to their High School reunion, she decides to bring God to one up her. Meanwhile, Brian and Steve wonder if pot it what has kept them “gay for each other” all these years.

Maid To Border – 11/7/2007

Sarah fired her maid, Dora, after she notices her beloved “Shoplift Shelly” doll is missing. Without a maid her apartment becomes a horrible pigsty. When she attempts to hire a new house cleaner (a great cameo by Bob Odenkirk) he is horrified by her place and convinces Sarah to get her old maid back. So Sarah goes down to Mexico to get her back only to learn that she’s become Mayor of a small town. Meanwhile, Steve is horrified to learn that there is only one song on Brian’s ipod, and it’s not metal like he thought it would be.

The show is presented in fullscreen 1:33.1 and English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. This is a good looking and sounding show. No problems here at all.

Disc 1:

Audio Commentaries: Episodes “Bored Of The Rings,” “Face Wars” and “Maid To Border” each have one commentary, “Doody” and “Ah, Men” have two commentaries and the lonely “Joan Of Arf” has zero commentaries. The commentaries range from pretty bad to pretty funny. Sadly, Sarah’s commentaries are the least interesting. She really doesn’t have much to say about the episodes and mostly just laughs at the jokes. Brian and Steve’s Commentaries are pretty good. They make good jokes and tell good stories. The best however, are by director Rob Schrab and writer Daniel Sterling. They are the most articulate providing the most information about the episodes. They are also funny.

Disc 2:

Digital Shorts: (4 min.) You get two of these. The first is Steve And Brian’s Basement Adventure. An animated short wherein Steve and Brian encounter a dinosaur in their basement and are eaten by it and must escape. The second is a live action short, Brian’s New Office, where Brian moves into his new office that is haunted by the floating head of a stunt man.

Comic Con 2007: (30 min.) Zack Galifianakis moderates The Sarah Silverman Program panel at Con ’07. The whole cast and main creative crewmembers answer both good and bad questions from the audience. This is pretty funny.

Cookies Come Alive!: (13 min.) Cookies Come Alive! is an animated cartoon that is part of the Cookie Party TV show. Here you get three cartoon shorts and a commercial for the Cookies Come Alive! Video game. Mini Coffee and Ookie, hosts of Cookie Party, host these shorts. These are all absurdly strange and oddly enjoyable.

Behind The Scenes: (4 min.) There are eight bits here: Jay’s Cape about why Jay Johnson wears a cape around the set. Jay’s Xbox, where Jay won’t let Steve play the communal Xbox with him. Justin Sketch, where one of the actors teaches us how to get into character. The Silverman Report, an interview series hosted by the super inept Michael Smith who interviews Jay, Ookie, Steve and Paul F. Tompkins. Lastly we have On The Set with Steve where we follow Steve around the set for a day. Most of these are pretty funny and round out a nice set of special features.

By all means this show is not for everyone. It’s very offensive and will not be funny to the squeamish. However, if you’re on the same level as the humor then this is some of the funniest TV you’ll see. Sarah Silverman really delivers on a level all her own. If you liked season one, you’ll love season two.

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Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures present The Sarah Silverman Program: Season Two, Volume One. Created by Sarah Silverman, Rob Schrab and Dan Harmon. Starring Sarah Silverman, Laura Silverman, Brian Posehn, Steve Agee and Jay Johnston. Running time: 132 minutes. Not Rated. Released on DVD: October 14, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years