The Good
Steve Smith Red Green is as innovative as they come.
The Bad
I don’t know that I ever fully got my head around this show.
The Red Green Show: 1998 Season is the kind of DVD set that you like or you don’t. You either get where its coming from or you’re completely lost. The format of the show is simple. Red opens by telling us some sort of joke or life lesson. Its done with his sarcastic, older themed sense of humor and then we go into the regular show. Red then holds court at Possum Lodge with nephew Harold, as he meets and greets with various visitors. Imagine “Tool Time” from Home Improvement and you sort of get the idea. After this, Red will usually spend the better part of the episode trying to build something. From starting his own postal system (yes, you read that correctly), to building a boat with duct tape (again, I’m not making this up), to building a pacemaker with a clock, Red Green shows off his own brand of technical know how.
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In truth, this show isn’t for everybody but I am sure that its core fan base will be happy to see that The Red Green Show: 1998 Season has come to DVD.
Features
Red and Harold Character Bios
I started to go through these things but when I realized that I was going to have to read through them I stopped. I realized I should have known better as this is how Acorn Media does this stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading, I just don’t really want to do it on a TV set! Look through these and decide for yourself, they seem to be written in the same comic spirit in which the show takes place.
Video
4:3 Full Screen. Shot on video these shows are very nicely compressed. They don’t have the “video” look that so many reality shows employ. At the same time, these shows don’t seem like they are falling apart either. Considering that Red’s shirt could be enough to create all kinds of video noise, it was nice seeing that nothing got in the way of this show’s presentation. With 350 minutes of content, I can safely say that as far as the “look” of the video things were very good.
Audio
Stereo. Close Captioned. Things were a little low in this department. Once I turned up my TV a little more than halfway everything was fine. As the comedy is constantly coming (this show had a consistently zany vibe that you might find charming or annoying) good audio is paramount. Things stayed leveled pretty well over the course of this release. With three discs in this set, I never had to adjust my sound once I got things where they needed to be while utilizing the first disc. Good work, Acorn!
Package
Red Green stands on this front slipcase cover with an “I told you so” smile on his face as he pulls his suspenders. They have also mixed the colors of red and green on this cover as well. The back contains one shot of Red against a mainly green background, while he holds 5 big rolls of duct tape. There is a description of what this show is about, an Extras listing and system specs. Acorn has packed the three discs that make up this set in three slim cases, all of which have the same front cover as the slipcase itself. The back cover lists out the episodes and also offers up descriptions.
Final Word
Having been on the air from 1991 to 2006, I would be surprised if fans of this Canadian sitcom weren’t falling all over themselves to get their hands on this 1998 season. I am also not going to say that I 100% got what was going on here. I liked this show but I am more of a traditionalist as far as sitcoms go, and despite how Red Green looks he really is anything but traditional. In fact, this show goes to great pains to disarm viewers. It makes us think that we know what kind of show we’re getting, but then it completely knocks those assessments out of the park. On top of this, in much the same way that All in the Family presented an Archie Bunker that both the Left and Right could love, Red Green (played by Steve Smith) walks that same line. He says things about women, life and money that we expect a man like him to say. At the same time, if you really listen closely, its apparent that he doesn’t believe it.
The Red Green Show was released .
