Blog DVD Review: Lil' Bush Season 2 (Oct. 14)

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Blog DVD Review: Lil' Bush Season 2 (Oct. 14)

It is Saturday, so that must mean it is time for the weekly Blog DVD Review! Today we take a look at Comedy Central/Paramount's Lil' Bush: Season Two. Lil' Bush is the hilarious Comedy Central animated series about George W. Bush when he was lil'. See skees53's Blog DVD Review of Lil' Bush: Season Two:

Lil' Bush: Season Two (Comedy Central DVD, $26.98) brings us ten more episodes of the Comedy Central animated sitcom about the life of George W. Bush as a child. If you ever wondered how George W. Bush got to where he is today, you can find out exactly how with this series, along with his friends--although in all fairness, the series isn't exactly biographical. Technically, Lil' Bush is a parody of Bush's childhood, but much of the events are events that are taking place in the current day, or very similar events. But in any event, it is hilarious political humor.
The season has many great episodes, and is honestly better than much the first season. In the first episode of the season, "St. Patrick's Day," we get to meet Lil' Karl Rove (played by... Kevin Federline... yes, the former Mr. Britney Spears) as he helps destroy the Lil' Dems St. Patrick's Day parade. And oh yeah, Barbara buys a tanning bed and cooks some liver in it... her own. The Lil' Cronies get a hold of some prescriptions that don't set well with them in "Big Pharma." The home mortgage crisis in America hits the Bush family as George Sr. and Barbara can't afford their mortgage payments on the White House (don't ask) in "Katrina." In Weekend at Saddamy's," the gang goes on a camping trip in Baghdad. Lil' Cheney has a heart, and apparently Osama bin Laden can use it, in "Afghanistan." Lil' Bush is going to have his own wedding, well getting married to his father, in "Wedding." The season ends with "Anthem & China," where the guys take on all of China.
With more episodes in this season than there were in the first season, the set expands to two discs this time. The set is presented in a standard DVD style case, with an extra tray inserted for the second disc. There are five episodes on each disc, but you wouldn't know that, as they neglected to include any sort of episode guide or list on this set, anywhere. I don't know how they expect people to know where to find the episodes.
The video and audio quality on this set are basically fine, with no real problems to note. Of course, that is expected, as these episodes aired only a few months ago on TV. It is usually pretty difficult to go wrong on quality with such recent shows, as there is never really much to "clean up" on the prints from the time of airing to the DVD. Of course, these were also rushed to DVD, which means that we have closing credits from Comedy Central left intact on all of the episodes. It isn't that bad, though. Each episode runs around 22 minutes.
The set has a great selection of special features, beginning with "Lil' Bush Viral Video" (2:42), which is basically a parody of those videos that many people put on YouTube, such as the "Obama Girl" video, supporting their presidential candidates. There are web clips (6:47), which are essentially just short little videos related to the series that can be found on the series website (gopharmony.com). They are very fun to watch. A commentary can be found on the episode "Big Pharma" on Disc One, as well as all five episodes on Disc Two, although they aren't as creative as the commentaries found on Season One. Instead, we just have commentary from the directors and producers of the series here. Finally, there are some animatics on Disc Two. (20:50), which gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the episodes.
This is a funny series to watch, although it isn't quite as good as the earlier Comedy Central sitcom about Bush, That's My Bush. Of course, it isn't exactly fair to compare the series, as they are completely different series with different objectives, but both are sitcoms about George W. Bush. The real question is this: is this the final season of the series? With no plans for a third season so far and less than four months left of Bush's tenure in office, the entire premise of the series will be outdated before new episodes could be made. Of course, they could make a Lil' Obama or Lil' McCain spin-off, as these are already characters on the series already, but those characters honestly aren't quite as funny. In any event, for now, you can give a hail to the little chief by checking out this DVD set.
-- Reviewed by skees53