Customer Reviews

The Critic : The Entire Series

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first came across The Critic over the internet in one of their Webisodes. I loved it all. I loved the film parodies and Jay's reviews. I loved all the humor in it. It was very brilliant. This was before I ever watched The Simpsons. I love The Simpsons and then when I got those DVDs and listened to the commentaries I realized that the producers that made that show brilliant made The Critic. So I got the DVDs and they're great. It has all the webisodes and I love to listen to the commentaries. The Making of the Critic is also very interseting. It angers me that FOX took this show off the air and let's carbon-copy crap like Family Guy air. This show is great and I hope they can start making new episodes.

The first episode of this show is the funniest one. I haven't seen it in 6-8 years. I think it premiered after the Super Bowl. Jay Sherman is the classic pessimist. His boss is annoying as all hell though. It's somewhat worth the money, I guess.

I don't know what confuses and infuriates me more: The fact that Fox cancelled this brilliant show after only two seasons, or the fact that no other network was smart enough to pick the series up when Fox dropped it. This show had everything! Action, Romance, Drama, the unbriadaled bashing of the Fox network and anyone affiliated with it, not to mention one of the most awe-inspiring characters of all time: Duke Phillips. I cannot stress that point enough. Simply put: 'All hail Duke! Duke is Life!'
I think that its about time for Fox to realize their mistake and crawl back to James L. Brooks and say, "Look, the Simpsons is done in two years, so will you please, pleeaase, PLLLLEEEEEEAAAASSSSEEEE save our network?!?!?!?!" This show could do that. And more. Thats how awesome it is. And if you even think about disagreeing with that, I should warn you, I'm an experienced dueler. Pistols at dawn, shal we say?

New York Film Critic Jay Sherman (Jon Lovitz) reviews movies like "Rabbi Pi" , "Howard Stern's End" , and other movies. The movie clips are really funny. It failed on ABC, it failed on FOX, it even failed on Comedy Central and it really failed on the Internet! But, it won't fail on DVD.

The short-lived series is funny no matter how you look at it.

I first caught The Critic on FOX when I was in high school, and although it was canceled, I was pleased to see that Comedy Central picked up the reruns a few years ago. This underrated show, like many others, was simply a victim of politics among network executives. One of the commentators on this DVD (I forget who) quoted Jonny Carson as saying, "TV is only medium that eats its young", and that's very true in this case. Fortunately The Critic developed enough of a following to be released on DVD, and so I will now review the DVD itself.

Episodes - 5/5 - Great lines, characters, stories, and movie parodies. The visual gags (such as the cartwheeling hampster) and sign jokes (United Nations School: Teaching Tolerance and Brotherhood To Those Who Can Afford It) have rivaled those on the Simpsons and Futurama. The animation has a unique and naturalistic look that works very well: the people and places feel real. Also, the writing and the acting are quite solid.

Commentaries - 3/5 - The commentators are witty and informative, but my main complaint is that there are only eight episodes with commentaries. I would have enjoyed commentaries on all of the episodes. The other problem is that when I played the commentaries, the sound wasn't as good, and I had to turn the volume way up, not only to hear the episode, but to hear Charles Napier and Nick Jameson, who often talk softly.

Subtitles/Language Options - 0/5 - There are no subtitles at all, which is particularly irritating when trying to listen to the commentary tracks. And despite the FBI warnings being in both English and French, the audio is only in English.

DVD package/menues - 2/5 - The outer package has little info about the DVD's contents. There is a booklet inside that lists the episodes, but doesn't list the special features. The DVD menues are simplified (for instance, there are no submenues for each episode). Episodes with commentary available only have an asterisk in the Episode Selection Menu, and the names of the commentators are not shown, only spoken.

Special Features - 5/5 - I was pleasantly surprised with the extras on this DVD. They've included all ten of the internet shorts from 2000, which were cool to watch. I particularly enjoyed the "Making of the Critic" featurette, which contained interviews with Mike Reiss, Al Jean, Jim Brooks, Rich Moore, Maurice La Marche, and Nick Jameson. I like being able to finally match up a face with a voice! Also, the episode "A Pig-Boy and His Dog" had a few scenes where you could view the storyboards and animatic along with the full color animation all on the same screen, which Rich Moore commentating. Finally, I got a kick out of the "Fun Facts" and "Movie Trivia" bits.

Overall, I give this DVD 4 stars because I feel the quality of the episodes and special features outweight the problems with the DVD, mainly the lack of subtitles and too few commentaries. Fans of this show, as well as fans of The Simpsons, Futurama, and Dilbert, should definitely get this DVD.

I've always been a fan of The Critic, with loveable loser Jay Sherman and I'm glad to have it on DVD commercial free! Jay (voiced by Jon Lovitz) hosts a movie review show with hilarious movie parodies. He works for a Ted Turner-esque boss, help raise his son, deals with a bitter ex-wife and later gets a sweet girlfriend (voiced by Park Overall). Especially funny are Jay's gravel-voiced makeup lady Doris, who tells it like it is, and his 'eccentric' father who glues the silver to the ceiling and talks to penguins, amongst other things.

There are some slight changes between the first and second season, but they show remains funny. If you enjoy quick wit and pop culture references, peppered with the occasional dirty jokes, check out the Critic - it's a good time.

If you ever saw this series on T.V. then you remember how funny it was. I miss this cartoon and am glad I can now watch it any time I like. My son watches it all the time, and it's good clean fun. I enjoy the humor and antics of all the characters. It's a great cartoon series for adults as well as kids. I give it a "thumbs up".

Though it never really becomes more than the sum of its parts (hindered by quite a few rather generic plot lines and unimaginative film parodies) `The Critic' does contain more than its share of memorable laugh-out-loud moments, generally due to the brilliant voice acting of Maurice LaMarche, who performs most of the celebrity voice impersonations. His Orson Welles impression (`Rosebud... yes, Rosebud frozen peas'), one of the show's standout moments, has to be heard to be believed - it's no wonder Tim Burton hired him to overdub D'Onofrio's voice in `Ed Wood'.

Other highlights include the many cameo appearances by film critics Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, Gene Shalit and Rex Reed. Seeing Siskel and Jay re-enact the `wig' scene from Hitchcock's `Vertigo' is heartwarming, and though I could never stand Rex Reed's reviews, he is a fabulous voice actor. His delivery of the Savvy Indian Chewing Tobacco commercial jingle still makes me laugh out loud any time I hear it.

Not a knockout show, but definitely worth watching. It's a bloody shame this was cancelled.

The Critic is the television program I know best. I loved it when first appeared in the early 90s on ABC, and continued to love it on Fox and in reruns on Comedy Central. The pop culture references mixed in with Simpsons-inspired craziness simply made this perfect television program for me.

For those who were paying attention in the early 1990s, the Critic shined some hilarious and downright silly light on popular things of the time. If you've seen the show on Comedy Central, you know whether or not this DVD is for you. If you like making fun of now almost-archaic pop-culture from the 1990s, you'll enjoy this.

If you're looking at this DVD, you've probably enjoyed the show already. Every episode is intact, though the quality is sketchy. First season episode's brightness, contrast, and even color balance seem somewhat questionable on my computer monitor. The first season's colors look somewhat muddy, while the second season seems a little brighter and higher quality. Did someone mishandle the original prints?

The commentary is quite good, with some interesting, fast-paced commentary discussing a wide variety of topics. The writers seem quite intelligent and funny, all the more shame this show got cancelled. They discuss whether Jon Lovitz really is like Jay Sherman in real life, the history of the show's acceptance, or lack thereof, on its networks, and even discussing the policies of FOX handling television programs: namely, how incomprehensible, off-putting, and detrimental re-arranging schedules can be to a show's success.

The writers even mention when they recorded the commentary; the day of California's gubernatorial vote, which Governor Schwarzenegger won and whose election the writers predict. Am I declaring the commentators psychic? No, otherwise they could have avoided The Critic's failure. Hatchie matchie!

It's simply a joy to see this wonderful show getting some wide distribution. Here's to hoping to a future version of the DVD with higher quality video, commentaries for every episode with even more of the cast, and maybe real-life video interviews with the writers and cast.

If you liked the Critic on TV, you will like this competently put-together DVD set.

...a lot of hot topics of the day, actors, politicians and more. It was a fun show and the humor very clever. (maybe too clever for some viewers) The fact that it was so topical and talked about current event may be one of the reasons it failed.

Fans of The Simpson, The Family Guy, King of the Hill and Futurama should really enjoy this series. I can't say I like it as much as the aformentioned, but I liked it enough. There are too few good "adult" oriented cartoons on TV today, it is a shame this one never found it's nitch. Those of you who like clever comedy and great celebrity impersonations should enjoy The Critic.