Strangers With Candy: Season 3 (DVD)

Strangers With Candy was a cult show on Comedy Network that aired around 2000, which I had actually never heard of until this year. It’s a sitcom that follows the format of cheesy after school specials, and is noteworthy for two main reasons – it stars and was written by Stephen Colbert (from the Daily Show and now his own show, the Colbert Report), and its pretty damn politically incorrect – probably even more so than South Park.

The show revolves around Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris, who you might know from Sex in the City, Elf, etc), a 46 year old “boozer, user and a loser” who goes back to high school to try and pick her life back up. She’s disgusting, dirty, very racist, slutty, and plays for both teams. Basically, theres nowhere this show won’t go, and it goes there often. The writing of the show is “smart stupid” – as in, egghead writers who are being silly, while also playing base humor in an ironic way. It’s this strange charm that appeals to me as well as maybe what confused viewers back when it aired. Like after school specials, the subjects of the show generally follow the same format – lessons about racism, unity, school spirit, boyfriends, popularity, with a lesson to be learned by the end of the show that’s pretty much the opposite of what would you would normally see.

Other than Sedaris, Colbert, the main characters are an art teacher and principal played by actors who are very funny and memorable yet I’m sad to say haven’t done much else outside the show. There are many cameos throughout the series, and in this particular season (admittedly a little weaker than the first two, but still good) we see David Cross, Jeneane Garofalo, Winona Ryder and Andy Richter.

The DVD contains a few decent commentary tracks, a blooper/highlight reel, and the best feature, a compilation of dance sequences. You see, each episode ends with every character from the episode in a dance party. Its their equivalent of the Simpsons couch gag, and in a couple cases, such as Colbert doing a dance routine to the Hebrew song “The King of Glory”, it’s the highlight of the show. – Goon

SCORE:

Recommended If You Like: Daily Show, The Colbert Report, South Park, Arrested Development

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