|
|
The Movie:
"In Living Color" was Fox's prime-time sketch comedy series that launched in 1990, lasting for four years. Created by Keenan Ivory Wayans and starring other members of the Wayans clan (Marlon, Kim, Shawn and Damon), the show was also the launching pad for Jim Carrey (listed in the credits as James Carrey in these early episodes), David Alan Grier, Tommy Davidson and Jennifer Lopez (who was one of the Fly Girl dancers in later episodes.)
While not as savage as "Mad TV" occasionally is these days, "In Living Color" certainly gained an audience by being edgy and unafraid to make jokes that were crude or edgy. Watching the show again after all these years, it's remarkable to see not only how well some of it holds up. Despite the fact that the show's look appears a little dated at this point, the humor still hits pretty consistently and fans can get a look at the early years of some great comedic talents. Although it offered a fantastic cast, "Color" also employed a series of writers who went on to other things, such as Les Firestein ("Drew Carey Show"), Steve Odekirk ("Ace Ventura"), Colin Quinn ("Saturday Night Live"), Robert Schimmel ("Saturday Night Live") and Larry Wilmore ("The Bernie Mac Show").
This second season continues to see the show grow and offer hilarious skits both new and old. The most famous example of this is the birth of Jim Carrey's psychotic Fire Marshall Bill, who appears in the fourteenth episode of the season in a skit that has the character offering a disasterous lesson in fire safety. There's also the hardworking Jamaican family in "Hey Mon". Popular returning sketches include "Men On Film", Carrey's "Vera Di Milo", Homeboy Shopping Network's "Mo Money" and Damon Wayans' "Homey The Clown".
The set includes all 25 episodes from the second season across four discs.
The DVD
VIDEO: "In Living Color" is presented by Fox in the show's original 1.33:1 full-frame aspect ratio again for this second season. The picture quality is slightly improved upon the prior season set, but the image quality is generally good. Sharpness and detail are satisfactory, as the presentation consistently appeared fairly crisp and clear, but sharpness and detail were never noteworthy.
Colors generally appeared fine, with good saturation and no smearing. No pixelation was noticed, nor was any instances of edge enhancement. Shimmering was apparent in a few scenes, but this wasn't too much of an issue. Overall, these episodes looked perfectly fine.
SOUND: The stereo soundtracks offered clean dialogue and well-recorded, crisp-sounding music.
EXTRAS: Writers Kim Bass and Barry Sheffield provide an audio commentary for some specific sketches throughout the season. The fourth disc includes three featurettes: "Notorious ILC: The Characters", "Appreciating In Living Color" and "Season 2 Overview". The second season overview is the main piece, running at nearly forty minutes. It offers a lot of interview footage from cast and creators; we get to learn more about how the new characters were created and how old characters were further developed. The interviews are informative and entertaining, but this is sort of a "talking heads" piece, with a lot of discussion mixed in with a mild amount of clips. The other two featurettes are similar, with the "Appreciating" piece chatting about audience reaction and taking the show to new places and the "Characters" piece looking at audience favorites.
Also included is an intro from writers Bass and Sheffield as well as a promo for "Bill Cosby: Himself".
Final Thoughts: "In Living Color" was a groundbreaking, riotously funny series that launched a lot of careers and offered several sketches that remain classics. The second season continues to see the show offering gems both old and new. Fox's DVD edition offers the series with good audio/video quality and a few enjoyable supplements. Highly recommended.
|