81 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Certain sauces give me a rash., January 14, 2004
_Get a Life_ might just be my favorite show ever, but I'm not going to shell out for these discs with a mere 4 episodes.
Issue a complete set, and I'll advance order it the second I hear about it.
And while you're at it, include a commentary track for each episode by Chris Peterson and Gus Borden. Thanks.
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30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The greatest Anti-Sitcom ever!, February 22, 2005
It's safe to say that without Chris Elliott's GET A LIFE, we probably would never have seen the success of the Farrelly Brothers or ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. GET A LIFE set new frontiers in TV comedy by taking the standard sitcom format and turning it on its head.
The premise was simple: a 30-year-old paperboy still lived at home with his rather less-than-concerned parents (played by Elinor Donahue and Chris' real-life father, Bob Elliott) who tolerated him as best they could while he got into one mess after another.
But this was no LEAVE IT TO BEAVER. Whereas most sitcoms would take such a premise and turn it into a formulaic, feel-good giggle-fest, GET A LIFE dared to make its lead character into a bizarre man-child who could never see how truly ridiculous his inane behavior was to others. He lived in his own self-contained world where he was the coolest and hippest guy on the planet. What saved the character from being either a creep or the butt of everyone's joke was his underlying naivete and childlike innocence, which, in the end, was often enough to help him (barely) triumph over the evil forces in his neighborhood.
Embodied perfectly by Chris Elliott, the indestructible "Chris Peterson" was a brilliant sitcom creation who managed to last two seasons on Fox. But that was only half the story. The other great thing about GET A LIFE was how the series took standard-issue sitcom plots and twisted them into deranged new forms. This was like the TWIN PEAKS of sitcoms in the way it constantly challenged the boundaries of both good taste and common sense in order to get a reaction from its stunned audience. The humor ran the gamut from low-brow to madcap to surreal. In the 2nd Season, almost every episode ended with Chris getting killed.
The GET A LIFE VOL. 1 DVD collects four great episodes from the first season, including the hysterical "The Prettiest Week of My Life," in which Chris trains to be a runway model. One of the funniest bits is a takeoff on the infamous Irene Cara scene from FAME.
It's a shame that Rhino never got around to releasing the entire series on DVD, but at least the 8 episodes available on VOL. 1 and 2 are enough to give viewers a sizable appreciation of this short-lived but memorably off-beat sitcom.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hilarious but NOT ENOUGH, November 24, 2003
By A Customer
There is nothing funnier than Chris Elliott on this DVD but a mere 4 episodes is a joke. Please provide more and you're likely to get more buyers.
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