Customer Reviews

Twitch City - The Complete Series

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Finally, this great (but short-lived) Canadian series makes it to DVD. This is one of those cult classics that actually DESERVES to be a cult classic. It's a deadpan spoof of pop culture for people who enjoy pop culture (it satirizes without being smug). Writer/director/star Don McKellar and his castmates Molly Parker and Daniel McIvor (among others) are a pleasure to watch. I saw this on tape several years ago from a friend who had taped it off A&E -- now it's great to own the whole thing on DVD even though the picture quality could be better. Not to be missed if you like comedy that manages to be both goofy and smart!

I have been waiting for the Twitch City DVD since watching the show on Bravo years ago. The show is about a couch potato named Curtis (actor/director Don McKellar ) who spends his days eating fruit loops and watching TV. To support his slacker lifestyle, Curtis rents out his extra room out to a revolving cast of strange characters.

Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney from "Kids in the Hall" take turns guest staring as crazy chat show host Rex Reily.

Fans of smart comedy like "Arrested Development" and "The Office" will appreciate this well written comedy.

I was initially drawn to Twitch City by the reviews it had received, as well as the fine comedic talent Canada has produced in the past. This comedy has no laugh track, so the viewer is responsible for deciding what is funny, making it a unique "anti-comedy". The series only has 13 episodes, which probably helped prevent it from "jumping the shark" like many shows have done. I liked the characters so much that I am searching out other projects that the cast members of Twitch City have done.

I love this show. I am so happy to see the whole series finally came out on dvd, and at a great price. I saw it when it was on Bravo, but not in order. As it turns out, the show, over 2 seasons, was shot more like a film, with a beginning, an end, and characters that evolve over the course of the story. That alone sets it apart from most comedies on TV.

It is about Curtis, an agoraphobic TV addict whose favorite show is Rex Reilly, sort of a Canadian Jerry Springer. His uptight roommate, loses his room (just watch the show), and Curtis and his roommate's girlfriend need to rent out the room to a series of very odd tenants in each episode. Oh, and their cat may be a re-incarnated Egyptian Goddess who can communicate telepathically (again, you have to see the show).

It is surprising how good such a basic premise ended up, but I think it's the characters that you really relate to in all their flaws (very well-portrayed by a talented cast). The series has an odd black comic tone, and is sometimes a bit sweet, and sad.

The series only lasted 13 episodes. I doubt the premise would have held up over more seasons, but there is a story arc through the episodes, with a satisfying conclusion.

My only criticisms about the dvd set are the video quality seems a bit grainier than I recall it being on cable, I'm not sure if it is the transfer or what. Also the commentary, only on a couple episodes, is pretty disappointing and doesn't add much. But these are very minor flaws, for a great show at a great price. Well worth the purchase!

Highly recommended! Buy it, watch it, give it to a friend!

Unlike a lot of people that have purchased this show, I had never seen an episode before buying it. I really bought it because it had Callum Keith Rennie in it and I read over the internet that it was funny. But I loved it, so it's all good. Twitch City is a really quirky, funny show. I'd recommend it if you enjoy watching shows such as Arrested Development or even The Office. It is very different from most American sitcoms, however (more swearing and sex.)

fans of this series have been waiting for years for this release. after several attempted releases, it's finally out in canada and soon in the states. the release includes all 13 episodes of the series with remastered picture and sound, but falls way short in the extras department. disk one has all 6 episodes of the first series and the first episode of the second, with commentary on two episodes by don mckellar. the second disk rounds off the the rest of the episodes with no commentary at all, a photo gallery and some cast and crew bios. the disks are well worth the wait, but it would have been nice to have more in the way of special features. if you can't wait until the u.s. release of twitch city, you can get it through amazon.ca right now.

I am not a fan of most television. I watch mostly documentaries and news programs. Usually I think that sitting in your living room and looking at one on TV is a bizarre passtime but this show is different in that it pokes fun at just that. The story line and characters are addictive. If you are a fan of The Kids in the Hall you really must check this out.

Twitch City follows the lives of three roommates in a Toronto slum apartment in the late 1990s, though one of the three spends most of his time in what we might call a `publicly funded facility'. The show is quirky and episodic and it has a good run, the seven shows on the first disc. It's not consistently funny, but when it is, it is, like when one character develops an excessive irritation at a thrash band that tortures an almost catchy song out of their guitars. Sure, all the characters save one are annoying, but mostly in a funny-annoying and not annoying-annoying way. (The one non-annoying character is Molly Parker's Hope, whose only sin is being trapped in a series of low-paying jobs. Why she would associate with any of the other characters is the eternal mystery of the show. I pretty much see as a hetero-male fantasy that the likes of Molly Parker would love a guy for himself when he was no redeeming qualities.)

Unfortunately, the quality of the episodes plummets abruptly at the beginning of the second disc. The show, to be blunt, dies. I've seen it happen before. A show tries to go off in a new direction in season two and instantly implodes. Maybe the creators had years to polish the screenplays of season one while trying to find studio backing but then had to write season two in a mad rush during breaks in filming. Maybe the conceit of the show was exhausted by the finale of season one. Maybe the creators were too afraid of becoming stale and grabbed at anything that seemed new. I don't know, but it happens a lot and it's always painful to watch.

Here, the humor suddenly goes flat, not like a slowly leaking tire but like a popped balloon. The outstanding feature of the main character Curtis is that he doesn't do anything. The early episodes milk this for all its worth, dealing with the question, how would such a character keep from starving? Having given us a sense of how he operates (or doesn't), there doesn't seem to be anything new for him to do. He really is just a couch potato, and one of the other main characters is all but gone from the show, concentrating more time on him. So the episodes fall into the sit-com rut of an artificial problem being introduced at the beginning of each episodes. Everything becomes odd and disjointed. For instance, one episode ends with someone hurling a Molotov cocktail at the apartment. It's never mentioned again. You start to feel embarrassed for the actors, who obviously know that they're on a sinking ship. In the penultimate episode, the actor played by the writer of the show goes off on a rant about an episode of Gilligan's Island in which it's clear that the actors are trapped in a show that should have been canceled long before, trapped because the audience continues to watch no matter what. You know he's actually referring to his own show. (This show, incidentally, pretends to be a meditation on television but it in fact doesn't actually say anything about it. Not just anything deep. Anything at all.)

So I wouldn't recommend getting this. If you could borrow it, I'd say only do so if, after starting the second disc and seeing how fast everything is going downhill, you have the strength to accept that it won't get better and be able to stop. That is, you don't have my compulsion to consume book series and television shows to the bitter end and can put disc two aside. Otherwise you'll waste the time it takes for the second disc.

First off, I had a few years of living like Curtis. Thank God that's over.
But I love Molly Parker, Callum Keith Rennie (as sweet and crazy as ever), and the rest are brilliant.
One gripe about the DVD: I wish it had subtitles, but that's a general desire I have, not specifically because of this show.
Very, very funny.
Get it!

This product was fantastic.

It worked on my Australian DVD Player no problems.

Fast delivery.

A+ service!!!