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Blu-Ray : Give it a Rent
Ranking:
Sale Price: $11.97 Last Price: $ Buy now! 3rd Party 3.88 In Stock
Release Date: June 12th, 2012 Movie Release Year: 2012

Tosh.O: Hoodies

Overview -
OVERALL:
Give it a Rent
Rating Breakdown
STORY
VIDEO
AUDIO
SPECIAL FEATURES
Tech Specs & Release Details
Technical Specs:
BD-50
Video Resolution/Codec:
1080i/AVC MPEG-4
Length:
211
Aspect Ratio(s):
1.78:1
Audio Formats:
English Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles/Captions:
English
Special Features:
11 short extra videos
Release Date:
June 12th, 2012

Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take

Ranking:

In this day and age, who doesn't love a good video that goes viral? The only problem is sorting through the millions of other worthless and awful videos online just to get to the little gems that are actually worth watching. That's one of the main reasons I love 'Tosh.0.' Programmers for the show filter through the mundane just to give us the videos of true… quality? Is that the word we could use to describe the shocking, vile, disturbing, disgusting, silly, wacky and always-inappropriate videos shown. Call it what you want; that's the subjective part. But no matter what you think about the videos, there's no arguing that Daniel Tosh is the best candidate for presenting and picking apart these awful demonstrations of human behavior – and, for that, we thank him.

'Hoodies' is the collection containing the pilot season of 'Tosh.O' – the ten episodes that got it all started. Thankfully, the series is still currently running (which I don't think will have an end so long as both the internet and idiots still exist). I've watched 'Tosh.O' since these episodes first aired and seeing where the show is at now, I expected to see rough edges around these old episodes while revisiting them on Blu-ray; however, that was not the case. Tosh and his hilarious team of writers really hit the ground running.

If you didn't see Tosh from the get-go, in addition to the formula that the show carries now – the video-driven intro, "20 seconds on the clock" (usually), a video breakdown, a fan video and a web redemption – I had completely forgotten about the celebrity videos that used to close out the episodes. Those included on this disc feature Dave Attell, David Koechner, Fred Willard, Terrell Owens, Andy Dick, Jack McBrayer, Harland Williams, Kristen Cavallari and Tommy Chong.

The web redemptions included Miss Teen South Carolina, The Throw Up Kid, Scarlett Takes A Tumble, Chris "Leave Britney Alone" Cocker, The Balloon Man, The Worst Best Man, Why Must I Cry, Drunk Dizzy Bat-Spin Dunk Contest and The Skateboard Chick.

'Tosh.0' features plenty of vulgar content, including strong language and graphic videos. For 'Hoodies,' none of the language is censored. Here, you're getting the fully un-bleeped version of the show; however, whatever was originally blurred or boxed out in videos is still covered. Sometimes this occurs due to copyright laws – like in the case of the nude Demi Moore photo. But no matter why they were blurred, all video is still censored. The unedited audio provides some great laughs, including Tosh's self-instituted drinking game in episode eight where he encourages viewers to take a shot each time Comedy Central puts in a bleep. If you're hoping to play the game - sorry, folks - you're not going to take a single shot, as there are no bleeps.

Throughout the series, one thing that Tosh has done is not pretend that he hasn't done his own fair share of crap in front of the camera. He's quick to point that out in these first episodes, showing clips of acting gigs that he landed in Taco Bell commercials and his itty-bitty part in 'The Love Guru.' Tosh isn't self-righteously picking on other people without throwing himself into the mix. He also takes a beating by reading harsh tweets from viewers, but always flips those messages back around on the people who sent them.

If you can't tell, I love 'Tosh.0;' having said that, it airs enough on Comedy Central that I don't know that its a priority series on my Must-Own list. Considering the retail on this disc, it might have eventually make its way into my collection, but this isn't the type of series like 'Breaking Bad,' 'Justified' or 'Dexter' that I'm eagerly looking to acquire.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

All ten episodes of 'Hoodies' arrives on a single BD-50 in an eco-friendly blue elite keepcase. The cover art is more than fitting given the way the show is filmed, featuring Daniel Tosh standing in front of a green screen with imposed artwork surrounding him. Upon inserting the disc, you're forced to watch a Comedy Central vanity reel, an FBI warning, an adult content disclaimer (since the disc is unrated and the audio is uncensored) and a commentary disclaimer before getting to the main menu.

Video Review

Ranking:

Being a 1080i/AVC MPEG-4 clip show featuring internet-quality videos, you can expect a lot of the source material to range from both ends of the spectrum. Some videos look great, but many of them are sub-par. It's a good thing that the content of the videos themselves is highly enjoyable, otherwise it would be unbearable.

The studio-shot video bits with Daniel Tosh are better, but still have some flaws. Episode four features flickering aliasing in the green-screen CG cityscape behind Tosh. Those same backdrops also feature bad CG which results in banding.

The nice thing about the studio footage is the crispness and clarity. Not that it frequently offers it, but that footage is also decently detailed – meaning it's nice, but could be better. Being a pilot season, I wonder if the quality will improve with subsequent releases.

Audio Review

Ranking:

The English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio mix has the tendency to be weird. The audio of the video clips is always forward-bound, like mono audio stuffed into a surround mix – which is probably exactly how the track is.

The in-studio footage places Tosh's voice front-and-center, where it belongs, and the audience is located in the back. The result of this mix makes it feel like you're in the front row of studio audience. Nobody is obstructing your view of Tosh and when the riff-raff crowd chimes in and cheers, it's like they're really behind you.

All in all, this isn't the type of series that's going to wow you with an amazing lossless Blu-ray track - and I highly doubt that's what anyone is expecting. If you're buying this disc, you want to see gross videos accompanied by Daniel Tosh's cynically hilarious commentary, which just so happens to ring out with perfectly clarity and volume.

Special Features

Ranking:
  • Bonus Videos (1080i, under 9:33) - When you get to the Special Features menu and notice that there are 11 bonus videos, you think you're going to get a good amount of extra content – but that's not the case. The shortest of these clips is 23 seconds long and the longest is 98. These videos are either extended snippets, outtakes, alternate takes or mildly less uncensored videos. How so? For example, in one extra they take video of a nude porn star that originally aired with censoring black bars covering up her naughty parts, remove the black bars and still blur the image so that nothing revealing can be seen. Several of these 11 videos are like that – absolutely pointless special feature fillers.

Final Thoughts

Even though I absolutely love this disgusting clip show, and I enjoyed revisiting the first ten episodes that made up its pilot season, I don't believe that 'Tosh.0' is one of those series that demands to be placed in your collection. Sure, the show is absolutely hilarious, but part of what makes it so entertaining is seeing the shocking videos for the first time. Seeing them repeated on Comedy Central offers more than enough opportunities to revisit the show. This single disc first season is already cheap, so I imagine that those who feel the same way about the show as I do might finally want to pick it up once it drops even lower – and by "even lower" I mean $5. The video quality of the studio content is decent, but the original flawed content of the videos shown has the tendency to be as you would expect from internet videos – barely above YouTube quality. The audio is basically the same – studio sound is good, clip sound isn't. The special features placed on this disc are obviously only there to only give 'Hoodies' some noticeable extras. All 11 clips make up under ten minutes of special features and show content that you've already seen. It takes a lot to make a series worth owning. They must feature some aspect that makes you want to keep revisiting them. I only have a select few TV series sets in my whole collection for that same reason. As much as I love 'Tosh.O' and the vulgar, inappropriate and offensive commentary that it's host offers, it's not one that I'm likely to revisit time and time again.