Here we go again, folks. The disturbing, hilarious, disgusting, violent, unpredictable, unfortunate and always entertaining antics of Daniel Tosh's Comedy Central television show are available, once again, on Blu-ray.
This collection of episodes from the third season of 'Tosh.O' is a fun one, possibly even more vile, graphic and offensive than the previous Blu-ray sets. While Tosh's show follows a consistent format – web videos with commentary, a video breakdown, a web redemption and a random assortment of creative bits – Comedy Central hasn't been consistent with the Blu-ray releases. For example, the first Blu-ray collection ('Hoodies') contained the first 10 episodes of the series. The second Blu-ray set ('Deep V's') contained the 16 episodes that followed. But 'Collas Plus Exposed Arms,' the third Blu-ray set, contains even more episodes and the number 4 on the spine instead of 3. The first two are numbered 1 and 2, so you'd think that there would be a set numbered 3, but alas. We're jumping ahead to 4. Perhaps this is the reason why this Blu-ray set was held for so long.
This two-disc 21-episode release contains such Web Redemptions as Antoine Dodson, the National Anthem Girl, the Evolution of Dance dance-off, the Crying Wrestling Fan, the Hurdle Girls rematch, the Fly Ball couple, the Loud Treasurer, the Unsuccessful Board Breaker, Chocolate Rain, Boom Goes the Dynamite, the Naked Wizard with the Tiny Penis, Bug-in-Mouth Reporter, Back-Breaking Cheerleaders, the Metal Club, the Bus Farter, the Philly Taze Fan, the Drunk Boxing rematch and the Tosh.O Marathon. On top of these main events, be prepared to see: Tosh shoot angry birds and his unsuspecting staff; the new politically incorrect game titled Is He Retarded?; brilliant fan Twitter comments; Tosh and his male staff pop Viagra and watch gay porn; the 100th instance of a naked man on the show; the reoccurring Prank of the Week feature; an all-new Tosh "Spoiler Alert" rant about the Sundance movie 'Tiptoes;' Tosh take a shot in the jaw from Manny Pacquiáo; college campus submission videos; stuff you never want to hear girls say; Bob the pleasure coach; Kate Upton get stabbed by a banana; viewer videos (including a staff viewer video); and the first successful cannonball dookie.
Yes, I know being such a big fan of this show is a sign that part of my soul is black, withered and dead, but I'm okay with that. There's something so right about watching and hearing things that are oh-so wrong. Most television series are overly priced, so it's nice to have a disgusting little gem like this be so cheap and so entertaining.
The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats
Comedy Central and Paramount have seen fit to give 'Collas Plus Exposed Arms' a double BD-50 Blu-ray release. Both discs are housed in an eco-Elite keepcase with the discs locked into the panels on both sides. Unfortunately, for those of us adding these sets to our collections as they're released, as I mentioned in my review, the numbered spines have inconsistently jumped ahead for this set. Being the third 'Tosh.O' Blu-ray release, it actually carries the bold number 4 on the spine. When viewed side-by-side on the shelf, we now have 1, 2 and 4. When you insert the disc into your player, four unskippable videos play before the main menu: a Comedy Central vanity reel, an FBI warning, a content warning and a commentary disclaimer. Enjoy!
Note: Because the video quality is almost identical to the previous 'Tosh.O' releases, the following technical portion is almost the same.
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 have the same flaws as the previous two Blu-ray sets: there's a slight issue with noise popping up here and there during the green-screen studio shots, a minor amount of aliasing in the digital backgrounds and bands appearing during the opening sequence of each episode. Luckily, this isn't the type of show that we're watching for eye-popping and amazing video quality.
The upside to the 'Tosh.O' Blu-rays is the crispness and overall clarity from the studio-shot segments and third-act bits. They offer refuge from the crappy Internet-quality videos that make the show the comedic gold that it is.
Note: Like the video quality, because the audio is almost identical to the previous 'Tosh.O' releases, the following portion is the same as my previous reviews. The audio quality is literally identical to the first two 'Tosh.O' Blu-rays.
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.
I unapologetically love 'Tosh.O.' I'd rather watch a show that genuinely makes me laugh through any and every disgusting mean necessary over something like 'The New Girl' or 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' that tries way too hard to earn its barely-deserved laughs. You may not want to add it to your Blu-ray collection, but I'll take this politically incorrect, insensitive and offensive Internet clips show any day of the week over most sitcoms. Yes, I'm probably going to hell for it – but at least I'll be laughing on my way down. Comedy Central and Paramount have been a little wonky with this previously delayed release, but even with the assumed misprinted packaging, I'm glad that 'Collas Plus Exposed Arms' is here. The video and audio qualities are as expected – far from perfect – but that's due to the quality of the videos shown. The series itself and the 90+ minutes of special features are more than enough to keep reeling me back in for each new Blu-ray set.
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