After stumbling upon a rave review of this show by accident at Amazon.com, I kept it in mind in subsequent years. I now have seen all four seasons thanks to broadband internet (albeit at reduced quality).
Mr. Show is inventive and original but I found it wasn't quite as funny as the reviews claimed. Partly this is due to the humour being very late 90's and U.S. based; for example, if two infomercials, one called "Amazing Discoveries" and another (one or two) featuring an enthusiastic British presenter weren't on Australian late night TV in the late 90's, a sketch parodying these two would have gone completely over my head. Probably something like 50% of the show's humour refers to things only observant U.S. TV watchers of the late 90's would be aware of. But nonetheless Mr. Show did have some quite funny or memorable moments in each episode, amongst a lot more weird or chin-scratching ones.
The show kept me coming back for more, although it's probably not best to watch all the episodes in a short space of time. The performances are good all around, one notable feature being the commitment of all the cast members to the material. The tangential nature of the sketches keeps them from being drawn out or overstaying their welcome, and provides a more interesting way of going from sketch to sketch compared to other sketch shows (after reading other reviews I am now aware this was borrowed from Monty Python).
I think Mr. Show's strongest point is it has material that would never be seen on regular network television and despite being aimed at a narrow audience, is well worth watching.
Mr. Show is inventive and original but I found it wasn't quite as funny as the reviews claimed. Partly this is due to the humour being very late 90's and U.S. based; for example, if two infomercials, one called "Amazing Discoveries" and another (one or two) featuring an enthusiastic British presenter weren't on Australian late night TV in the late 90's, a sketch parodying these two would have gone completely over my head. Probably something like 50% of the show's humour refers to things only observant U.S. TV watchers of the late 90's would be aware of. But nonetheless Mr. Show did have some quite funny or memorable moments in each episode, amongst a lot more weird or chin-scratching ones.
The show kept me coming back for more, although it's probably not best to watch all the episodes in a short space of time. The performances are good all around, one notable feature being the commitment of all the cast members to the material. The tangential nature of the sketches keeps them from being drawn out or overstaying their welcome, and provides a more interesting way of going from sketch to sketch compared to other sketch shows (after reading other reviews I am now aware this was borrowed from Monty Python).
I think Mr. Show's strongest point is it has material that would never be seen on regular network television and despite being aimed at a narrow audience, is well worth watching.