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Movies / TV
The Critic: The Complete Series DVD Review
Posted by Jesse Baker on May 2, 2004, 19:00
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The Critic: The Complete Series DVD Review
By Jesse Baker
Debuting in 1994 on the ABC Network, "The Critic" remains the only stand-out of the wave of prime time animated series that flooded the airwaves after the success of the Simpsons in the early 1990s. The show, which was the brainchild of Simpsons producers Al Jean and Mike Reiss, quickly developed a cult following with it's savage criticism of the movie industry, wacky cast of characters, and catchphrase "It Stinks!". Sadly, like most cult shows, "The Critic" never really performed well in the ratings and ended up being canceled after 13 episodes. Luckily Fox swept in and picked up the series for an additional season, which ended up lasting 10 episodes before the cancellation axe permanently fell upon the series.
But like most cult favorites, "The Critic" refused to die a swift death. Comedy Central picked up the rerun rights to the series and introduced it to new viewers during the late 1990s/early 2000s. Meanwhile in the year 2000, the show made a brief return on the web as an internet cartoon that ran for ten installments. But now, thanks to the good folks at Columbia Tri-Star, fans of the series can now own the entire series (including the rarely seen "webisodes") on DVD.
Disc One:
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Pilot: Film critic Jay Sherman finds his sad and pathetic life taking an upswing when a hot young actress named Valerie Fox appears on his show. She soon asks him out on a date and begins a relationship with the fat, overweight film critic. Needless to say, it turns out that she's only using him to get a good review for her newest film, which puts Jay in the ultra-awkward position of having to decide between a hot chick or his integrity as a film critic. Rather decent opening episode but ultimately it falls apart at the end, with Jay pathetically begging Valerie (who reveals herself to be a total bitch once Jay refuses to give her a good review) to come back to him after she rejects him.
Running Score: 0 of 1
Miserable: Jay's lack of a love life continues to haunt him as he finds everyone around him finding love but him. However, at a screening of "Indecent Proposal 2" Jay meets up with the film's projectionist and starts sleeping with her. But Jay's love life takes a turn for the worst when his new girlfriend turns out to be a psychopath who's home is a literal shrine to the film critic. The episode quickly turns into a rather hilarious parody of "Misery" as Jay ends up tied up to a bed in his stalker's apartment. A great episode as we get our first look in the mind of Jay's adoptive parents, as Jay's mother goes off on a tangent blasting the treatment of Dan Quayle during a press conference regarding her missing son.
Running Score: 1 of 2
Marty's First Date: Jay's son Marty gets the spotlight in this episode that introduces us to the world of the United Nations Private School and it's wacky student body. In this case, it's the daughter of a high-ranking diplomat from Cuba that Marty falls in love with. After a somewhat klutzy first date, Marty secretly sneaks onto the plane that is taking his girlfriend back to Cuba after learning that her parents were sending her back to Cuba to live with her grandfather Fidel Castro. So as Jay tries to get into Cuba, Marty comes to grips with saying goodbye to his girlfriend. A great episode as the interaction between Marty and Jay is one of the better aspects of the series.
Running Score: 2 of 3
Dial "M" For Mother: Jay's life takes an even worse turn as he finds out that the latest focus groups used by his network rank him as being even more hated than Adolf Hitler. Desperate to change his image and become more likable, Jay lets his boss talk him into appearing on Geraldo (who at the time was the host of a rather sleazy morning talk show) with his frigid ice-queen mother. As you can imagine, Jay's mom humiliates Jay on live television with tales of his childhood (like his love for anal thermometry), which causes Jay to snap and yell at his mother and tell her to shut up. As you can expect, this makes Jay even more unlikable and creates a rift between mother and son that miraculous heals by the end of the episode. The episode starts strong but falls apart quickly as the writers decide to focus on the world hating Jay instead of his mother's hate for Jay. Luckily the writers would revisit the theme of Jay and his relationship with his mother later in the season with "A Pig-Boy and His Dog".
Running Score: 2 of 4
A Little Deb Will Do You: A stand-out episode, this episode focuses on Jay's eccentric family and gives them the spotlight to shine. Jay's mom Eleanor wants desperately to get her daughter Margo to become a debutant but Marge refuses do to her distaste for the elitist nature of the entire debutant process. So she recruits Jay to help convince her to do it and when that fail, Eleanor resorts to blackmail as she threatens to kill Margo's beloved horse if she doesn't cave into her demands. Margo agrees as she begins the humiliating process of becoming a debutant, which includes having to telling her dressmaker if she's able to wear virginal white or hussy white and having take a milk bath while Eleanor literally milks a cow over the bathtub she's in. Meanwhile in the episode's B-Plot, Jay finds himself being driven insane by the antics of Humphrey the Hippo, a parody of PBS's ultra-annoying Barney the Dinosaur. But Jay's hatred for Humphrey becomes complicated when he discovers that the woman who wears the Humphrey costume is madly in love with Jay despite his absolute hatred for the character she plays. The ending is classic as Margo decides to take a page out of her brother's book and verbally bashes everyone at her coming out party.
Running Score: 3 of 5
Eye on the Prize: "Coming Attractions" celebrates it's 1000th episode but Jay Sherman is alone and miserable AGAIN. And Jay's boss Duke isn't helping things by telling Jay that he sucks. Seeking help to reignite his passion for his job, Jay turns to Adolf Hitmaker, a personal image consultant who's suggest that Jay become even fatter doesn't make things better. So Jay gets the axe (while writing in the nude in his office no less) and forced to teach cab drivers English for a living. But after a run-in with a former college professor re-awakes Jay's creative drive as he decides to create to try and win another Pulitzer Prize with an essay on bad films, which wins him the Pulitzer and gets him his old job back. A decent episode that is supported by it's final act with Jay ranting and raving about bad films in front of his cab driver class.
Running Score: 4 of 6
Every Doris Has Her Day: Jay's hairdresser/make-up girl Doris gets the spotlight in an convoluted episode involving Jay's biological parents. Jay takes Doris to the theater after getting two tickets to the new musical play "Hunch" and bond while mocking the horrible nature of the musical. As the two get to know each other, Jay talks to Doris about his being adopted and Alice confides in Jay about how she was once pregnant and gave the child up for adoption. Soon the two start wonder if Jay is Doris's long-lost son and start searching for the truth. A decent story idea with Jay's adoptive mother Eleanor's flashback to the birth of Margo is hilarious.
Running Score: 4 of 7
Marathon Mensch: An accident involving some ancient movie reels cause the set of "Coming Attractions" to explode into flames, leaving Jay to nearly die before being rescued by Doris. This causes Jay to once again become a public laughing stock, to his horror. In an attempt to reclaim his masculinity, Jay decides to run in the New York City Marathon in order to show everyone up. Jay recruits his father to train him for the marathon and puts his adopted son through a humiliating and vicious workout program. The episode climaxes in a hilarious Broadway-style music number as Jay's mind breaks down halfway through the run.
Running Score: 5 out of 8
Bonus Features
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Commentary Tracks on: Pilot, Miserable, Eye of the Prize, Every Doris Has Her Day
Disc Two
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LA Jay: Jay has recently completed a screenplay and heads to LA to sell it to a major film studio. But upon selling his script, Jay discovers that the studio has no intentions of making it and instead gang-press Jay to write the script for "Ghostchasers III". The episode basically is an excuse for the writers to mock Hollywood mercilessly with stabs at Francis Ford Coppola, Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, and the mindset of movie studio executives. In the end Jay's script is rejected and rewritten without his permission and he gets sent to jail for thirty days for giving out the addresses of the studio executives he met in Hollywood on live television so that people can hunt them down and kill them for Jay.
Running Score: 6 out of 9
Dr. Jay: You know when an episode starts with a waiter remembering back to his childhood, to warm summer day when Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun helped him fly his kite and then made out, that an episode is going to be twisted. Jay, Duke, and Marty head to the Cannes Film Festival where Duke unveils his controversial new plan for his vast film library. Using CGI technology called "Phillipsvision", Duke unveils his plans to alter films to provide new "upbeat" endings for films as well as create all-new, ultra-lowbrow versions of classic films. When Jay stands up to Duke at the press conference and denounces this new plan of his boss, Duke suddenly and without warning falls to the ground in agony. Rushed to the hospital, Duke learns that he has an ultra-rare disease only seen in children of married first cousins. Learning he only four years left to live, Duke recruits Jay to try and cheer him up. But when Duke gives up and recruits a Dr. Kevorkian parody called Dr. Krekorian to kill him with his suicide machine. So to keep his boss alive, Jay vows to cure Duke's illness. Eventually Jay comes up with a cure (that is half-snot and half-snapple) and makes Duke vow to restore all of the films he altered with Phillipsvision and never use alter another film again as payment for saving his life. A hilariously nasty and vicious episode that is one of the best episodes of the series.
Running Score: 7 out of 10
A Day At the Races, A Night At the Opera: Jay attends his son Marty's school's Field Day and watches in horror as Marty fails to win any awards. So Jay decides to try and help Marty find the thing that he's good at. Complicating things is Jay once again getting shitted on at work over an idiotic contest where Duke promises a $100 to anyone who doesn't find Jay funny. Meanwhile Jay gets Marty a guitar and Marty enters the school talent show despite the fact that he can't play his guitar to save his life. A rather craptastic episode that is 22 minutes you'll wish you had back after watching.
Running Score: 7 out of 11
Uneasy Rider: When Jay refuses to promote Duke's newly acquired "Savvy Indian" Chewing Tobacco product on the air, Duke announces his intention to replace Jay with a seal if he doesn't shill for Duke. So Jay quits and gets a new job as a truck driver. The episode focuses on Jay having to deliver a shipment of politically correct history books. Ultimately Jay gets tired of his new life and comes crawling back to Duke for his old job only to find that Duke is desperate to hire him back do to replacement host Rex Reed's tobacco spitting causing the ratings to drop like a stone. Another disjointed episode with no real point towards it except to give Jay a wacky new job before hitting the cosmic reset button on the show.
Running Score: 7 out of 12
A Pig-Boy and His Dog: And so we reach the final episode of the original ABC run of "The Critic", as ABC canceled the show after this episode, one of the strongest of the first season. Jay's adoptive mother is depressed with her life after learning that Margo refuses to follow her mother's footsteps and realizes how she's wasted her life. Unwilling to follow her friends' advice and have an affair and finding zero stimulation in riveting (a suggestion given to her by her husband after conversing with a scarecrow he calls Wilson) and square-dancing, Jay convinces his mom to take up writing. But her plans for an etiquette book (which is called "Why the Poor Should Be Blasted Into Outer Space") scares Jay, so she decides to write a children's book and gets inspiration from Jay's ass while he is eating from the fridge. The book, called "The Fat Little Pig" which consists of Eleanor badmouthing Jay and his life-choices. Soon Eleanor's book is a worldwide hit, much to the horror of Jay. The episode's B-Plot has Jay taking in a small puppy he finds on the street only to have him suddenly grow up into a huge dog. The episode ends with a stab at ABC and their then hit-show "Home Improvement" as Jay sarcastically greets viewers of Home Improvement who just switched channels as the very end of the episode.
Running Score: 8 out of 13
Sherman, Woman, and Child: The Critic lives, as the show moved to Fox for the second and final season. With the move comes changes as Jay Sherman gets redesigned, the show stops dwelling on Jay being an unlovable fuck-up, and the writers create a brand new female character to be Jay's new girlfriend. The episode begins with Jay in trouble at work again but things change for the luckless Critic when he befriends a single mother named Alice. Jay gives Alice a job as his personal assistant and she single-handedly revives Jay's career. As Jay tries to get the courage to tell Alice that he's fallen in love with her, Alice's no-good ex-husband shows up to win her back and use her Achilles heel (her love for her ex's singing voice) to win her back.
Running Score: 9 out of 14
Sherman of Arabia: Jay hosts his son's slumber party and after Alice comments about how the kids shouldn't be playing violent video games (which involves killing aliens who promise curing diseases and ending world hunger), he decides to tell the kids the story of how he became a war hero during the Gulf War. While attending a film festival in Iraq, Operation Desert Storm breaks out and strands Jay in the warzone. Jay becomes a reluctant war-correspondent for Duke's news network as he is arrested by the Iraqi military and put in jail, where Jay leads a prison escape and race across the desert to freedom. A hilarious episode about the first Gulf War that might come off as extremely dated to those who weren't around for the first Gulf War.
Running Score: 10 out of 15
A Song For Margo: A famous alternative rock musician moves next door to the Shermans and create a stir when he steals the family butler's services and seduces Margo, to the horror of Eleanor. But things fall apart when Margo refuses to sleep with her new boyfriend and later catches him with another woman. Meanwhile Alice tries to find a pre-school for her daughter which leads her to recruit the help of Duke, who opens his own pre-school just for her. A pretty decent episode that contains the mother of all hilarious movie parody, as we see a parody for "Star Trek: Generations" that feature William Shatner "singing" the song "Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head" while Patrick Stewart accompanies him on the tambourine.
Running Scores: 11 out of 16
Bonus Features
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Commentary Tracks on: LA Jay, Sherman, Woman, and Child and Sherman of Arabia
Optional Branching Featurettes for "A Pig-Boy and His Dog" showcasing the storyboard, animatic, and final animation version of selected scenes.
Disc Three
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From Chunk to Hunk: After Marty fails the "President's Physical Fitness Tests", Jay decides to enroll both himself and Marty into fat camp in order to lose weight. While Jay only loses two pounds (restoring him to his college weight) Marty loses so much weight that he becomes a totally new man. So while Marty finds himself suddenly becoming ultra-popular and landing the starring role in the school's production of Peter Pan, Jay becomes the target of a vengeful action star who wants to kill Jay after he badmouths him in a review of his most recent film. A pretty decent episode and a big improvement over previous "Marty-centric" episodes
Running Score: 12 out of 17
Lady Hawke: Supporting cast member Jeremy Hawk gets the spotlight as his sister Olivia comes into town to visit him after Jeremy is asked to host Saturday Night Live. Soon enough Jay and Olivia start hanging out together and becoming close to the horror of Alice. A rather one-note episode as the entire episode revolves around Jay having to juggle his feelings for both Olivia and Alice and have to pick one of them.
Running Score: 12 out of 18
Frankie and Ellie Get Lost: Considered by many fans of the series to be the best episode of the series, "Frankie and Ellie Get Lost" shines the spotlight onto Jay's dysfunctional WASP parents for an entire episode. The episode revolves around the Shermans becoming marooned on a desert island after their plane crashes do to the pilot being revealed to be an alcoholic penguin. While Jay and Margo try and find their parents, Jay has to run the family business and discovers that the Sherman family fortune is made from evil business practices and harmful products. So Jay decides to use the fortune to improve New York City while Margo receives a ghostly message from Orson Wells about the fate of her parents.
<running score
Siskel & Ebert & Jay & Alice: Another famous episode, this one guest stars famous film critics Gene Si and Roger Ebert. After an argument over Rain Man II (starring Dustin Hoffman as a mentally retarded snowman) turns into an all-out brawl between the two famous critics, Jay finds himself having to reconcile the famous pair. A hilarious episode as Jay rotates between wanting to take advantage of the schism between and Ebert and wanting to reconcile the two.
Running Score: 14 out of 20
<all of duke Another hilarious episode as Duke Phillips takes center stage. After being impressed with the way that Jay helped his son Marty with his campaign for class president, Duke decides to run for President with Jay as his political guru. So Jay begins to mastermind Duke's campaign, which includes Duke marrying the mom from "Lost in Space". But when Duke hires Jay's dad as his running mate behind Jay's back and then decides to make Jay fire him, A hilarious episode especially since Duke is one of the most funny characters of the series, second only to Jay's parents.
Running Score: 15 out of 21
Dukerella: Both Duke and Alice get the spotlight in another stand-out episode which introduces us to Alice's self-absorbed and ultra-vain sister Randa. Coming to New York City with the ambitions of landing a rich husband, Randa decides to set her sights on Jay's boss Duke. But the discovery of a tiny wrinkle causes Randa to abandon Duke during a masquerade party in which the two finally meet and fall in love. Further complicating things is Doris, who is able to trick the distraught Duke into thinking she was his mystery woman. So Jay has to fix things and reveal the truth about Duke's mystery woman while avoiding Duke's belief that Jay is trying to break up him and Doris so that he can have Duke all to himself.
Running Score: 16 out of 22
I Can't Believe It's a Clip Show: And so the show ends with a crashing dud in the form of a clip show. Though to be fair, the clips are all movie parody clips so things somewhat balance out in the end. Anyway, Jay is celebrating the 10th Anniversary of his show "Coming Attractions" only to have the show turn into a hostage situation when Jay and his family and friends are all taken hostage by terrorists. So in-between Jay having to deal with being turned into a living bomb by the terrorists, we cut back and forth towards the best of the show's movie parodies. The show also gets in a nice little stab at ABC as Jay blames the child-actors of "Full House" of having him be fired.
Running Score: 17 out of 23
Bonus Features
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Commentary Tracks on "Siskel & Ebert & Jay & Alice"
Trailer Parodies: A compilation of various film parodies compiled together (Green Acres, The Red Balloon, Menace 2 Society, The Lost World: Jurassic Park II, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Kindergarten Cop, Nell, Silence of the Lambs, Spartacus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest).
Top Ten List: Another clip compilation of ten of the most popular film parodies of the show (A Few Good Men, A Nightmare Before Christmas, Planet of the Dogs, Apocalypse Now, ET, The Lion King, Scent of a Woman, Family Affair, Star Trek: Generations, and Arthur)
Creating the Critic: A short documentary about the making of the series with interviews with the show's creators and animators. They talk about how the show started out as a live action show starring John Lovitz (who was pitched by series Executive Producer James L. Brooks after the release of "A League of Their Own") as well as talking about how Lovitz had it in his contract that Jay Sherman couldn't look like him. Jay's season two redesign is briefly touched upon as well as how the supporting cast were designed. They also talk about how they casted Nancy Cartwright as Jay's sister Margo (and how Nancy used her regular voice for the character) and how they casted for the various celebrity parody voices.
The Webisodes: 10 short animated shorts starring Jay Sherman and all of the movie parodies you can handle. The only flaw (and this is a big one) is that the webisodes don't feature any of the show's supporting cast, do the microscopic budget of the shorts. The overall plot of the shorts is Jay's attempts to win the love of his new make-up lady, who loves Jay but finds his tendency to hate everything pretty annoying.
Final Thoughts
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Granted some of the material is dated, but "The Critic" still holds up rather well as a decently put together satirical series. Granted there are some flaws, most notably the fact that the show's first season is extremely hit or miss quality-wise. But overall the show is great and should be owned by anyone who considers themselves an animation fan.
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