Mrs. Brown's Boys-Season Three (2012)

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General		Extras
Category	TV COMEDY SERIES	Trailer-Promo trailers for Mrs. Brown's Boys DVD's Featurette-Brendan's Surprise (2:31) Deleted Scenes-Deleted & Extended Scenes (3:56) Alternate Ending-Alternative Scene Endings (6:00) Outtakes-End of Series Wrap tape (4:23)
Rating
Year Of Production	2012
Running Time	172:05
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Ben Kellett
Studio Distributor	Universal Sony	Starring	Brendan O'Carroll Jennifer Gibney Paddy Houlihan Fiona O'Carroll Danny O'Carroll Eilish O'Carroll Pat Shields Amanda Woods Rory Cowan Gary Hollywood Dermot O'Neill Fiona Gibney Martin Delany
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$29.95	Music	Andy O'Callaghan Mark Lawrence Nicky Bligh

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Mrs. Brown's Boys first appeared on Irish radio in 1992 and in a series of books written by writer Brendan O'Carroll in the mid-nineties. One of those books, Mammy, was adapted by John Goldsmith into the film Agnes Browne, directed and starring Angelica Huston in the title role of Mrs. Brown. Angelica Huston's father, actor and director John Huston, had an affinity with Ireland, becoming an Irish citizen in 1964. His daughter, Angelica, attended school there. The movie also starred Ray Winstone and Welsh singer Tom Jones as himself, as well as Brendan O'Carroll and Jennifer Gibney in the minor roles of Seamus the drunk and Winnie the Mackerel, respectively. Following the success of the film in Europe (but not the United States), O'Carroll adapted his novels into a theatre show, casting his family and friends and performing in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

     Brendan O'Carroll was approached to write a pilot by the BBC in 2008. In 2009 the pilot received approval for a full series.

     The first series was broadcast in 2011. It goes to show that the success of the show has been refined from the theatrical tour, and has not been the result of 'overnight' popularity. The first series attracted 3 to 4 million viewers in the United Kingdom. By Series Two, this had grown to 6 to 8 million viewers. Following the enormous success of the two Christmas Special shows in 2012, which rated above 10 million in the United Kingdom for the first time, the third series of the show has had consistent ratings above 9 million viewers. The good news for fans of the show is that the BBC has commissioned another two Christmas Specials for broadcast in December, 2013.

     What makes Mrs. Brown's Boys unique as a comedy is its adaptation from being a theatre show to its inception as a television show. The television show keeps a lot of the idiosyncrasies unique to theatre performance. These include being recorded in front of a live audience, which is seen at the beginning and the end of each show. Breaking the fourth wall is not limited to showing the audience however, as bloopers, props and set equipment are kept in each broadcast. Brendan O'Carroll, who plays the matriarch Agnes Brown, introduces and closes each show with a monologue addressed to the audience. Each series finale also includes a musical performance by the whole cast.

     Mrs. Brown's Boys features a large cast, with eleven members of the extended Brown family and the McGooghan family next door. Each shows centres around Agnes, the matriarch, who makes it her business to snoop into the lives of her five sons and one daughter, often with hilarious outcomes. Profanities feature strongly in each episode too.

     A short synopsis of each episode is below. Each show is just short of 30 minutes in length.

     Season 3 Episode 1 - Mammy's Spell (28:37)

     During a party to celebrate the baptism of Dermot and Maria's triplets, an unwitting Agnes and Winnie are put under the spell of the hypnotist booked to provide the entertainment. Mark has some upsetting news and Agnes has to turn a heartbroken Bono away.

     Season 3 Episode 2 - Mammy's Inflation (28:44)

     Agnes is disappointed with Cathy who has decided to undergo surgery to impress her new boyfriend, Professor Clowne. Agnes is also unimpressed with the man Buster has hired to measure up her kitchen for redecorating. Meanwhile, Professor Clowne tries to find the perfect moment to give Cathy a life-changing proposal.

     Season 3 Episode 3 - Mammy's Break (28:16)

     It’s the 27th anniversary of Redser's death, and to celebrate Agnes wants to go off on a holiday to Galway, but one problem stands: Grandad, or as Agnes calls him, "The man that God forgot". Agnes tries to send him to a home, but due to Winnie actually believing the lies Agnes told Grandad to get him into the home, Winnie gets sent away. Meanwhile, Redser has some very ominous news from beyond the grave.

     Season 3 Episode 4 - Mammy's Valentine (29:05)

     Betty buys the "ABC Of Sex" book in order to teach her son Bono the "birds and the bees". Agnes, meanwhile, with the help of a gigolo site called 'Dial A Dick', gets a sex date for Valentine's Day. Dermot employs Buster to buy a bus saying 'I love Maria Brown' after hearing that she thinks he is not romantic anymore. Buster screws up by also writing 'Cathy Brown does not need her tits blown up'. Granddad, with the help of Viagra, gets a threesome.

     Season 3 Episode 5 - Mammy? (28:15)

     Agnes gets a phone call that makes her children believe they are adopted. They all try hinting at her but in the end it turns out they are all biological. Meanwhile, Rory and Dino have a bust-up but get engaged shortly afterwards. Also, Mark and Betty bring good news to Agnes: they aren't emigrating due to Cathy printing out flyers for Mark's business.

     Season 3 Episode 6 - Mammy Swings (29:08)

     Rory and Dino are being married, but the wedding planner believes that it should stand out due to the fact that it is a gay wedding. 'La La Doggie', the wedding planner, proposes an underwater wedding! In a humorous aside, Agnes meets her daughter Cathy's boyfriend's parents and they are swingers. And Agnes learns this the 'hard' way. Meanwhile, Agnes gets a new kitchen, supplied by Mark, but Rory destroys it with his new unlicensed car. Agnes makes a cake in her microwave but screws it up. Rory and Dino end up marrying in a private ceremony.

     Mrs. Brown's Boys doesn't pretend to be anything other than a series of shows highlighting everyday issues we all face, in a simple yet funny way. Television critics have been scathing, united in lambasting the show as being crude. One critic even said that the show made him feel embarrassed to be Irish. Isn't it somewhat ironic then to know that the show is filmed at BBC studios in Glasgow, Scotland? You don't have to be Irish to enjoy this show.

Video

     The series comes on two single-layered DVD discs. The first disc is 3.79gb in size and contains the first four episodes, the second disc is 3.55 gb in size and contains the last two episodes and four short extras totalling about 17 minutes in length.

     The aspect ratio is 1:78:1, 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions, which is the modern aspect ratio for television shows.

     The average bitrate of episodes one to four on disc one is 4.1 m/b per sec, which is slightly low. Episodes five and six on the second disc have an average bitrate of 6.2 m/b per sec in comparison, which is about standard for a DVD presentation.

     Colour timing varies according to the set used. Scenes in Foley's pub are not as bright in contrast to scenes in Mrs. Brown's home.

     I noticed instances of macro-blocking on the first disc of the series, no doubt due to the low bitrate.

     Optional subtitles are provided in English for the hard of hearing.

    There is no RSDL change because both discs are single-layered DVD-5 discs.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

     The series was made for television, so the audio transfer doesn't feature surround effects or a need for the subwoofer. It does feature live audience laughter, though.

     The main audio track for each episode is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 track encoded at 192 kbps.

     The dialogue is clear and synchronised, easily discernible with audience laughter mixed into the background.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
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Overall

Promo trailers for Mrs. Brown's Boys DVD's

     Start-up trailers for Mrs. Brown's Live Tour - Good Mourning Mrs. Brown DVD (a live DVD of theatrical shows performed in the United Kingdom, 1:07) and Mrs. Brown's Boys - Series Two (1:16) play before the main menu on disc one. These can be skipped to the main menu.

Brendan's Surprise (2:31)

     Brendan O'Carroll, in character as Agnes Brown, is interrupted at the end of a show to be presented with the United Kingdom TV Times Best Entertainment Programme Award for 2012.

Deleted & Extended Scenes (3:56)

     Three scenes show Agnes and Winnie discussing Winnie's husband Jacko leaving the hospital, Betty and Maria discussing sex and romance with Cathy at Foley's Pub and Agnes receiving a house call from her doctor for her rheumatism.

Alternative Scene Endings (6:00)

     These are alternative scenes for Buster designing the kitchen table in Mammy's Inflation, two scenes in Mammy? questioning whether Rory and/or Cathy were adopted and two scenes from Mammy's Valentine dealing with Agnes going on a date.

End of Series Wrap tape (4:23)

     Twenty-four, often short, goofs and outtakes scenes play sequentially from all six episodes. Most feature Brendan O'Carroll and lots of laughter from the cast!

    The Region 2 United Kingdom DVD is identical in specifications and extras as per the Region 4 Australian DVD release.

     Fans of the show will no doubt lap this up as Series Three is every bit as funny as Series One and Two. It's a shame that Series Three was released on two single-layered DVD-5 discs in Region 4 as compression issues with the video transfer could've easily been avoided. For those of you hoping to watch the Season Three Christmas Specials, you'll probably have to wait for a future Box Set release. In the meantime, you can enjoy Mrs. Brown 'telling it as it is' in all six episodes of Season Three!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall