Chaser's War on Everything, The-Season 1-Episodes 1-13 (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Animation Biographies-Cast Audio Commentary Gallery-Photo Of A Cat Deleted Scenes- Bonus Material
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	370:00 (Case: 372)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Mark FitzGerald Craig Melville
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Chris Taylor Julian Morrow Andrew Hansen Craig Reucassel Chas Licciardello Charles Firth Dominic Knight
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s) English Audio Commentary 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	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Arguably the best skit show on Australian television since The D-Generation's The Late Show, The Chaser's War on Everything picks up where their CNNNN show left off.

    Drawing on the talents of Andrew Hansen, Dominic Knight, Chas Licciardello, Julian Morrow, Craig Reucassel, Chris Taylor and Charles Firth (all the way from the US) their war on everything is exactly that. No celebrity, TV show, politician, company or institution is safe. Some of the show's best moments are the spontaneous reactions of celebrities, politicians and industry leaders as they are blindsided by the Chaser's latest antics. Some, like Hugh Jackman and Anthony LaPaglia, come off as genuinely sincere and amused. Others don't fare so well (the CEO of Jetstar for one.)

    The 26-27 minute episodes all follow a similar format with weekly segments. Some of these recurring segments are my favourites; 

    - The Surprise Spruiker: Standing out in front of the Commonwealth Dept of Resources and spruiking about uranium exports to China and rogue states (amongst others) takes serious nerve. The look on the bewildered faces of passers-by, workers and security of wherever is being spruiked is hilarious.

    - What have we learned from Current Affairs this week? Always an amazing look at some of the rubbish that gets broadcast as topical news.

    - Mr Ten Questions: I keep wondering that as these guys get more famous, will they be able to get into press conferences and other events where they get some of their best footage?

    - Firth in the USA: One of the best reports from the Chaser's US correspondent is the time Firth got thrown out of 35 corporate headquarters in one day, another is when he tries to get a normal American on the street to say freedom more than 17 times (like Bush had used it in a recent speech.)

    This 2 disc set is the first half of the season. Normally, I'm against any halving or dividing up of broadcast seasons, however this case is different. For a half season it's quite full of special features and in my opinion consumers are not being short-changed. It has plenty of episodes, features and commentaries to keep you more than satisfied.

    If you did miss the TV run of The Chaser's War on Everything, you should definitely check it out. Great Aussie television.

Video

    The ABC have a good reputation for their recent DVD releases and this set is no different.

    This set is presented in its broadcast ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is taken from an HD master and looks first class. The picture is sharp with no traces of edge enhancement.

    The colours look really good and skin tones look natural.

    Occasionally there can be a difference in quality between studio shot and outdoor footage, but nothing to complain about.

    There are no compression artefacts or video artefacts.

    Subtitles are available for the listening impaired.

    The discs are dual layered discs with layer changes between episodes.

    Overall a very good transfer from the reliable ABC.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio track is a very decent English Dolby Digital 2.0 encoded at the bitrate of 256 Kb/s.

    The dialogue comes through sounding nice and clear.

    There are no sync or pop/drop out issues.

    There seems to be a reasonable amount of separation across the centre, right and left speakers to give the track a decent amount of depth.

    There is no surround nor sub-woofer use.

    A very competent track.

    There is also the English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) track on each episode.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Disc 1

Cast Bios

    Highly irreverent and immensely amusing bios for all cast members.

Photo of a Cat

    The title of the special feature says it all.

Disc 2

Alternate menu design 

    Very amusing option to switch the menu display

Deleted scenes 

    16 deleted scenes, some of which are similar to existing scenes left in the show. Some were hilarious, others fell a little flat and were left out for good reasons.

Both discs

Commentary

     In a fantastic display of appreciation to fans, every episode has a commentary. Not all Chasers appear on every track but there are usually 2-3 on each track as well as contributions from various production team members. Some tracks are funnier than others, but for the most part would be required listening for fans. Insights on some of the different Chasers, the writing and production can be gleaned.

    There is no R1 available (but there should be!)

    Overall, one of the best locally made shows to hit Australian TV in a long time.

    The video is great and another notch in the ABC's impressive DVD release belt

    The audio is very good too.

    Special features are generous for fans.

    Highly recommended.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall