Chaser's War on Everything, The-Season 2-Episodes 1-13 (2006) |
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Chaser's War on Everything, The-Season 2-Episodes 1-13 (2006) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Audio Commentary Deleted Scenes |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2006 | ||
| Running Time | 345:37 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper |
RSDL (15:27) Dual Disc Set |
Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By |
Craig Melville Mark FitzGerald Bradley Howard |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Roadshow Home Entertainment |
Starring |
Craig Reucassal Andrew Hansen Chas Liccadiello Chris Taylor Julain Morrow |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | ? | Music |
Andrew Hansen James Edwards Andrew Glover |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| 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 | Yes | ||
In this second season of their excellent satirical take on the world around us, The Chaser boys have really started to hit the big time with some of their stunts getting national and international publicity. I mean, once politicians start trying to spin their stupid stuff-ups as "Chaser style stunts" you know you have made it. This is the first half of the second season which ran on the ABC in early 2007. The second half of this season contains their most famous stunt, the APEC cavalcade for Osama Bin Laden. The second half is due for DVD release in early 2008. Even though the Bin Laden stunt is not included here, there is lots of great material to be found in these thirteen episodes, which are a mixture of repeating segments, stunts, skits and songs. The hit rate of funny vs. unfunny is really very high here and even though some things veer to the wrong side of the offensive line, that is the nature of the best comedy. If comedy doesn't challenge and potentially offend it probably isn't going to be funny either. The team here includes Chas Liccadiello, Chris Taylor, Andrew Hansen, Julian Morrow and Craig Reucassal. Charles Firth submits occasional reports from the US.
Thirteen half hour episodes are included here (although the first one is cut for legal reasons). There are a number of continuing themes and sketches which run through the season such as Anna Coren, The Catch-Up, trying ads in real life, The Fixers and doing musicals in public. The episodes are generally all of high quality and in the episode summary below I have listed what I felt were the highlights of each:
There are a lot of laughs to be had here and a lot of quality comment on politics, television and other aspects of modern life. Highly recommended.
The video quality is very good.
The show is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced, which is the original aspect ratio.
The picture was quite clear and sharp throughout, with no low level noise. The shadow detail was very good.
The colour was very good although faces sometimes seemed a little pale.
I noticed some macro-blocking such as in the Qantas segment in episode one.
There are subtitles in English which are clear and easy to read.
The first disc layer change occurs at 15:27 in episode 4 and caused a slight pause.
| Sharpness |   |
| Shadow Detail | |
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| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
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The audio quality is very good.
This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack encoded at 256 Kb/s.
Dialogue was clear and easy to understand which is critical in comedy.
The musical numbers sound good on this transfer.
The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used in any significant manner.
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| Audio Sync | |
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| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
The menu design is surprisingly very simple. I was expecting something silly considering the subject matter. There is one nice feature which allows you to play specific segments across multiple episodes, for example if you want to watch all of the inspector segments one after another you can.
Quality commentaries are provided for every episode with all five Chaser members making an appearance at some point. They tell anecdotes, make fun of themselves and others, discuss why the Einfeld piece has been cut, give credit to the crew and other contributors and throw out some pieces of trivia. They are fairly restrained but this makes it a useful addition to the manic nature of the shows. Well worth a listen.
A host of extra scenes including more of Starship Preposterous, Julia Gillard, Dalai Lama plus some bad ideas and rehearsal footage. Worth seeing.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Only available in Region 4.
The video quality is very good.
The audio quality is very good.
The extras are of very good quality.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV667A DVD-V DVD-A SACD, using Component output |
| Display | Sony FD Trinitron Wega KV-AR34M36 80cm. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL)/480i (NTSC). |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Pioneer VSX-511 |
| Speakers | Monitor Audio Bronze 2 (Front), Bronze Centre & Bronze FX (Rears) + Yamaha YST SW90 subwoofer |