4 out of 5

Creator: Jim Fortier, Dave Willis

It’s nothin’ brand spankin’ new for ‘Billies fans, but that’s a good thing.  While the first season (or volume, however these DVDs are split up) still shocked me with its sprawling sense of plotting that was equally heartfelt (as a tribute / parody to / of the South), surreal, and yet cohesive as it ballooned around its weird cast o’ townies, once things settled down into a more set antic-per-episode account, the show still maintained that weirdly pure core that kept it unique amongst its Adult Swim brethren.  Dave Willis’ Aqua Teen randomness is absolutely in play, but Squidbillies is not as insular in that style of humor as that show.  Perhaps being paired with Jim Fortier and having the main cast voiced by vastly different styles of v.o. actors (or personalities, whatever) keeps ‘Billies more grounded, perhaps it’s just the overall mentality of the production, where everything is hand-drawn and the humor stems from the characters and not just the situations into which they’re thrust…  Who knows.  It’s still a ridiculous concept of hillbilly squids.

This fifth collection starts out somewhat tired, the voices seeming off for some reason and the plotting of the first ep on the collection feeling like a leftover, but perhaps I’ve just been away for too long.  ‘Cause it ramps up appropriately by the next episode, carrying us through all the whoops and hollers and mayhem to the end of the disc.  There’s nothing quite so jaw dropping weird as the all-animal jamboree that I think was on volume 4, but there are still moments of such building hysteria (jesus christ, The Scrambler) that you feel this little joyous warmth inside that such creative people have found a setting that they seem to be able to continually milk for new ideas.

That still might merit just an average rating since, again, it’s really nothin’ new, but the extras on the disc actually nudge just enough to make it worth a purchase, because the making-of stuff is surprisingly low-key and straight forward, and though we’ve seen some of this on previous volumes (not the same footage, just the concepts), it’s a reminder of how legit everything is on the show – the hard work that goes into it, the real-life inspiration and country-fied actors that help bring it to life.  And then the extended episode manages to make something that was already damn funny damn funny again, but with different jokes.  Whoop whoop.