4 out of 5

Creator: Tim Heidecker, Eric Warheim

Ah, yeah, this is probably the pinnacle season, comfortable in their skin, but before the ‘tipping point’.  A sense of originality ripples through about 80% of the season (the math is easy ’cause it’s 10 episodes), but the high level of creativity is undoubtably difficult to maintain, ’cause we start getting some repeated gags about 7 eps in, and then a ‘benefit’ episode that IS funny… but edits in a lot of clips from their live show.  Which most of us probably haven’t seen, but still, it feels unfortunately like filler, even though it’s new material.  (Um, but note that some of these clips are secretly sketch repeats from the bonus feature of their live show from season 2.)  And I’m sort of half-in half-out when they go uber-drugged and deliver a very Xavier: Renegade Angel-esque episode that zooms in and out of surreal edits and color washes, looping in little nods to the first episode of the season.  I love most of Xavier, and I love most of T & E’s “anti” humor (blech, terms), but there’s something about this episode that just doesn’t fit… y’know, in different ways from how other parts of the show purposefully don’t fit.

I guess sequencing is what breaks it, because these episodes described occur right at the end of the season, so just as I was marveling at how genius everything was, some season 1 /2 characters pop up in a somewhat predictable context and it just weighs it down.  But prior to this, the show really strikes on its balance between sketch, outsider art, creepiness, uncomfortableness, grossness, fun, and weirdo editing.  The creepiness is a totally valuable addition that starts to step their style up beyond gags and shows how their experience with and understanding of the format is developing – just the way some of the random elements are pieced together shows the writers not just digging into a bag of tricks but mixing things around and seeing if they stick, perhaps now confident that they have a fanbase who, at the very least, will be interested to watch.

The wraparound sketches from season 1, which were a great way of grounding things, return, and the public access late-night commerical feeling that dominated season 2 exists, but in a much more exciting ratio.  Some episodes even go one step beyond – the Jim and Derrick show, for example – and stay “in character” for the whole run.  That episode in particular is so embarrassingly accurate a portrayal of dumbass MTV culture that Tim and Eric should’ve been awarded some kind of medal.  …For accurate dumbass portrayal.  For which they give medals.

The extras are also a nice assortment, lacking commentary again but I feel like that’s made up for with the bloopers, which show the guys cracking up at their own material quite a bit, which I always enjoy.  Otherwise it’s the regular assortment of promos and extended scenes, but it’s all appropriate in terms of length – I actually get a little impatient when DVDs are OVER stuffed with extras, because most of them end up being repetitive or not worthwhile.  Better to strip it to what matters.

So this might be the best T & E season, but it just misses the mark of being continually rewatchably perfect.  It’s tough for a show of such a mish-mash nature to meet that mark though, and season 3 comes impressively close.