4 out of 5

Creator: Tim Heidecker, Eric Warheim

The humble beginnings of T&E are probably the most tolerable for new viewers or those looking for a carryover from Tom Goes to the Mayor.  The freeze-frame, cheesy editing style is there, and there are even some bits that got nixed from Tom that show up here more fully fleshed out.  And if you combed through the extras on the Tom discs, you’ll find further elements that match up.  The success of these first ten eps really helped the duo to find the balance between sketch, uncomfortable silences, randomness, gross-out gags and outsider art appreciation.  Really the only display of the latter is David Liebe Hart in an ep (also on the commentary for that episode for ssn 1), and the random spittle / vomit / Cinco poop gag are just the tip of the ol’ bodily fluid iceberg for what follows.  Some of this is… hilarious.  Repeated views, you still can’t believe how well it works.  And some of it, like Tom, is amusingly strange, which is forever the appeal of Tim and Eric, reaching for buttons of humor that aren’t often pushed and then slapping them with dead fish.  What’s great about Awesome Show vs. Tom is that they’re now fully freed of a format, and so the STRANGEST ideas come out.  But even though these guys have been together forever, there’s still the sense of this just being the start of things, feeling it out, and so it’s one beat shy of full-on 5-star insanity.  It really takes off in seasons 2 and 3.  The commentary isn’t as rewarding as on Tom, save the Liebe episode, as they remain in shtick (and silent) for most of it, but some of the unaired / extended bits are pretty amusing.