- Release Date: August 26th, 2008
- Genre: Comedy
- Price: $27.99 on Amazon
- Run Time: 457 minutes
- Publisher: Paramount
- Starring: Chris Rock, Tyler James Williams, Terry Crews, Tichina Arnold, Tequan Richmond, Vincent Martella, Imani Hakim
- Special Features: Cast and Crew Commentaries, Deleted Scenes, Director Webisodes, “Off the Cuff” Cast Interviews, Chris Rocks: VO Session Unplugged, Location Location Location, More Ms. Morello-isms, Slaver Slav Music Video, Gag Reel
Continuing the story of Chris Rock’s childhood, season three follows Chris Rock’s year in 8th grade as he prepares for high school. Chris has to deal with all the issues a person faces as they begin growing into an adult. While things are changing, many things are staying the same. Rochelle is as demanding as ever. Julius is his cheap self. Drew and Tonya are also out to make Chris’ life miserable. Finally Greg tries to help Chris through the school day with all the bullies and troubles with teachers. This four disc DVD set includes all 22 season three episodes.
I have actually been watching Everybody Hates Chris since the first season. While it isn’t the best comedy on television, it is still probably one of the better currently on TV. Every episode of Everybody Hates Chris is worthy of at least a laugh or two. It is actually probably one of the most consistent comedies on television. There have been very few episodes that I haven’t laughed at least while watching.
Since this is the third season, you probably want me to compare it to the first two seasons. As I mentioned earlier Everybody Hates Chris is a very consistent comedy. That also applies between seasons since I found the first three seasons about equal. None of them really stand out above the other two. The third season isn’t really much different than the other two seasons except for a couple new story ideas since Chris is older. If you liked the other two season of Everybody Hates Chris I can’t imagine you not liking the third season.
The one problem that really keeps Everybody Hates Chris from being one of the best comedies on television is the fact that it doesn’t have a lot of laugh out loud moments. When I judge a comedy for it’s humor I base it on two factors. First I base it on laughter in general. Then I base it on laugh out loud moments (the moments where it is hard to stop laughing). Chris does pretty well with the general laughs but kind of suffers in the second category of humor. A top comedy in my opinion succeeds in both categories which Everybody Hates Chris doesn’t in my opinion.
Finally a discussion of the special features is warranted. There is a very respectable number of special features on this DVD set. We’ll begin with the special features that I wasn’t so impressed with. I didn’t really like the commentaries, deleted scenes or director webisodes. None of these really stood out in my opinion. The special features I did enjoy included “Off the Cuff” Cast Interviews, and Chris Rock: VO Session Unplugged. The “Off the Cuff” feature is pretty much a 20 minute Q&A with the cast that gives you a very good sense of what it must be like on the set of Everybody Hates Chris. The Chris Rock VO Session Unplugged is actually a feature about Chris Rock’s voiceovers and the process that leads to them. Finally the three special features I haven’t mentioned yet are Location Location Location, More Ms. Morello-isms, Slaver Slav Music Video, and a gag reel. The gag reel and the Slaver Slav music video are self explanatory. The Location Location Location features takes a look at some of the sets from the show with a pretty annoying narrator. Finally the Ms. Morrello-isms go through some of Ms. Morello’s racist comments from the season.
Everybody Hates Chris might not be one of the best comedies on television but it is definitely on the second level of good comedies and is worth watching in my opinion. Most of the episodes are pretty funny but lack the laugh out loud moments that a great comedy possesses. If you are a fan of the show or just want to try out a pretty good comedy I would recommend that you check out Everybody Hates Chris The Third Season.
