Cult hit brings it home

I am not entirely sure why it is that nobody knows about "Home Movies." I guess it is just another one of those greatly under-appreciated comedies like "Mr. Show," "NewsRadio" or "Arrested Development." And just like those three shows, it was canceled way before its time. Luckily for fans (all seven of us), the fourth and final season has gotten the full-on super DVD treatment.\nIf you have never seen the show (which most of you probably haven't), the premise may seem a little off putting. It is a cartoon about three kids, Brendon (Brendon Small), Jason (H. Jon Benjamin) and Melissa (Melissa Galsky), their soccer coach, Coach McGuirk (H. Jon Benjamin), and the adventures they don't have (one episode is about building a grill). The name "Home Movies" comes from the films the three children make in each episode that usually somehow mirror the events that are going on in their lives. The premise is not in itself that noteworthy, but what makes "Home Movies" work, is the brilliant cast of comedians that they use to do voices. This season is no exception with appearances by Emo Phelps, Todd Berry and Sam Seder among others.\nThe fourth season is, in some aspects, the best season of the show. Going into it they clearly knew they weren't coming back for a fifth season, so they did a lot more experimentation. This resulted in some of the greatest moments of the show, like McGuirk's trip to traffic school, the septopus song and the episode where Brendon becomes a film critic (meta alert). To this day I don't think I have ever laughed as hard as I did the first time I watched the episode with the school play "Bye, Bye Greasy."\nThe DVDs are loaded with special features. Since this is the last season they clearly decided to go all out. There is at least one commentary on every episode with series creators Brendon Small and Loren Bouchard, and there are even several guest commentaries from The Shins, Modest Mouse, the staff of The Onion and inexplicably several with the owner of the Toronto Blue Jays. There is also an outtake Jukebox, which actually is a rather annoying way to present the outtakes since you have no control over which one it plays so you will hear some of the same ones over and over. Still, this is a great DVD set. As it says on the box, "The only thing wrong with 'Home Movies' is there aren't any more to watch"