The Sarah Silverman Program – Season One (2007) | DVD Review

Stretching her sharp-tongued act into a 30-minute format interspersed with musical numbers, Sarah Silverman gets a little help from her friends and family starring as a single unemployed caricature of herself in The Sarah Silverman Program for Comedy Central. Most of us first remember Sarah Silverman for her role as Mike White’s annoying-yet-strangely-hot girlfriend in the Jack Black vehicle School of Rock, but she’s since had some memorable stints on Greg the Bunny, Crank Yankers, dating Ben Stein’s former lackey Jimmy Kimmel (who has a cross-dressing cameo in the episode ‘Positively Negative’) and more recently gave us a double-dose of sass in her critically-acclaimed sketch-filled stand-up routine feature-length debut Jesus is Magic. I just wish I had the same praise for The Sarah Silverman Program as I do for all those other ventures. All the usual suspects are accounted for: sister Laura stretches her acting chops for once and plays Sarah’s sister, aptly named Laura; Jay Johnston plays Laura’s cop boyfriend who looks more like he just stepped off the set of slightly funnier show Reno 911!; comedian-turned comic book writer Brian Posehn plays half the part of gay bovine-sized neighbors Brian and Steve, with the other half played by-you guessed it-some guy named Steve Agee. Thank god Bob Odenkirk is nowhere to be seen is all I have to say.

Sarah tackles hot-button issues including racism, homosexuality, AIDS, abortion, drug addiction, homelessness, child abandonment, religion… I just have a 2-part question: what’s the chase and how do I cut to it? There are next to no surprises here save for the occasional random insult she throws at her cast mates, although even as they come to be expected they still provide a few chuckles for their comedic timing. We all enjoy a good unexpected ribbing and there is no shortage of those when it comes to Sarah’s little jabs. Unfortunately, the only laugh-out loud (I use the term very loosely) moments are few and far between amidst the other “oh-that’s-clever-what-she-did-right-there-I-guess-I’m-supposed-to-be-shocked-and-completely-beside-myself” moments. Sarah upped the bar too high too early in her career, and maybe I’m just jaded but her brand of dry wit and vindictive sarcasm doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy like it used to. I’m still a sucker for spontaneous breaking-out-into-song-and-dance routines for any show, and Sarah has a gift for her Jill Sobule-esque harmonies and cutting lyrics, her songs actually help break some of the monotony and predictability of the show.

The 2 most memorable moments stem from Sarah’s little ballads and include her trademark misleading sarcasm; one which takes place during a duet with Laura Marano (who plays a young version of Sarah in later episodes) where Sarah abruptly ends the song by telling Laura she sounds flat; the other when a homeless Zach Galifianakis tries to sing along before Sarah interrupts him by saying “Shh, this isn’t a duet.” Pretty classic, I admit. Now the fact that I’m unemployed and didn’t have enough foresight to not rent an apartment close to a high school with a bedroom window leading directly to the shortcut alley running rampant with loud and obnoxious students who wake me up before the crack of 8:00, and then again around lunchtime, goes to prove The Sarah Silverman Program does teach one true life-lesson: “Kids are dicks.” Indeed.

Most TV series DVD packaging are pretty simple, and by simple I mean so mind-numbingly boring it’s safe to assume they were all designed by graphic artists who just chased down 2 Gravols with a cheap bottle of whiskey, and The Sarah Silverman Program stays that course with unfortunate knowing aplomb by parading its conservative let’s-show-a-bland-group-shot-of-the-cast picture for the front cover, these gents need to take a page out of the designing book the fine folks at Adult Swim read. The DVD menus on the other hand are retro-tacular! Unfortunately that’s where the excitement comes to a screeching and painful halt. Skipping straight to the Special Features we find the Musical Performances section with the most tired and uninspired improvisational performances from Sarah with guitar in hand, accompanied by various cast members doing their open-mike night shtick. The Extras give us a little insight into the concepts for the show’s intro (thank god not one of them was approved, the actual intro used for the show is probably one of the only funny aspects of it) and last we find every song Sarah sings during the 1st season which can be viewed as either karaoke version (holy interactivity!) or sing-a-long with the in-tune magical white ping-pong ball. Like I stated before, her songs are almost the saving grace of her show. Almost.

Sarah’s potty-mouthed one-liners would serve her better in her stand-up routine/award show hosting duties/celebrity roasts than in a half-hour format, because after starting out so edgy anything less than shocking becomes utterly disappointing. Unless you’re a die-hard fan or done re-watching all 6 seasons of Hogan’s Heroes for the Nth time, The Sarah Silverman Program is, as an out-of-context Sarah herself would say while licking her dog’s rectum, “fair at best”. Sarah Silverman, you make me feel funny down there (cupping crotch) but lately, not so much up here (tapping heart).

Movie rating – 2

Disc Rating – 2.5