Reno 911!: The Complete Sixth Season Uncensored - DVD Review

About.com Rating

Six seasons into its run, I'm amazed at just how consistent Reno 911! still manages to be. On paper, it would seem that the premise -- essentially a COPS spoof focusing on an inept sheriffs' department -- would run itself ragged after a season or two. And, yet, Reno shows little signs of slowing down. Every episode is good for several big laughs and many smaller ones, and the show pulls off the tricky feat of combining character-based humor with broader, dirtier jokes.

Also impressive is the way it functions as a sketch comedy inside a bigger narrative every week, typically telling one overall story but breaking away for unrelated vignettes every few minutes. At this point, Reno 911! has its formula down to a science, but still avoids coming off as stale. Most other shows would have jumped the shark by now.

New Cast Members

Season Six of Reno 911! finds a few changes in the personnel department. Gone are deputies Johnson (Wendi McLendon-Covey), Garcia (Carlos Alazraqui) and Kimball (Mary Birdsong), all killed off in an explosion at the end of last season (I'm disappointed with how easily they're written off, but have to hand it to Reno for its typically unsentimental approach). Joining the cast this season are Joe Lo Truglio, yet another alumnus of The State (in addition to Tom Lennon, Kerri Kenney-Silver and Robert Ben Garant) playing Deputy Frank Rizzo and former Upright Citizens Brigade player Ian Roberts as Sgt. Jack Declan. It took me a few episodes to warm to both, and I'm still not sure Lo Truglio (who has always been funny, and has stolen many a film he's appeared in since the dissolution of The State) has found a way to make Rizzo funny.

There are some hints early on that he's a Denzel-in-Training Day-style loose cannon, but that seems to be dropped fairly quickly.

Roberts, on the other hand, finds his groove quickly and makes for a very funny foil to the cast, particularly Lennon's Lt. Jim Dangle. Better yet, his participation means his fellow UCB cast members Matt Besser and Matt Walsh show up this season. Throw in the cameos from the guys in Human Giant and Season Six starts to feel like a collection of sketch comedy all-stars.

Season Six on DVD

Paramount's release of Reno 911!: The Complete Sixth Season Uncensored features all 12 episodes on two discs -- plus all the bad language intact. Occasionally, while watching the show on Comedy Central I'm able to convince myself that the "bleeps" can sometimes make a joke funnier -- without knowing exactly which terrible word is said, you tend to fill in the blanks with something far worse, and that can be funny. Watching these "Uncensored" DVDs, however, proves me wrong. It's funnier with the swearing intact, and this cast (particularly Kenney-Silver) has a real mastery over when and how to say something really offensive for maximum impact.

The DVD features several extras, including cast commentaries on a few of the episodes, "Profiles in Valor" mock featurettes on the new cast members and some extended bits only glimpsed in the show (like Craig Robinson's commercials). The best bonus feature is a series of outtakes and extended riffs, largely because it's just more of what makes the show funny -- the talented cast improvising funny lines. For fans of the show, it's more of a good thing.