I'm Alan Partridge: Series 1

Rarely have I come across a television comedy more poorly served by the addition of a raucous laugh track, and yet without it, several members of the audience might not realize that I'm Alan Partridge is meant to be funny. British satirist Steve Coogan (Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story) is an absolute genius, but his brand of comedy is bleak and bitter, maybe never more so than in this BBC-aired series about a former talk-show host reduced to working the late night/early morning shift at a downmarket radio station while desperately trying—unsuccessfully—to claw his way back to his former semi-celebrity status. Everything about Alan Partridge's world is depressingly shabby, from the obstinately bland hotel he calls home, to his inconsequential ambitions—the episode in which he pitches ideas to a BBC executive for new TV shows for him to host is an excruciatingly piercing satire of the triviality of most television. Of course, the same could be said for the show on the whole...and the irony of that may be the biggest meta-joke of all here. Compiling all six shows from the 1997 first season, DVD extras include commentary tracks by Coogan—both in character and as himself, and outtakes. For those who can take humor that is, paradoxically, relentlessly sad, this is highly recommended. (M. Johanson)