Mrs. Brown's Boys: Complete Series

This BBC Scotland and RTÉ sitcom will mostly be unfamiliar to audiences not tuned into bawdy British TV. The show entirely revolves around Brendan O'Carroll who dons drag as the titular Mrs. Brown and spews out strings of foul-mouthed, wink-wink ad libs and malapropisms before an adoring live crowd. The setting is Agnes Brown's cluttered Dublin household and the cast is composed of her motley family, all of whom exist purely as foils for her dirty jokes, leering peepers, and naughty asides. O'Carroll rules the stage, frequently going off script to speak directly to the studio audience or his castmates. Goofs, bloopers, flubbed lines, and technical gaffes are all part of the fun in an otherwise ordinary set of highly Anglophilic family situations. Critics skewered the show as juvenile and offensive, which it most certainly is, although aside from the deliberately amateurish style and obsession with sex, it's not such a far cry from classic sitcoms like Fawlty Towers. O'Carroll's character is alternately meddling, obnoxious, endearing, and imperious in the grand tradition of British drag comedians, but a little bit of Mrs. Brown goes a long way. Compiling all 18 episodes from the 2009-13 three-season run, extras includes seven Christmas specials. Not a necessary purchase. (T. Fry)