A twisted, tasteless, hilariously audacious series of afterschool specials gone horribly, wonderfully wrong, Strangers with Candy: The Complete Series compiles all 30 episodes of the deliciously demented show that aired on Comedy Central from 1999-2000. A teenage runaway for 32 years, 46-year-old Jerri Blank, a “boozer, user, and loser,” is making up for lost time by going back to high school, where no one seems to notice her age but everyone can peg her exact level of uncoolness to the nanometer. Comedienne Amy Sedaris (sister of author David), hidden under faux-fat padding and hideous makeup, navigates a weird realm somewhere near the intersection of pathetic and poignant as Jerri, who is desperate to fit into a world where students and teachers alike are so consumed with their own neuroses that they might as well be living in hermetically-sealed bubbles. As a sendup of the artificial ecosystem of high school and the particular self-centeredness of teenagers, this is an aggressively subversive comedy that's attracting new interest now that co-creator and costar Stephen Colbert—who appears as a bitter history teacher—has ascended to the halls of snark valhalla with The Colbert Report. DVD extras include episode commentaries, the unaired pilot, deleted scenes, a blooper reel, cast and crew interviews, and a startling retro PSA featuring a real-life 1970s Jerri Blank-type. Highly recommended. (M. Johanson)
Strangers with Candy: The Complete Series
Paramount, 6 discs, 660 min., not rated, DVD: $59.98 Volume 21, Issue 5
Strangers with Candy: The Complete Series
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