The Brak Show: Volume 1

This exercise in stream-of-geeky-consciousness insanity and slightly disreputable animation manipulation almost defies explanation--you're either in the cult, or you're not. Backstory: in the 1960s, there was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon called Space Ghost and Dino Boy, which hardly anyone remembers with love or affection. In the 1990s, the goofballs at the cable channel Cartoon Network, saddled with the entire Hanna-Barbera archive, had a stroke of genius: they would lift the characters out of the original 'toon and grant them new lives as a talk-show gang. And so Cartoon Network's late-night madness Adult Swim programming block was born, and went on to become all sorts of phenomenal. Now, Brak, Space Ghost's sorta feline-esque villain turned talk-show sidekick, has his own series, a hilariously bizarre parody of a suburban sitcom in which the former space pirate plays a high-school student who finds himself competing in staring contests, killing a neighbor's pet fish by feeding it too much ham, and getting involved in other improbable events. (That neighbor, incidentally, is a giant robotic warrior.) The 14 short episodes are accompanied by even more boundless weirdness in the DVD extras, including commentary from the creators (and Brak) on selected episodes, segments from Cartoon Planet, Adult Swim "news breaks," episode highlights, and Easter eggs. Most viewers will find this inscrutable, but for the already initiated, it's recommended. (M. Johanson)