Reno 911! The Complete Third Season

Summer, a season that's cherished for its assortment of half-baked blockbuster films, cartwheels in the park, bass fishing under the hot sun, and the occasional Molotov cocktail drive-by. It's also a great time of year for another go around with those hopelessly hopeless law enforcers from the Reno's Sherriff's department. For the past three summers Comedy Central has released each season of Reno 911! on DVD to coincide with the new season airing on television. It's a similar technique to what all the other shows do before fall hits, but fortunately for us this lands right in the middle of summer with no non-reality shows in sight.

The third season of Reno 911! brings a few changes. Season two ended with a cliff-hanger that saw the entire Sheriff's department behind bars for their shockingly corrupt behaviour as law enforcement officials. The series keeps things consistent and we spend the first two episodes with them all behind bars. Of course, their names get cleared and they return to their old duties -- with much chagrin -- maintaining the lowest level of law enforcement that is humanly possible.

Some of this season's more coherent highlights include kick-starting a singing career, guarding Liberace's cursed piano, protecting the set of C.S.I., reuniting with long, lost children, marrying a rich dead guy (Bernie style), being quarantined for SARS, and re-enacting a murder that involves a bag of cocaine, a wad of cash, a handgun, a sawed-off, "delicious, piping-hot Arby's," monkey-rolling (?), and some obligatory male masturbation (the victim was allegedly doing his friend's cocaine, counting his friend's money, and masturbating simultaneously while the friend/killer arrived with poisoned "delicious, piping-hot Arby's").

This season also gives us a brand new female addition to the department. Sexually ambiguous Cheresa Kimball (played by Mary Birdsong) joins the force promptly after the cops make it out of the joint. At first she's all about police etiquette and practicality but, several episodes in, she begins to catch that Reno slacker fever.

The show's third season also manages to shake things up a bit. Sure, we get regulars like Terry (a more degrading, male version of Boogie Nights' Rollergirl) and his two dollar tug jobs in the back of Tacos Tacos Tacos Tacos. We also get a brief T.T. cameo, as well as more Craig-on-death-row skits and some new running jokes that replace the old ones from the previous seasons. Gone are the botched licence plate readings and Layin' Down the Law! sketches, now we get a series of amusingly shoddy Police Tek 2000 ads, as well as several well-intentioned school seminars gone awry.

As I mentioned with the case of season 2, Officer Trudy Wiegel (Kerri Kenney-Silver) is hands down the most brilliant aspect of the show, followed so very closely by Lieutenant Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon). Seeing these two improv a scene together is pure gold. Comedy doesn't get any better than this. Still, the entire cast shines, as does each of the seasons' guest stars. We have Upright Citizen's Brigade's Matt Besser as an outspoken drug dealer, Dog Bites Man's Zach Galifianakis as a gun-running family man living in a school bus, and The Daily Show's Brian Unger as Reading Ron, one of the season's most memorable characters, who gets pushed too far.

Going back to Officer Wiegel and Lieutenant Dangle, the first disc of the set features an extended sequence of the "delicious, piping-hot Arby's" homicide that lasts 22 minute. That's an entire episode's running time. Honestly, this is some of the best time I've ever spent sitting in front of my television.

Also included on disc 1 is an introduction by Dangle and Deputy Junior (Robert Ben Garant) from the set of Reno 911! Miami (the feature film that comes out in 2007) that appears before the menu. You'll also find three hilarious commentary tracks for episodes 5, 6, and 7. These tracks feature voices from the likes of director Michael Patrick Jann, Kenney, Lennon, Birdsong, Carlos Alazraqui (deputy James Garcia), and Cedric Yarbrough (deputy Jones). There's even a hidden commentary track by the cast in character if you highlight "DVD previews" and go down one click.

On the second disc you'll find two more terrific tracks for episode 10 and 13 (the finale). Garant and Lennon lend their voices for episode ten, while director Brad Adams and Niecy Nash (Deputy Raineesha Williams) discuss the finale. Other features on disc 2 include 30 more minutes of extended sequences (3 in total), two of which take place on the set of C.S.I., with Dangle eating a cold towel because he thinks it's food ("it tastes like Sea Breeze"). The other sketch features another memorable character from season three: homeless drunkard extraordinaire Junior the III, as he makes a police report for a cart (as in shopping cart) jacking. Finally, we also get a bunch of mock commercials (that served as ads for the third season) for Reno 911! action figures. Man, I wish I could get me a Dangle doll.

Though there are 3 fewer episodes than the previous season, I really cannot find one thing to complain about in terms of the DVD itself. Each season of this show is arguably better than the last (or maybe I just forget how funny they were a year ago) and the cast/crew always manages to keep things fresh and twisted as hell. The show is utterly unpredictable with its never-relenting lunacy. Pair that with some of the very best improv comedy around and a very reasonable price tag (less than twenty bucks!) and you've got yourself one of the top TV-on-DVD releases of the year...every year. -- Neil Karassik