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Sam & Max: The Complete Series DVD Release Date: 10th March 2008

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Sam & Max: The Complete Series DVD Review:

Satire can take many forms, as evidenced by the original comic strip, Sam and Max, by Steve Purcell. Who would have thought that some of the most intelligent satire could be put in the mouth of a fedora wearing mutt, Sam and his tiny, borderline psychotic rabbity buddy Max, working as freelance police? Apparently the kookiness of this idea was a hit, as there were various computer games that became a famous franchise. The point and click adventure games form the mid nineties were also genius, and hold a special place in the hearts of many kids who had nothing better to do than sit down and move characters around with mice and hear them spout witty comments. It is in my mind that these point and click adventure games were crucial to my mental development, as they relied heavily on witty writing and references to off the wall subjects, and situations that informed me of their context outside the game, such as the visual gag of FBI agents literally tying someone up in red tape. Sam and Max: The Series attempts to pull off this sort of quasi-educational, semi- smart dementia while maintaining a high entertainment value.
Sadly, as it was shown on Fox Kids, it feels somewhat neutered (tee hee), though it does work well within the mainstream. It is quite self referential for a seemingly neutered version of the satire in the games and the original comic. For example, there is an episode when Sam and Max address the viewer directly, stating that the “entire episode will be shown entirely without a commercial break…” then the screen cuts to black, the space in which commercials will inundate the viewer. This would seem like a facile attempt at satire, but that though was removed from my head as it happens, three times, as if the audience were to expect anything else. This does two things. The viewer, presumably a child will be annoyed at the commercials and therefore be more interested in the show, thus getting the child on the side of the cartoon itself, which is far less deleterious than a child seeing something in a commercial they wish to imitate or emulate. Secondly, it makes the child understand that the commercials will repeatedly interrupt what they enjoy, that commercialism will halt, temporarily what they want to see. This is as subversive as television for children can get. And the show is laden with things like this. Ren and Stimpy had a similar format, and in retrospective was incredibly anti-TV. This is perhaps the best part about the series, retaining some of what made the comic and the wonderful, wonderful computer games what they were. It seems like, though in the translation to television show, a great deal was lost.
Though it does retain some goodness, it makes s the mistake of giving us a stupid girl genius to give them the most high tech and shiny equipment. She serves as an annoyance, and nothing to add to what was already great about a Dog and a Bunny working as freelance police. She is stock television character, who is ridiculed for being so perhaps once in the whole series. If Sam and Max the series were truly Sam and Max, they would stop at nothing to bother her about how she is a stock children's TV character basically constructed to be annoying, for no other reason than to have a character to despise so as give more attention to Sam and Max. It ignores some of what it could have done, perhaps because Purcell does not write very many episodes, it loses his genius. There are also moments that are ridiculous that do not play off on how ridiculous they are, and seem to be taken for granted, such as when Sam and Max travel through space in their car, and traverse the vacuum unscathed to fight an evil demon who destroys planets with a ray gun on his forehead. It is ridiculous and funny that plays off on what is insipid about children’s programming but in this particular episode gives us no indication that it knows how dumb it is. Unfortunately, the series is laden with things like this, and less of the awesome satire that is seen in snippets throughout the show. Overall, a decent show that attempts to capture the wit of Steve Purcell’s original genius and delivers occasionally. Oh, I almost forgot. The vocabulary of the main characters is almost unreal for a kids show, they speak with such lofty words as “virulent,” which perhaps will inspire children to have a larger vocabulary and take pride in knowing more rather than being derided for it, as many seem to be. This is perhaps the best thing about the series.
The Extras are packed with awesome tidbits, such as Sam and Max: Our Bewildering Universe, a throwback to the comic in terms of its quality, a conversation with the man himself, and a “series bible” by Purcell. If only the show had half the wit shown in the extras. Unfortunately as it is released by Shout factory whose slogan is “feed your pop culture habit,” I feel many people may watch this who just for that, and not what Purcell is actually doing.

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Sam & Max: The Complete Series DVD review written by: Brian Reis