Lewis Black has a rather frenetic style when delivering comedy. Much like the late George Carlin, he always seems on the verge of a nervous breakdown. While in a full on rant, Black ridicules history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena. He uses sarcasm and hyperbole laced with profanity to emphasis his disgust disdain or disbelief for a specific topic. Black once described his humor as, “being on the Titanic every single day and being the only person who knows what is going to happen.” He says he doesn’t write anything down. Instead, he starts talking about something that makes him angry until he has to move on before he has a stroke.
Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil is set up in a mock trial format with Black presiding over two people or issues going against each other like defendants and plaintiffs in a trial, with a series of comedians and guests, such as Kathleen Madigan, Greg Giraldo, Andy Daly, Paul F. Tompkins, and Patton Oswalt, playing lawyers making their case why something is the “root of all evil.” An example of topics: internet porn, marijuana, Oprah, You Tube–Basically any hot button issue of the day. Simple, structured and very funny, it has some similarities to the now defunct Politically Incorrect. This isn’t surprising, since Root of All Evil is produced by Scott Carter, who was a writer for Politically Incorrect and currently produces Real Time with Bill Maher.
Black is great, but in truth, the shoe would still be funny without him. He really acts as the ringleader and the focus is on the two lawyers arguing their case. Not only are the comedians funny but they take things seriously enough to be believable. Greg Giraldo actually studied law at Harvard, and no one can touch Andrew Daly’s bombastic performance, his sweet smile and twisted mind combine to create a lawyer you’ll love to hate.
Sometimes the arguments make some sense, sometimes they don’t; marijuana vs. beer, You Tube vs. internet porn, Paris Hilton vs. Dick Cheney, and Donald Trump vs. Viagra and Red States vs. Blue States. No matter the silliness or the random of the cases, the talent on the show is always able to make a funny, worthwhile argument out of it.
The eight episodes collected here (which is the first season, though the DVDs have no numbering) are split evenly over two DVDs. The discs have animated full-frame menus with options to play all the episodes, select shows and check out the bonus material. There are no audio options and no subtitles, though closed captioning is included.
The full-frame transfers look as solid as they do on Comedy Central, with appropriate color, a nice sharp image and a decent level of detail. There are no issues with dirt or damage and no obvious problems with digital artifacts.
The audio, which is uncensored, matches the video. The Dolby Digital 2.0 track does its job well. The comedians’ dialogue is clear.
Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil comes with some special features:
• Full Post Show Interviews – From all eight episodes, these are taken from the series’ website, which probably explains why these are censored, unlike the rest of the set.
• Your Day in Court (3 Minutes) – Lewis talking about what you should do if you have to go to court.
• Meet Judge Black (1:30) – A very quick look at the show’s star.
• Meet the Lawyers (2:47) – Black talking about the comics
• Polibits – An extremely short note by Black about how politicians lie.
