"I'm a 46 year old high school freshman. For 32 years I was a teenage runaway. I was a boozer, a user, and a loser. My friends were dealers, cons, and 18 karat pimps. But now, I'm out of jail, picking up my life exactly where I left off. I'm back in high school, living at home, and discovering all sorts of things about my body." - Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank
Strangers with Candy: Season 1 DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
Imagine The ABC After School Special crossed with Frankenhooker and you are on your way to understanding the demented fun that is Strangers with Candy. Amy Sedaris stars as Jerri Blank, a former teenage runaway and crack whore who, at age 46, decides to return home and finish high school at Flatpoint High, Home of the Concrete Donkeys. At school, Jerri receives dubious guidance from teachers Chuck Noblet (Stephen Colbert) and Geoffery Jellineck (Paul Dinello), and Principal Blackman (Greg Hollimon). Jerri lives with her dad (Roberto Gari), her dismissive stepmother (Deborah Rush), and her mean half-brother Derrick (Larc Spies).
Jerri's return to normal society is not an easy one, as she encounters various social problems like alcoholism and drug abuse that were once dealt with in After School Specials. Of course, this being parody, those problems are given a postmodern twist. One example is the episode "Let Freedom Ring" in which the school is rocked by a racial slur that has been spray painted onto a wall. The various characters are horrified that such an atrocity has been committed, yet they all remain casually racist, nonchalantly blackening their lawn jockeys and perpetuating racial stereotypes. As one thug tells the prime suspect, "The only thing we hate more than a racist is a spic!"
Strangers with Candy is sure to be offensive to some viewers, especially those who take satire at face value. It also contains outrageous double entendres and bawdy sexual humor. Those who are easily offended should watch Lassie instead.
The episodes are a bit uneven, but even the weaker ones have a high percentage of belly laughs. Some, like "A Burden's Burden" and the aforementioned "Let Freedom Ring," have more laughs in one episode than in any three episodes of some traditional sitcoms. In ".Burden," Gerri's health class learns about the responsibility involved with taking care of a ten pound baby.by taking care of a ten pound baby. Gerri is picked to go first, even though, as she points out, she's "had plenty of babies.just none I've carried to full term." She soon names him "Dizzy" because he constantly falls off of the tables, bureaus, and other high places she tries to seat him.
The ten episodes that make up the first season are divided onto two discs. The discs are housed in a digipak which in turn slides into a cardboard sleeve. One flap of the digipak lists the episode numbers, titles, airdates, and brief synopses of the episodes. The fun menus are designed to look like composition books. The main menu, which is "written" on the class schedule on the composition book's inside cover, has a play all feature. A separate menu screen allows for individual episodes to be chosen. There are no chapter stops in the episodes.
