When I heard of the TV show “Stella” I thought it was a sitcom or maybe a bizarre comedy variation on “A Street Car Named Desire” with Stanley Kolwaksi as a comedy buffoon and his long suffering wife. I didn’t envision this comedy show created by Michael Ian Black, Michael Showwalter and David Wain from Comedy Central. It goes to show the sheltered life I lead. Channeling the energy of Monty Python and putting it into a sort of sitcom format made this quirky series a cult favorite on Comed y Central it’s also probably why the show never gained the larger audience the network hoped for. All three men wear suits and play characters that have the same name as their own living together in an apartment. They’re the type of guys that believe they are smart, witty individuals but are actually clueless individuals. The series is filled with strange dialogue that makes it seem like a surrealist comedy directed by David Lynch or Jean Luc Goddard but without the pretense. Like “Seinfeld” there’s no hugging, no learning and no moral message at the end of every episode; these men are the same self centered individuals that they were in the first minute of the first episode. In many respects this is a sitcom that satirizes other sitcoms and gets caught up in the odd little exchanges of dialogue between the three men. ---

Image & Sound:

The show was videotaped so there aren’t any analog flaws to mar the picture and we get 10 episodes on two discs. Colors are almost as bright and surreal as the dialogue in the show. Audio sounds fine since it’s a dialogue driven comedy there isn’t much in the way of surround activity. ---

I was pleasantly surprised to see a coupe of decent extras for the show. “The History of Stella” runs about 40 minutes and focusing on the history of the comedy troop. They got their start as part of The State a sketch group that appeared on MTV. Some of the folks from The State went on to develop the highly acclaimed series “Reno 911”. The three bust each other’s chops and discuss how their style of humor (and the series) developed. ***

We get about 15 minutes of bloopers. I rarely find comedy bloopers truly funny unless there’s some outstanding talent involved and these are really no different although fans will enjoy them. Finally we get “Comedy Central Quickies” which feature clips from Stella’s former colleagues on the successful series “Reno 911” as well as other Comedy Central popular favorites such as “South Park” and “The Colbert Report”. I suspect that a clip of “Stella” doesn’t show up on DVDs for these other series which is too bad as fans of all three other series might enjoy “Stella”. All of this is rounded out by a “Stella” short film, a couple of minor Easter Eggs and promos for other shows. ---

Final Words: