Men At Work – Season 1: DVD Review
Milo (Danny Masterson) just had his girlfriend Lisa (Amy Smart) break up with him and now he’s trying to work his way back into single life. His 3 friends Tyler, Gibbs and Neal (Michael Cassidy, James Lesure and Adam Busch) all work at the same magazine together. They hop along for the ride and try to steer him in the right (and wrong) directions. Together they end up helping each other out with Life, Love and everything else in between.
As I watched the first episode I wasn’t too sure I was going to like it. A lot had to do with Masterson. Not in a bad way but I think I’ve just been used to being the “Hyde” character on That 70’s Show and this was a complete departure from that. It was just kind of weird seeing him being insecure and cower in a corner. I’ve been a fan of Busch since his stint on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and his character Neal was somewhat the same…..except all the murderousness (yup, just made that word up). Now, I’m not really familiar with Lesure and Cassidy’s previous work but I’ll be looking out after this and I’m sure everyone else will as well. As the show went on I suddenly found myself laughing out loud and really getting into the show. One episode turned into two then suddenly I realized I watched all ten episodes in one sitting. I was really surprised at the language they were getting away with on a sitcom. Times have definitely changed. The thing that I think I really liked about the show was that they sometimes (like other sitcoms) just kind of hand you the punchline to their jokes. Men At Work gives a few of those jokes but the best and funniest one are the ones that they make you work for. There were a few times I hate to admit that they threw a joke out there and it did take me a minute to snap at the punchline. As far as the stories in each episode goes, they aren’t very intricate and they tend to zoom from one point to another but honestly sometimes that’s needed. As an audience at times we need to see the idea of the main story and let it play out on its own while we just enjoy the comedy. Very quickly you can see the potential that this show has with these few episodes. It’s smart, funny and the comedic timing of the guys involved is pretty damn good. This show really came from left field and surprised the heck out of me. I’ll be looking out for season two for sure.
Special Features:
Outtakes -These were funny but not as funny as I thought they were going to be. You can almost tell that everyone it still trying to find their character a bit and hesitant about fooling around too much.
Deleted Scenes – There was a few deleted scenes that didn’t seem to fit in and I’m glad they cut.
Below are a few clips to check out:
Men At Work Season 1 is available March 26th on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
