“Who’s the Caboose?” DVD Review
Sarah Silverman (The Sarah Silverman Program.), David Cross (Arrested Development), Andy Dick (Less Than Perfect), Sam Seder (Home Movies), H. Jon Benjamin (Archer), Kathy Griffin (Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List), Laura Kightlinger (The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman), David Waterman, Andy Kindler (Everybody Loves Raymond) and more star in WHO’S THE CABOOSE, the highly worshipped alternative-comedy prequel to the highly worshipped miniseries sequel, Pilot Season.
Synopsis
When a film crew making a documentary on a rare fatal disease among the homeless stops for a drink at an underground comedy club, it doesn’t take long before they decide to turn the attention of their film to the hot and funny stand-up comedian Susan (Sarah Silverman) who is leaving New York and heading to L.A. to land a part in a TV show, unbeknownst to her “performance artist” boyfriend, Max (Sam Seder). Desperate not to lose Susan, Max chases after her in hopes of bringing her back to the “more pure” New York scene. As Susan suffers the indignities and compromises her agent (Andy Dick) hopes will make her a star, fate deals Max a winning hand in the form of entertainment lawyer Ken Fold (H. Jon Benjamin). Suddenly Max is the toast of Hollywood and everyone in town wants him. But all he wants is Susan…
Stepping into this film I thought it was some new production, but the video quality and age of the actors involved immediately clued me in that it was, in fact, quite old. Fourteen years old in fact; I’d never heard of Pilot Season, but this is apparently a prequel to it and…ah, whatever. This is a funny film whatever it is. I’m always a fan of whatever Silverman is in and when it also includes David Cross, I have no qualms at all about picking it up to watch…regardless of its age. In the case of Who’s the Caboose? it focuses on pilot TV season and all the stupidity that it encompasses as actors struggle to find their big break or just their next paycheck.
What is slightly remarkable, however, is just how much of an in-joke this whole thing feels like. There’s no real average-joe relationship to strike up with anyone in this film; they’re all in a medium that most of us will never touch and it almost feels like you have to be part of that guild to really appreciate it. In any case it’s an interesting “peak” inside an area we wouldn’t normally see (although with a lot of current productions we do see these kind of parodies more often, but Who’s the Caboose? is a very interesting little time capsule to gaze upon).
There’s truthfully not much to say about this one—it’s got a ton of talent in that we now recognize because they’ve had their big breaks (though in the case of Cross or Andy Dick, perhaps the only got a so-so break, since they seem to stick to very low-level parts…though they work for Cross and I don’t care much for Dick so he doesn’t matter to me) and for that reason alone it’s a ton of fun to watch. Regardless of your reason for checking it out, Who’s the Caboose? is a good time to be had. Worth a Rental, even if you aren’t in on the joke all the time.
The DVD
New Video/Flatiron brings Who’s the Caboose? to DVD in a standard amaray DVD case. Nothing overly special about the presentation of the documentary here—no fancy exterior cardboard slipcase and the cover itself is a big splash of yellow to the retinas. Video and audio is a solid presentation overall and about what you’d expect from a documentary. As can be expected from an older production, the video is in 1.33:1 and the audio is a simple DD2.0 mix. There are no extras.
Overall a disc that’s worth a Rental as I’m not sure if you’d ever want to come back and watch this a second time, but it might be worth at least once viewing if you like the talent involved.
Who’s the Caboose? arrives on DVD on March 29th.