Search - Full Bottom: Not Another Half-Arsed DVD Set! on DVD

To me, it's at the Top of the tv food chain

John Nelson | North Fond du Lac, WI | 03/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Listen, I'm not an elitest snob but I won't ignore what I know myself. Tv has gotten pretty lame lately and is showing little sign of getting better. Sitcoms that are touted by everybody as being funny and aren't, dramas that hype the drama and don't deliver. Good shows like Farscape and The Job which get canned while demons on NBC and CBS go untamed. Thats what I like about BOTTOM. It says that you'll laugh and you will, it doesn't shout it out loud either. There are no major plots just silly events which turn into stories on their own. It has a cult following and we can pray for new episodes or at least the live performances to come to disc as well.BOTTOM comes from the minds primarily behind THE YOUNG ONES (another bastion of great watching) but on a slightly more mature and grown up level. If THE YOUNG ONES was a "family" show with Vyvian as son, Neil as mother, Mike as dad, Rick as daughter, then BOTTOM is a husband and wife style show with two chums (and no they aren't gay but at times Richie seems boderline), Sexually frustrated and annoying Richie (the wife) and stagering jobless drunkard Eddie (husband) share an apartment in England. They don't have much money, they don't have many friends, they almost never get the girl and both are almost ingratiatingly stupid. All they have is each other, and thats why one would cheat the other out of anything even to merely creep ahead in life, even if it means giving up a greater fortune. Don't worry YOUNG ONES fans, all of the slapstick violence and verbal abuse came over intact without the weird surrealism and side storys.The entire series is here on a three disc set. SMELLS has the boys getting ahold of Pheramone spray and then testing it out on girls at the local bar, too bad they don't know that they're already "taken". GAS, one of the funnier epsiodes has the gas man coming to read the meter in the apt. Little does he know that they are stealing gas from their neighbor. Can they get stop the meter man, without killiing him anyway? CONTEST is my favorite episode and cements the "husband/wife" relationship of the show with Eddie blowing whats left of the money on a vintage porn magazine and then expecting to watch a beauty pagent on TV all the while Richie slaved away making a terrible meal complete with green bacon. APOCALYPSE has Eddie and Richard hitting the fair and finding out from a gypsy that Richie has 3 days to live, sure enough he gets to meet the reaper. In BOTTOM'S UP, Richie and Eddie's landlord pays them to watch over his store while he goes to funeral, they decide to sit on the roof and watch sports instead. ACCIDENT has Richie breaking his leg on his birthday and condsiders killing himself when his nonexistant friends don't show up. The scene where picks his teeth after drinking is priceless (and gross). DIGGER has the duo hitting a dating sevice. After Richie lies about being rich a countess shows up hoping to merry only for his money. PARADE isn't so much funny as it is the best story in the series. After scoring some cash, the two go to the bar where the local bookie, whos hammered spills the beans about a hot tip. to raise cash for the bet, they steal a war veteran's fake leg and sell it at the pawn shop. CULTURE shows us what the boys get up to when the TV's been repossessed, with nothing else to do, they play chess. Too bad Richie is too hyper and excited to remember he doesn't know how to play chess. BURGLARY has the guys catching a burglar in their house and find his stolen loot. Only one thing stand in the way of them going to Barbados, what to do with the burglar. Well....they could kill him. The Christmas episode HOLY has gifts passed around, fingers cut off and possbily the second coming with Richie in the role of Mary. After all he is a virgin. BOTTOM'S OUT has the two staking out some land for a camping expidition not 50 feet from the bus stop. Along with GAS, one of the funniest episodes. HOLE has Eddie and Richie debating life and stuff after they are trapped on a ferris wheel. Oh well they can get off in the morning, hopefully before the wheel is demolished... TERROR has Richie and Eddie trying to get money at Halloween with a cattle prod. When the party starts, Richie attempts to contact Satan. (By the way this episode aired years before South Park did, you'll know what I mean when you see it) BREAK concerns Eddie and Richies attempts to get in shape so they can score some girls on an upcoming vacation, they have to survive working out and each other first. DOUGH is definetly the most plot oriented episode with Eddie counterfitting money and end up trying to win a quiz match so that the local counterfitter doensn't crush their skulls. FINGER has the pair stealing honeymoon tickets from a local cricket champ and end up posing as a couple with Eddie making a truly ugly woman. Hattrick for this episode, Eddie gets booted in the crotch 3 times. CARNIVAL is the finale with Richie stealing a TV camera during a riot and attempting a "funniest home video accident". The tape in the camera shows something quite different and then the two attempt blackmail of the prime minister.One of my new favorite shows and one that should live on longer then others. If you were a fan of THE YOUNG ONES, it definitly deserves a watch."

At last, US availability.

John Nelson | 12/16/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Finally the entire series is available in the States!
The Amazon review about does it justice...so there's no point rehashing what it says in this space.
If you're a fan of British comedy leaning towards Blackadder, Father Ted, Red Dwarf, The Young Ones (very similar to), you won't be disappointed. It'll be a lot cruder and ruder than the above, but every bit as funny and the missing ingredient in your collection. Edmonson and Mayall are fantastic together and play out their sick and twisted but superbly created characters hillariously. Classic comedy!
They should have screened this already on BBC America but possibly don't have the guts to."

A bit of bottom....at last!

melanie simner | morrow, georgia United States | 08/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having moved to the USA 12 months ago I found that i wanted some of the comedy that I had taken for granted back home. I have tried everywhere to get Bottom on DVD and had bought a multi-region player so that next time I was in the UK I could bring some back. It is great news to see this anarchic comedy being put out in a generous 3 disc set. If you like your humour outragious and littered with a fair amount of painful slapstick, then this is definitely for you.Buy with total confidence if you like the mad humour of Cleese, etc. .....and of course it does have it's fair amount of toilet humour...hence the title!.......Also, look out for the release of a 4 disc set of the king of UK sitcoms....Only fools and horses, one of the funniest UK sitcoms ever. you may take a while to understand the lingo....but you will love it all the same.....or you must be a "24 carrot plonker!""

Buy it Now!!!!

Karl A. Neulinger | Wyckoff, NJ | 10/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I stumbled upon this series while I was living in Europe and bought it on VHS. I recently wrote to the BBC and was notified that there were no plans to release Bottom on DVD in Europe. Imagine my surprise to move back to America only to see that Bottom has been released on DVD here! This is an absolute cracker of a series. It is the funniest series of shows that I have ever seen in my life. If only the BBC will release the "Bottom-Live" shows, the "Fluff Uncensored" videos along with other Rick and Adrian shows like "The Dangerous Brothers" and "Filthy Rich and Catflap" on DVD, I will be a happy man"