The Daily Show - Indecision 2004 DVD

In Stores Jun 28

I always wondered how they were going to put The Daily Show on DVD. I mean, every day, even without Fridays and the monthly week off, is a lot of discs and no real seasonal demarcations. If they did a year’s worth, how much would that cost and when would you watch it again? So here’s their first attempt, packaging all the election-related programming together.

It’s not my first choice for a Daily Show archive, because I think their coverage of the mundane is far more interesting than the prerequisite political stuff. But I was looking forward to seeing some good extra features.

There are no real outtakes or deletions, because I imagine a daily show uses everything they do. But they do showcase some election-related pieces that were not part of the convention coverages.

I was very disappointed in the audio commentaries. I should have expected a fake show would do fake commentaries, but I really wanted to know how they get people to showcase in the investigative segments. Instead correspondents like Rob Corddry and Samantha Bee just try way too hard to be clever, and there’s nothing all that clever about a gag audio commentary.

Jon Stewart’s introduction is the only really funny extra with his deadpan irreverence, like he’s not trying too hard, just being himself and spoofing the standards of DVD format.

Stephen Colbert’s “Requiem for a Show that was Daily” is okay. It’s a tour of the Daily Show studio done in an ultra-serious nostalgic tone applied to the mundane.

I’m eager to see other Daily Show DVDs, hopefully with more Jon Stewart contributions and some real “how to” insight into the show. But it’s a good start and the election night show alone is a keeper.