Eagleheart (Season One) – DVD REVIEW

Conan O’Brien has a production company. It’s named Conaco and outside of Conan’s three late-night talk shows (Late Night, Tonight Show, and Conan), it hasn’t really been behind too many shows. There was a show starring Andy Richter entitled Andy Barker, P.I., a short-lived (8 episodes) courtroom drama named Outlaw, and a reality show named Lost. Nothing lasted too long, besides the talk shows. Until Eagleheart.

If you haven’t seen the show, either out of neglect or reluctance or something, Eagleheart premiered in 2011 on Adult Swim. It stars Chris Elliott as US Marshall Chris Monsanto, his sidekicks Brett Mobley (played by Brett Gelman) and Susie Wagner (Maria Thayer), and the various criminals and villains who steal, rob, kill, and commit various crimes in the sky who Chris fights to take down in the name of vengeance and justice. The first season ran 12 episodes back in 2011, and the show was later renewed for a second season.

The DVD was released back in April by Adult Swim and Warner Bros and if you like the show, or you want to check it out for the first time because your friends won’t stop telling you how good it is, it’s a pretty good buy. All 12 episodes are here, and they look pretty good, even on a nice HDTV. I watched them through an Xbox 360 and was pretty satisfied with the picture quality. Along with the episodes, you get some commentaries– there are 20 commentary tracks in all, dispersed amongst the episodes. Some with one track, some with two, and some tracks starring the cast, others starring the people behind the show. I personally haven’t listened to the commentaries myself, only really flipped through the tracks– but if commentary is a selling point for you, this should probably do the trick. A bit of insight, a bit of joking around amongst cast members, a bit of everything.

The disc also includes deleted scenes and outtakes, which, upon watching, become readily apparent why they were deleted. They’re not bad, per se– they’re just not particularly entertaining. A chuckle or two throughout the deleted scenes, but that’s really all. They mostly seem to be just dragged-on versions of pretty funny scenes in the show. They’re great to have on the disc, but I’m personally pretty happy they didn’t make it into the final episodes. Still, nice addition.

The special features include the regular ol’ promos that a lot of DVDs include, all quick 15-second-or-so Adult Swim spots promoting new episodes. It also includes some pretty awesome stuff like scenes from the original pilot, which was a way different show. In the pilot, Eagleheart is a show within a show, starring Chris Elliott’s character as a bumbling TV star trying to change his lines around and get a bear on set so he can do a “bear feces” line. The show’s producer kills himself in a trailer rigged to explode for a scene. In his place, a producer from The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien is sent in after he’s exiled from the famous NBC late night show after stealing a joke cue card, effectively helping to break Conan’s leg in a chase. Conan vows to make sure he’ll never work in the building again, so he’s sent to work on the struggling Eagleheart, and ends up saving a co-star who traps herself in the same trailer the old producer committed suicide in. It’s an incredibly different show in a lot of ways, and it’s pretty funny in its own right.

Also included is the New York Comic Con panel we attended last year! It was fun to see it again. And, also, for fun, there is a Kill Reel, which is a 2 and a half minute compilation of every single kill in the first season. Every single one. It’s nice.

There’s very little negative to say about the DVD. The features are plenty and pretty nice, and there’s an ample amount of commentary to go along with some pretty great episodes of television. The deleted scenes are a low point but not for their inclusion, for the content. They’re still an interesting watch, to be honest, though– it’s a good look at the show if it were ever to get a longer time.

The DVD is currently available in stores. If you wanna go order it right now, it’s on sale for $10.49 on Amazon. Check your local Best Buy, or other store-that-sells-DVDs nearby and pick this one up. It’s worth it. If I were to assign a rating, it’s probably a four and a half stars out of 5. I couldn’t think of anything silly for that for this show. Regardless, it’s real good. Go get it.

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