Who the heck is Red Green, and what has he been doing on television for the past 25 years? Well, if you don't already know the answer to that question, Red Green's Hindsight Is 20/20 is most likely not the program for you. Then again, if you do know who Red Green is, Hindsight Is 20/20 may not be the program for you, either: more on that in a moment.

In the meantime, for those who are still with me, I'll fill in the background. Red Green (played by Steve Smith) is the character who serves as host to The Red Green Show, a long-running comedy series that is... unique. Each episode is a collection of skits with recurring characters, mixing dry humor with complete slapstick, and all loosely connected to Red's Possum Lodge, where he and his buddies hang out, do various bizarrely inventive fix-it projects (usually involving plenty of duct tape), and generally get themselves into trouble. Fans of The Red Green Show can get their fill (and more) with the actual episodes themselves, which have been released on DVD already (in individual volumes as well as the Red Green Stuffed and Mounted Six-Pack).

What Red Green's Hindsight Is 20/20 purports to do is to take a look at the 25-year history of Red Green, starting from the appearance of Smith's character on a variety program in 1979, and following the character (and the show) all the way to the present. What it actually succeeds in doing is anybody's guess, as it ends up being more a "mockumentary" than a real documentary. The various actors who have participated in the show as regulars are interviewed "in character," and the result is that there's really nothing of interest revealed about the show. The 60-minute feature ends up being an odd sort of best-of montage, introducing the various characters and then showing segments from the show that feature those characters.

So who is this program intended for? If you've never seen The Red Green Show before, you'll be left baffled as to what this is supposed to be about. If you're a die-hard fan of the show, you'll be disappointed by the lack of any real content. If you're a casual fan, I suppose it might be watchable as a best-of program, but many of the segments are very short clips, not full scenes.

The DVD

Video

Red Green's Hindsight Is 20/20 is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The image quality is adequate for the material. The picture tends to be soft, with a fair amount of noise and grain, and colors colors looking occasionally a little off. Overall, it's watchable but nothing more.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack fares a bit better in the quality department than the video; it's reasonably clear, and there's no apparent distortion or harshness in the sound.

Extras

Red Green completionists (if there are such people) may find the special features of some interest. The "extended clips" section has 28 separate "extended" scenes, running about a minute each. These can be selected individually or viewed with a "play all" feature. Another 10-minute segment has several clips featuring an early Red Green on the Smith & Smith show, which will likely be of interest to long-time fans. A photo gallery is also included.

Final thoughts

Red Green's Hindsight Is 20/20 is a peculiar mish-mash of retrospective documentary and best-of clip collection, and it succeeds in neither area. If you enjoy The Red Green Show, just go ahead and watch the show on the Stuffed and Mounted DVDs, not this compilation. Skip it.