As a point of reference, I never saw the entire first season but it was easy enough to figure out based on an episode or two of the boxed set I picked up to review. Set in the distant future, space travel and a merging of alien cultures has been the norm of the universe for as far back as anyone can remember. The planets are governed by a bland group that resembles the Federation from Star Trek although a new group led by a man named Darth Bobo, a cross between Star Wars' Darth Vader and the clown-faced Creegan from Cleopatra 2525, is making headway top taking over. Each group demands conformity of the populace, with the Federation spouting all that crud we've heard a million times before and Bobo essentially being a power hungry emperor wannabe. On the fringes of the two groups are the cheats, knaves, and scoundrels of society that are looking out for #1 (much like the popular book by Robert Ringer in the 1970's), and one such group comprises the main characters of the television show.

The ship is called the Jupiter 42, an homage to Lost in Space and is led by Captain Chode McBlob, a guy that really only thinks about porn, sex, eating, and making a quick buck; some would say he's a universal male in that sense. The ship's computer, Bob, is a cross between Hal (of 2001: A Space Odyssey), the dry-witted computer from Red Dwarf, Orac from Blake's Seven, and at least a couple of other similar ship computers from a variety of series that based theirs on those two. Bob is about as helpful as a sack of dirt, generally pointing things out well after the information is of any use to the crew. The pilot of the ship is T'Nuk, and ugly, foul mouthed, three breasted cow that can best be described as the stereotypical mother-in-law who is not above using physical violence to get whatever it is she wants. Chode's nephew, Whip, is a lizard like creature (of a completely different species than his uncle) is the generic teenage slacker who is as smart as a brick and almost as energetic unless under the immediate supervision of an adult. The engineer is a robot named Gus; who is the butt of all the gay jokes since he's clearly designed as effeminate and just inside the closet. Lastly, is Six of One, the sexy android that is a cross between Xev of Lexx, Galaxina, and of course Voyager's Seven of Nine (I think her original designation was to be Six of Nine if you catch my drift). Six is owned by Chode and is programmed with a complete litany of sexual functions, though she's been upgraded to be the science officer of the ship too. If anything, she's the smartest one on the ship, the most likely to do the right thing, and the most willing to use her body to full advantage.

Okay, so we have a crew of antiheroes flying around the galaxy in search of staying one step ahead of the authorities and those who'd do them harm, much like the aforementioned Firefly but with fewer ethics guiding their course. If played straight (no disrespect to Gus), the series would soon become yet another generic knockoff in a long line of knockoffs but this one was different. Not only was it animated, but it was a dark parody too. Admittedly, the animation used for the show was somewhat dated (remember that it was designed for a niche market on the Sci-Fi Channel after starting out as an internet short); looking like it came out of a mid-level computer game from the late 1990's. The comedic aspects were another matter altogether. The show has been compared to Southpark but in fairness to Trey Parker and Matt Stone's silly show, it stopped being funny years ago so the comparison does more for their show than Tripping. It has also been branded a cheap knockoff of Futurama, the failed Fox effort that also parodies science fiction, pop culture, and other movies but I think that's unfair too since although it tends to take a lower road at the material, it has just as many pointed barbs with a lot less political correctness. In all, the show is designed as a fun look at the genre and it skewers both sides of the political fence and modern topics equally though I can see why it bothers the G&L crowd as much, if not more so, then Basic Instinct, based on the frequent jokes about homosexuals and using Gus as the focal point of the humor.

I haven't seen the entire first season of the show so if I miss something, feel free to email about it but the basic humor of the show seems to be split about 50/50 between sexual references and social commentary, both using the wealth of material available from past movies and other sources as needed. From Chode saying "Geez, you bang a chick twice a day and you think you know her" to Gus (when asked to check a case for a possible explosive device) saying "I just finished watching Jessica Simpson in that moronic Dukes of Hazzard. What's one more bomb?", the playful sense of fun often missing in mainstream shows was offered up in spades. Each episode is replete with similar one-liners but there was a lot of visual humor too. In the opening credits, the C3P0 appearing Gus vacuums the ship with an appliance that looks identical to R2D2 as Whip pilots a smaller version of the Star Trek Enterprise ship about the cabin. Seeing drunken Vulcans, lightsabers, and a plethora of other standards from the movies is so common that it's doubtful that you'll catch them all (even numbers and address if you pay close enough attention).

Ultimately though, the animation was good enough to convey the stories and the writing, however hit or miss it might be for some, was far better than average, perhaps best described as a version of Futurama made by a group of men sitting around drinking booze while watching old science fiction shows late at night. I know there have been objections about the way the show encourages treating women as sex objects, fosters a mean spirited brand of comedy, and advocates violence as a means to an end but to some of us; those are qualities we wish we'd see more often. By all means, if you're a diehard conservative, a tree hugging liberal, a feminist, or gay rights activist (or anyone else lacking a sense of humor), skip this one but otherwise, this 13 episode set should be required viewing for all movie junkies and as such gets a Highly Recommended.

Tripping The Rift: Season Two

1) You Wanna Put That Where? (7/27/2005)
2) Cool Whip (7/27/2005)
3) Honey, I Shrunk The Crew (8/3/2005)
4) Ghost Ship (8/10/2005)
5) Benito's Revenge (8/17/2005)
6) All For None (8/24/2005)
7) Extreme Chode (8/31/2005)
8) Roswell (9/14/2005)
9) Santa Clownza (9/21/2005)
10) Chode and Bobo's High School Reunion (9/28/2005)
11) Creaturepalooza (10/5/2005)
12) Chode's Near Death Experience (10/12/2005)
13) Six, Lies and Videotape (10/19/2005)

Picture: Tripping The Rift: The Complete Second Season was presented in the same 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was shot in for release on the Sci-Fi Channel last year. Having seen a few episodes of the first season, it looked like the production company updated the look of the show a bit but still retained the general type of computer generated imaging (CGI) that was reminiscent of Shrek and somewhat more advanced than the wonderfully hilarious Mr. Stain on Junk Alley (an extra on most of the FUNimation releases these days). Without going into a multitude of technical terms, the characters had an internal consistency with all the usual shading techniques and other tricks used to make it look pretty good, if somewhat dated. It also reminded me of an adult animation The Princess Has Come of Age I watched earlier this year, although the voice acting was substantially better with this series. There were some uncaught technical glitches where the animation seemed to distort but I only noticed it a few times, again reminding me of my earlier computer game analogy.

Sound: The audio was presented in a 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo English with a French track too (being made in Canada, I believe they had no choice). The music was often a sly imitation of other genre music, even going out of the way to come close to commercials and sound effects employed elsewhere. The vocals were supplied by a number of popular character actors, with the main replacement for the second season being the use of Carmen Electra as Six, replacing Gina Gershon from the first season). In large part, the synchronization between the animated mouths moving and the spoken words was accurate and after a few episodes, they seemed somehow fitting in the roles. As an experiment, I turned off the screen and listened, noticing no unnatural pauses or parts that seemed out of place. Some of the dialogue was a bit rushed but the nature of the material was such that it didn't matter much.

Extras: Considering how inexpensive the entire season was, I really didn't expect a lot of extras this time. In the fold out (three page) DVD case, were two discs; one single side and the other a double sided disc, and an 8 page booklet. The booklet started off with a quiz to test which character you're most like (with funny results) and then provided a short breakdown of the episodes in the order they aired. On the second side of disc two was a trailer for the upcoming Sci-Fi Channel series Eureka, a short Blooper Reel (with no audio), and a short feature called Tripping the Rift Season 2: Where No Chode Has Gone Before. In it, the actors and crew were interviewed in short clips with some footage from the show and discussion of the material from the season. It was glossy and upbeat, though amusing how frequently the cast said they wouldn't let their kids watch the show.

Final Thoughts: Tripping The Rift: The Complete Second Season was a lot more fun than I had been led to believe by reading up on it awhile back. It combines parody, social satire, and an obvious love of movies with a somewhat darker brand of humor than most of us are used to from an animated series but does so in a manner that typically made me laugh out loud. If you like the kind of stream of consciousness humor used by the writers (there were at least 30 movie/pop culture references per episode, usually far more) and the shots at so many people, including the cast itself, you'll love the show. In short, Tripping The Rift: The Complete Second Season had the replay value of a show that goes far beyond the geek audience it was designed for, with the animated breasts of Six looking like they had a life of their own, the snide brand of youthful humor found in abundant supply on the internet, and it amazes me that such a show could have had two seasons on the Sci-Fi Channel given the nature of how bland most of their offerings are these days (with a few exceptions). Perhaps The Comedy Channel or Cartoon Network will pick it up but it'd be a shame to see the show disappear.

If you enjoy animation, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, and Best of Anime 2005 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.