The eight episodes of the series find Joyce and Jeremy Hazledine having just moved to the tiny town, seemingly a peaceful, almost Stepford-perfect community, making Jeremy's job of police chief ostensibly easy. Joyce is within seconds involved in the intrigue of dueling women, who engage in a literal knock-down, drag out fight on her second floor as her clueless husband helps her unpack downstairs.

The show then progresses to uncover the genesis of the feud (crimebusting goes awry due to greed, basically) and posits Joyce at the center of the two nemeses. Amelia Bullworth's wide-eyed performance as Joyce anchors the show in a reasonable simulation of reality, leaving the more broadly drawn other townswomen to deliver the frequently hilarious (and completely absurd) dialogue. Anna Chancellor as chief bad-girl Camilla lands the bulk of the funniest lines, as when she compares Joyce to Joan of Arc carrying a 9 millimeter Baretta handgun. Felicity Montagu also scores as Barbara, the ringleader of the "good gals," with a manic seriousness and portentous delivery style that is perfectly at counterpoint to Chancellor's more vampish style.

By the time the series has introduced drug smuggling, a lunatic French villain, baked Alaska spiked with Viagra, and a million other passing plot points, any attempt at even passing realism has pretty much flown out the window, but the show's bright primary colors, completely exaggerated performance styles and literally insane plot convolutions actually cohere for an anarchic television experience, one completely unlike anything that's usually seen on this side of the pond. The show also has something approaching a character arc for Joyce, who, after having started the series as a hysterical wide-eyed innocent sucked into various mayhem, by the end of the series has to decide if she should move her family away from the mad happenings, or take up the torch of protection that has been passed to her.

This is, despite its cartoonish exterior, not a show for kids. The language is frequently extremely profane (hilariously so at times) and some of the plot machinations would certainly be worthy of an "R+" in the film world.

The DVD

Video:
The series looks exceptionally fine and is well reproduced in this nice enhanced 1.78:1 presentation. As noted above, the bright colors are abundant, and the video quality is extremely good.

Sound:
The standard stereo soundtrack is likewise crackling good fun, with some good separation and excellent fidelity.

Extras:
There are some fun audio commentaries, some with writers, others with actors, still others with actors and writers, all of which provide some fun listening if not overly in-depth analysis of the goings-on. There's also a behind the scenes featurette.

Final Thoughts:
Suburban Shootout is a lot of fun, as long as it is approached on its own completely cartoonish terms. A game cast and some nimble writing make for a breezy take on country living.

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"G-d made stars galore" & "Hey, what kind of a crappy fortune is this?" ZMK, modern prophet