Reality shows on MTV can be a hit or miss prospect, for sure. For every Jackass success, there's also A Shot at Love or some other over the top show that makes you want to gouge out your eyes and put your common sense on eBay. But I'll admit that Jackass caught my eye, and I enjoyed it. I can even say the same thing for Wildboyz, which starred jackasses Steve-O and Chris Pontius as nature explorers who inhaled too must industrial strength cleaner. In those shows producer Jeff Tremaine has managed to capture something in Rob & Big that's hopeful, optimistic and yes, a little bit goofy.

Ruben Fleischer first saw this magic when Rob Dyrdek and Christopher "Big Black" Boykin were together on the Gumball Rally, a Cannonball Run-type rally race through Europe and North Africa several years ago. In Dyrdek and Boykin, Fleischer sees two people who have fun without being obnoxious to complete strangers, and yet that fun is infectious to those strangers around them. In a scene shown at the end of the season, there's some test footage shot outside, where Rob tries to help a stranger (who we find out later might be Dyrdek's neighbor) park her car. The woman reacts by threatening to call the police, but their goodwill and fun is plainly evident, and she poses with them by the end of it all. It's those good feelings that make Rob & Big so enjoyable, and not the Tremaine-influenced poo jokes, which are abundant.

Sadly though, a portion of that spontaneous charm appears to have worn off in Season Three. Where Seasons One and Two felt natural and organic, with memorable characters (I give you Boykin's Uncle Jerry as the main evidence), Season Three feels more like Rob & Big have to shoot things, rather than the cameras being around while things happen. Like the first two seasons, the third season finds the boys in various situations designed to make great television, like taking a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate the 21st birthday of Rob's assistant (and cousin) Drama, or getting Drama, Big and Bam Bam (Big's friend) down to Cancun to record a live performance of the song "Dirty Girl." But other episodes are simply blind date opportunities for Dyrdek, which oddly enough we saw in Season One. It's almost like you could see them stop caring.

At the end of the day, Rob & Big might be crudely dismissed as a show featuring an MTV skater punk and his friend, but it's an unfair categorization. At its heart, Rob and Big are (and will be) friends to the end. There are a lot of unique experiences that the two go through, many of them seemingly oddly unique to Los Angeles for whatever reason, but it's that friendship and sense of fun that makes them worth watching and enjoying. It's that friendship that a few of us could stand to have in our lives.

Both in Wildboyz and Seasons One and Two of Rob & Big, and again here, Tremaine shoots all of the shows in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen. It's a curious choice, but the show looks OK, at least as good as broadcast television is going to look on DVD.

I own Seasons One and Two on DVD, and the Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack seems to possess a little more punch on the low end in Season Three than the earlier seasons. But still, dialogue sounds good, and the sonic action is all in front of you, there's no reason to think that sound immersion is going to happen. As a quick note to show aficionados: quite a bit of original music has been replaced by more generic fare during episodes; the Ramones' "California Sun' is replaced by some rock/punk riff. So be careful. And just like the first two seasons, you have the option of playing the episodes with or without the censoring, so depending on whether you like beeps or not, etc.

Commentaries on all 15 episodes (which span over three discs) from Rob, Big, Fleischer, Tremaine, Drama, Bam Bam and Zeus (another Boykin friend). The commentaries get livelier as each episode progresses, but they're more fun than really informational, and they're worth a listen. The larger extras are the 33 deleted scenes (1:25:10), some of which are entire segments, some are smaller clips. These are very good, with a heartwarming scene during the "Charity" episode where Rob and Big eat with some homeless people and give them money afterward. Speaking of eating, the two eat a hamburger that looks to instantly kill upon digestion, there's so much stuff on and in it. Many of these scenes are better than entire episodes, they're that good. "The Best, Worst and Unused" is basically a clip show that was played during the season's halfway point, and additional previews for other MTV shows conclude the set.

While it's not as good as Seasons One and Two, the third season of Rob and Big still has enough entertainment in it that makes it worth watching for laughs. The technical qualities are OK, and the extras are also good. For fans of the show, the quality of the discs aren't as good as the first two seasons, but it's still worth the addition, and people unaware of the show should really give it a shot; you're in for a pleasant surprise.