Aqua Teen Hunger Force Vol. 7
DVD
Starring Dave Willis, Dana Snyder, Carey Means
Cartoon Network/Adult Swim
Release date: June 1, 2010

For the first three or four seasons, I was addicted to Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Hell, I even saw the Aqua Teen movie in the theater. Twice. But then I kind of fell off and missed a bunch of episodes, so this Vol 7 DVD set of the show is the first with episodes that I haven’t seen before. I watched this trying to find out if the show had regained whatever it was that I loved about the earlier seasons.

There are a lot of good episodes on this set, but I still think the show has lost whatever it was that made me love those first few seasons. I don’t know if I’m just tired of the humor, or if the jokes are just over used, but there just aren’t as many quotable lines as there used to be. There are still some good episodes, including the return of Dr. Wongburger, and an episode with Hitler returned as a balloon.

Also included in this set is the live-action episode featuring T-Pain, H. Jon Benjamin, and contest winner Dave Long as Carl. The live-action episode was a great experiment, but I don’t think it worked out as well as I hoped it would. It’s really just not that funny, other than being even more absurdist than the show normally is.

Other than those episodes, the rest of the set is an up and down affair, with some good jokes, and some that are less funny. As a fan, I was hoping for more of the first, but sadly, ended up with more of the second. I wish I could say otherwise, but honestly, I don’t find the show as funny as it used to be. Others may still find it funny, and that’s fine. Humor varies from person to person, so I can’t tell if YOU will find it funny or not, but for me personally, it was lacking. Perhaps it’s just that a lot of the jokes are ones that we have seen before. It will be up for you to decide if you find these funny or not. I’d suggest waiting for the episodes to show up on Adult Swim and checking to see if you find them funny or not. It shouldn’t be that long of a wait, they’re probably on tonight.

One complaint about the set is that at 11 episodes, this has the least amount of episodes of any DVD previously released, but it’s being sold at the same price as the rest. I supposed 2 episodes isn’t that much of a reduction, but it’s a trend in DVD sets that has annoyed the crap out of me. Fortunately, there are some decent extras to make up for the lack of episodes. There are two features dealing with the production of the live-action episode, one showing the various auditions for the Carl contest, the other going into more detail about the creation of the episode, and how it might not have ever aired on TV. There’s also a good bit with a bunch of sound clips you can record and use for your voice mail or ringtones on your phone.

So does this set live up to earlier sets in the series? I’d say not, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t laughs to be found on the disc. If you’ve never seen the show before, this is definitely not the place to start, but fans of the show will find a number of good episodes. This wouldn’t be the first set in the series that I would recommend (I would recommend the second and third set) and I wish I enjoyed it more, but honestly, this is a show that I kind of wish had stopped at the top of its game, rather than continuing on past its prime. For a score I’m going to give this one a 2 out of 5. There are certainly other DVD sets that are worth your time and money.