If Jackass was on the Travel Channel, the result would be Wildboyz. I think this show can best be described as “perversely fascinating”. On the one hand, any sane person would never sit in a hot tub full of alligators, or step into the ring with a champion Thai boxer. On the other hand, it really is fascinating to see these morons visit the wilds of Africa, see rat-infested temples in India or face off against the Russian hockey team. While most travel programs would discuss the history of the locations…they visit, these guys truly experience the places for themselves, no matter the risk to personal safety. For instance, while many know of the ancient ritual of bathing in the Ganges river, only these fools are crazy enough to dive into the disease and sewage-filled water for a bath today.
Finally, a word of clarification; “uncensored” does not really mean uncensored. The language in these episodes is uncensored, but nudity is not. Believe me, it’s all for the best. While the thought of visiting a nudist camp or seeing a tribe of cannibals may sound like fun in theory, believe me, once you see the boys visit a nudist camp in Louisiana, you will be thankful that the blurry boxes have been left in.
Audio
The audio on this set is actually a little better than I thought it would be. Capturing audio on location in a foreign country and in the middle of the outback has to be extremely difficult. Surprisingly, the quality actually turns out to be pretty decent. I didn’t have any problems understanding any of the dialog, except for that spoken with a foreign tongue. The producers have provided subtitles for those rare moments that the sounds were not captured clearly. There is really no score to speak of, and the show’s stereo audio format works just fine.
Video
The same challenges that go with capturing audio on location apply to the video as well. Again, the show actually looks fairly decent. Those segments that are grainy or hard to see just add to the mystery of the people and locations that the guys visit. The point of the program is to show two stupid guys doing amazingly dangerous things in bizarre locations. Nobody gave two seconds thought about the video, but that’s probably just as well. Better to capture the stunts as they happen, and leave it at that.
Special Features
The big extra here is a commentary track for every episode of the show. Unfortunately, there are eight people on each track, and they all have something to say. There is some interesting and funny stuff that comes out of these tracks, but it often digresses into a cacophony of voices all trying to talk over one another. Still, the fact that there is commentary on every single episode is certainly a big bonus, as fans of TV-on-DVD can certainly attest to.
Outtakes are also included, as well as some bonus segments that were cut from the shows due to time constraints. The Top 10 Wildboyz moments are also included here. Furthermore, there is a behind-the-scenes segment that shows the guys shooting a commercial for the Nintendo DS in the wilds of Africa. Finally, there is a still gallery and a full documentary called Wildboyz “Over and Out” . This segment features show clips, as well as interviews with the cast and crew on the entire run of the series. This bit is almost as fun as the shows themselves.
That is a ton of extra features. In fact, the entire third disc is only extra features. TV products are notorious for being light on the extras, but this one bucks the trend and loads up an entire bonus disc of special features. As a consumer, you have to respect something like that.
Conclusion
If you like Jackass, then you’re in luck. Wildboyz is the same idea, only better. It’s all pretty low brow stuff, but where else are you going to see these places and find out what happens when people do such crazy things? If you can get over seeing Steve-O vomit repeatedly in every episode, then this is a curiosity that really does deserve to be seen. Plus, you get two full seasons, and a full bonus disc of added content. I’m surprised to find myself saying this, but I can confidently recommend this purchase. Think of it as a modern art piece.
