Webisode Clack – Safety Geeks: SVI

This week we are going with comedy. Or, more precisely, comedy of the absurd. Safety Geeks: SVI had its start in the saturation of procedural shows on television. The most influential target is CSI: Miami, but it’s more a poke at the entire genre than a straight parody of Horatio. The creators have described the show as “a nice mix of surreal Adult Swim humor with a Monty Python take on CSI, Missing, Without a Trace, NCIS etc..” While I hesitate to compare anyone to Monty Python, because they are legends, that description is well stated. The show is very funny, full of one-liners, and often flying off the rails into the completely absurd. If you’re an Adult Swim or Monty Python person, it should be right in your wheelhouse.

SVI follows the exploits of the P.O.S.H. (Professional Occupational Safety Hazard) team, which is made up of Reginald Syngen-Smythe (David Beeler), Budwin Yacker (Tom Konkle), Dr. Randy Minki (Brittney Powell), Sparky Van Der Graff (Mary Cseh), and Dr. Randy’s amazing boobs (seriously, they get so many closeups, they deserve their own credit, their own IMDb page, and a spot as the wallpaper on my phone). EDIT: And Hopkins (Benton Jennings)! How did I forget Hopkins? He is, after all, the brains of the operation. P.O.S.H. investigates accidents and safety violations. Fortunately for us, if not the people they are investigating, along the way they cause more problems than they solve.

The first season is now complete, and follows one case of a tragic forklift accident at a warehouse store. The actions of the team range from odd, to stupid, all with huge helpings of cheese. And I mean that in the best possible way. It’s all great fun to watch.

That cheesiness also extends to the look of the show. Clearly a lot of time and effort has gone into the effects used, and they take on a quality that I would call fantastically bad. That’s not bad in the sense of not being good. It’s bad in the sense that many of the effects are so cheesy that they are almost as absurd as the story we’re watching. To that end, they fit perfectly, and just add to the experience.

You can learn more, and order a calendar featuring Dr. Minki and her amazing boobs, at the official Safety Geeks: SVI site. You can also watch the fancy high resolution version of the show over at KoldCast. Or, you can see the whole season in one extraordinary, time-burning, clip below.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Feb 10, 2010 @ 12:46 EST5EDT