Got this from NetFlix because the premise sounded like a cross between Greg the Bunny (puppets talking “dirty”) and the satire of South Park. Alas, it was not to be.

The idea is that the puppets (A ventriloquist dummy, a teddy bear convicted for “moral terpitude”, and Cuddles, a Raggedy Andy looking doll with anger management issues) were sent to a halfway house with their caseworker, Dan, in hopes of rehabilitating them.

I watched an episode from Season 1 where the bear uses his irresistible softness to con Dan into giving him tickets to a hockey game. He continues to ply his fluffiness for favors until he realizes Dan wants to go to bed with him. (In this case, Dan only wants to sleep with the bear…he misses his carefree childhood and his own teddy bear…not “sleep with” him.) A sideplot finds Cuddles taming demons from the past in the form of a sadistic nurse who baited him with taunts of “Rooster”. It’s never explained why this bothers Cuddles or why I should find it funny. Eventually, Cuddles is driven to a clock tower, shooting manaically at crowds, until Dan talks him down.

Having only chuckled slightly at the first ep, I didn’t bother to watch the others and sent it and Season 2 back.

BOTTOM LINE:
The premise had lots of potential but I just didn’t laugh. Color me unimpressed.

I wrote up a couple reviews and quotes about some episodes of Puppets Who Kill over at TV.com.

So take a gander, and see if it sounds funny to you. If it does, go add it to your Netflix rental queue. They have it in stock. That is where I rented it from.

Oh, and right after I finished watching this DVD of season one, someone informed me that the latest word is season 2 will be available on June 6, 2006.

Yeah, that’s right: 6-6-6

Must be one of the funniest shows on television. Makes me want to laugh so hard it hurts. If Mary Prankster and the bad Pinocchio got hitched, this would be their offspring. Well, if Chuck Manson was their godfather.

The Puppets Who Kill website has some really great swag. There is a wallpaper on my desktop that has this show’s name on it.

Sadly, no special features on the DVD itself, though they do air bloopers during the closing credits. Considering that is generally the best type of DVD feature anyway, that is fine.

Netflix has the entire first season for rent. As of early 2006, the second season has not come out on DVD yet.

The actions of the puppets are just hilarious. Dan, their social worker, is a textbook enabler. The puppets are nuts. It would be easier to ex-sanguinate than rehabilitate them.

The one beef I have with the DVD is that there don’t seem to be any titles at the start of each episode that tell you the title of that one. Hence, it makes it hard to refer to one to someone else. Not a serious flaw but still somewhat of a drawback.

Fortunately, the titles are on the chapter menu of the DVD. So you can tell what the title of each episode is by referring to that.