Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Workaholics: Season Four Blu-ray Movie Review

The boys are back in town...

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 30, 2014

...and they're back at work. Well, they're back at work on their own terms, that is. For the fine gentlemen of Workaholics -- Adam DeMamp (Adam DeVine), Blake Henderson (Blake Anderson), and Anders Holmvik (Anders Holm) -- life at the office is nothing but a pit stop to bigger and better things. The Comedy Central series, now in its fourth year of taking the classic Office Space formula and reworking it into a raunchier, more explicit, and more drawn out half-hour Comedy program, continues not to so much evolve but rather mature, to find a more consistent rhythm, to keep on building the characters not so much with obvious progression in mind but rather to refine their interactions and shenanigans both on a personal and, more important to the show's success, a collective level. Season four follows the same basic episode formula, for the most part, wherein the guys identify a problem -- usually, they want money, fame, sex, snacks, drugs, something -- scheme a way to get it, and wind up humiliating themselves, getting into trouble with the outside world, and desperately trying to counteract the ramifications of their actions. Nowhere is the formula better captured than in the season four episodes "Snackers," "Beer Heist," and "We Be Clownin'."

Probably the most important thing to walk away with in a look at season four is that the cast continues to completely eat up the material. Anders, Adam, and Blake certainly always feel like they're in on the joke and almost seem as much like an audience member in one another's presence as they seem like actors portraying a real life scenario, but that helps provide a tangible levity all its own. After all, the characters are named after the real-life actors who portray them. The show, then, feels partially voyeuristic, in a sense, playing as if the audience is right there with the guys. That only makes the crazy scenarios and schemes and dialogue all the more unforgettable. They're very good at what they do, and while what they're good at won't tickle every fancy -- and it really won't speak to more traditionally oriented individuals who lament the modern entertainment landscape -- the show should speak loudly and clearly to a new generation of Comedy fans who will look back on this as fondly as previous generations look at Office Space or Animal House.

The following 13 episodes comprise Workaholics' fourth season:

Disc One:

• "Orgazmo Birth": Blake, Anders, and Adam want to go straight Electronic, ditching all other forms of music so they may totally immerse themselves in the life and energy the music provides. After all, the girls who attend the shows are blindingly hot, so that's an added bonus (or is the rest of the lifestyle the added bonus?). They decide they want to hit up an Electronic music festival. Their soon-to-be-father office co-worker Montez (Erik Griffin) wants to go, too, and agrees to secure them tickets. Unfortunately, his wife won't let him go, and only he can pick up the tickets at the Will Call station.
• "Fry Guys": When all of Blake's fish friends, all of whom are given celebrity names reworked into fish puns, die in the backyard swimming pool, Anders comes up with a brilliant use for them: an office fish fry. Unfortunately, their boss Alice (Maribeth Monroe) shoots down the idea. Emphatically. When they learn her bad attitude is the result of a broken relationship, Adam decides it's his duty to sleep with her to calm her down and go ahead with the fry. Or, they can just hire a man who is better endowed instead to do the deed.
• "Snackers": After Anders gets splattered by Karl's (Kyle Newacheck) feces, he refuses to allow a party in his honor to go forward. The other guys want to push forward with it and decide they need to secure some munchies. They raid the office break room and find it mostly barren, well, unless one counts a Cliff Bar. Alice tells them to pick a representative to keep it stocked, using the company credit card to do so, which results in an office election the guys just have to win. They enlist Jillian (Jillian Belk) to run as a figurehead while they control her and her campaign behind the scenes.
• "Miss BS": The guys watch a television reporter who goes by the title "Miss BS" and who exposes fraud around town. They invite her to the office and ask her to attend a fundraiser. She was led to believe she was there to expose unsafe work conditions. She spends some time with the guys as they carry out a number of office pranks, which backfires beyond anything they could imagine.
• "Three and a Half Men": Alice approaches the guys to put together a new company orientation video. They'll be cheaper than the pros, but not necessarily better. They ditch the company script to make their own movie, hoping it'll go so far as Sundance. Adam decides to craft a documentary in which he will consume 1,000 hot dogs in one week. At the same time, Anders and Blake go head with plan to make a video involving Blake's small penis and Karl's decision to surgically remove his. What could possibly go wrong?
• "Brociopath": When the guys decide to invite some frat boys to an after-party at their place, they befriend a stoner Matthew McConaughey wannabe named Stan. The guys quickly warm up to him, particularly when he promises he can get them into a frat and lands them a hot time with a trio of Jetta-driving girls. He seems like the best thing that ever happened to them. Of course, something that seems too good to be true usually is.
• "We Be Clownin'": The guys find a pile of old wood and use it to build a roof-to-pool backyard water slide. They don't feel like putting any polish and elbow grease into it, however, so they decide to raise some money to get it done for them. They take a job entertaining children as clowns and "hit it big." They dream of the big money and life they're going to have, but they soon learn that they have some serious competition in town, competition that will trounce them when they spend too much time dreaming and too little time entertaining.

Disc Two:

• "Beer Heist": When the guys make a late-night beer run, they run into a trio of underage girls hanging in front of the store, hoping for someone to come along and buy some beer for them. Anders takes their cash, but Adam insists they steal it right off the delivery truck instead, hoping their illicit actions will sexually arouse the females. While in the back of the truck, Adam and Blake are caught inside when the driver closes it up and drives away.
• "Best Buds": The guys make it their mission to have a "bong fire," to have the biggest pot-smoking session ever. After the smoke, and when they need more weed, they learn that Karl has gone legit, selling weed out of a burrito stand, straight up and completely legal. His doctor friend has also written each of them medical marijuana prescriptions. They take the opportunity to light up at work. When Alice says they cannot exercise their right to smoke, they quit the office gig and go to work for Karl.
• "Time Chair": Back at the office, the guys approach Alice and ask her to set up an employee appreciation event. They're rebuffed and told to go back to work, but instead hang out in the break room where they find a flyer advertising a free massage chair. Anders gives the number a call and is promised the chair if they can get to it before another customer. They cannot come to a consensus of where it should live in their house, ultimately resulting in an unorthodox trip to the address where they're to pick it up.
• "The One Where the Guys Play Basketball and Do the "Friends" Title Thing": When corporate orders a new health initiative at the office, Alice sets up a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. At stake is a short trip to one of the company's timeshares in Reno and a rental Dodge Dart. Unfortunately, it turns out they have a former hoops hotshot in accounting who nearly made the U.S. Olympic team before being posterized by Cheryl Miller. To gain an advantage, the guys pick up some steroids from Karl. Meanwhile, Blake fights to prove himself to his World of Warcraft guild.
• "DeputyDong": Adam and Blake are getting slaughtered in an online first person shooter video game. Their opponent, "DeputyDong," frequently insults them. One day, he contacts them at work via telephone. In response, the guys go to his house to disconnect his system and, no surprise, bite off more than they can chew. While Adam and Anders are stuck outside, Blake finds an unexpected ally on the inside.
• "Friendship Anniversary": It's been seven years since the guys first moved in together. They celebrate the anniversary with cheap champagne, bad gifts, and unappetizing Norwegian cuisine. The evening quickly turns ugly.

Workaholics: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Workaholics: Season Four's Blu-ray delivers a clean, accurate picture. The HD video source material never looks too terribly flat or glossy, and it captures both well-defined details and precise colors throughout every episode. Faces, clothes, office nicknacks, and random items around the guys' house are all nicely textured and sharp in practically every scene. The transfer shows a welcome ability to reveal with great accuracy even the finest visual nuances across the entire season, even those beyond the basics. Colors are bold and fresh. From clothing to exterior greens, from body paints to lipsticks, Paramount/Comedy Central's transfer is a showcase for a varied and accurate palette. Black levels raise no alarms, and flesh tones appear true to life. Light banding and a small sprinkling of noise are both infrequently visible. Otherwise, this is a very good effort across all 13 episodes.

Workaholics: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Workaholics: Season Four rolls onto Blu-ray with an effectively simple Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. While there's not much going on beyond the basics, the track delivers those basics with commendable accuracy. The opening title music plays aggressively but with balance throughout the range and strong stage presence. Light background ambience nicely defines a few exteriors, while more raucous party scenes, while not fully immersive and effortlessly lively, do a fair enough job of replicating busy interiors. Dialogue flows effortlessly, cleanly, and naturally from the center.

Workaholics: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Workaholics: Season Four features all of its supplements on disc two.

• Outtakes (HD, 10:56): Humorous gags and lines that didn't make it into the final cut.
• Deleted and Alternate Scenes (HD, 10:36): A collection of excised scenes and different takes.
• Promos for Season 4 (HD, 1:02).

Workaholics: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Season four is arguably the best yet, a refinement of the series that sees the show finding a comfort zone in which it doesn't really get comfortable. That means it's found its place and stride, knows what it can accomplish, and keeps pushing but never too far, refusing to outpace itself while never giving an inch. Comedy, being the subjective life force that it is, by definition means that not everyone will find a particularly program to his or her liking, but fans of somewhat raunchy, modern-day, semi-envelope pushing humor should fall in love with the show's trio of twenty something misfits who think they're about five or ten years younger than they really are. Workaholics: Season Four delivers great video and audio. Sadly, supplements are severely limited. Recommended.