By the sixth season of their Showtime series Bullshit!, comedy-magic duo Penn and Teller seem to be running out of topics to debunk. When the series first started, it felt like Penn and Teller were deeply committed to the topics they were attacking; on shows like "Talking to the Dead" and "Creationism," it felt like they took it personally. But by season six, most of that real anger is gone. Now, they're just two guys showing up to do a job. The show is still smart and profane and very entertaining, but it ain't what it used to be.
Here's the list of topics Penn and Teller go after in season six of Bullshit!:
- "The War on Porn"
- "New Age Medicine"
- "NASA"
- "Dolphins"
- "Sleep, Inc."
- "Being Green"
- "Sensitivity Training"
- "Stranger Danger"
- "World Peace"
- "The Good Old Days"
Repeating Their Own B.S.
© Image Entertainment
If you've been paying attention, you may notice a few subjects that seem an awful lot like those covered on past episodes. You wouldn't be entirely wrong. "New Age Medicine" covers a lot of the same ground as "Alternative Medicine" back in season one. The same goes for "Being Green," which is rather reminiscent of "Environmental Hysteria," also from the first season. The finer points may be different, but the overall theses are the same.
Other shows in season six just don't have much ground to stand on in the first place. There's little that's debunked in NASA -- just some behind-the-scenes information and some instances where NASA may have dropped the ball and lives were lost as a result. Tragic, yes, but not really pulling back the curtain at all. "Dolphins" is even more problematic, as it attacks a school of thought (that dolphins possess magical powers) that isn't widely accepted and seems only to be held by a few select wackos. Calling crazy people out for being crazy isn't really exposing their "bullshit."
Having said all that, Bullshit's sixth season is still an entertaining watch. It hardly plays fair; like Bill Maher's Religulous, Penn and Teller get to edit it however they like and provide plenty of snarky voice-over. The result is always one-sided, but a lot of fun as long as you're on the same page -- or, at least, keep an open mind. Though Penn and Teller seem to have been relegated to little more than host/narrators, they (and by "they" I mean Penn, as his partner doesn't speak) still have some very funny lines and get the opportunity to perform a couple of their trademark magic tricks. One, in particular, is pretty incredible; they saw a woman in half, then demonstrate exactly how it's done, then proceed to take it even further to a very gory conclusion. I still can't figure out how they did it.
DVD Details
- Running Time: 270 minutes
- Release Date: 5/12/09
- Rating: NR
- Full Frame Presentation
- Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (English)
- Studio: Showtime Entertainment
