Legit is the story of an Australian comedian (Jim Jefferies) who has come to the United States and decides he wants to make his life and career more legit by becoming a better person and doing good deeds. He lives with his divorced, neurotic best friend Steve (Dan Bakkedahl), whose brother Billy (DJ Qualls) has MD, and is stuck in a wheelchair. Billy and Steve’s mother Janice (Mindy Sterling) has never liked Jim, so when he decides to take Billy on a roat trip to Las Vegas to see a prostitute, this doesn’t help change her opinion. No matter how hard Jim tries to do the right thing, it always seems like things get turned around making him look like the bad guy.
Based on the plot of the first episode, I was expecting this series to be a wild, irreverent comedy. However, I was pleasantly surprised—it manages to be edgy and laugh-out-loud hilarious, but also has a very endearing quality. Just when you think the episode is going to go for the raunchy, obvious joke, things get turned around and you are given an unexpected, heartwarming twist. I like that the series doesn’t make fun of people with disabilities, but rather it explores the humor in the situation. In fact, they have even integrated several disabled actors into the episodes to add authenticity.
I had never even heard of Jim Jefferies or any of his stand-up routines before seeing this series, so I cannot comment on how much of that has found its way into these episodes. However, I really enjoy his sarcastic, dry sense of humor. In some ways, this series reminded me of Curb Your Enthusiasm. While sometimes Jim is despicable, other times, he’s just misunderstood, but he always believes he’s doing the right thing. And the situations he gets into are downright hilarious and so awkward.
The cast has such great chemistry. DJ Qualls is so believable and funny in his role, and it feels like Jim and Dan (“Steve”) are truly longtime friends. The first season also includes some great guest stars like John Ratzenberger, Andy Dick and Marlon Wayans.
This season has had so many hilarious episodes—my particular favorites are Anger and Justice. I just love the scenes where Jim goes on these awkward rants and you can just see the horror in the onlookers’ faces. The episodes included on this set are:
- “Pilot” – Jim decides he needs to do a good deed to make his life more legit, so he takes his best friend’s disabled brother Billy to see a prostitute.
- “Dreams” – Jim and Steve decide to break Billy out of the care facility so he can live at home with them. They meet Billy’s roommate Rodney.
- “Love” – Billy wants to experience love, not just sex, so Jim agrees to literally give him a hand with his online dating. Meanwhile, Jim gives Steve advice on how to pick up women by treating them badly.
- “Anger” – Jim’s temper rises as he’s forced to sit in a middle seat on the airplane next to an overweight passenger. Meanwhile, Billy gets angry while dealing with his over-controlling mother.
- “Justice” – Jim, Billy and Steve must testify at the trial of the men who broke into their house looking for drugs.
- “Family” – Jim is rejected by the big brother program, so he joins Steve for a career day, and wins over the high school students when he explains how little work he actually does.
- “Health” – After Jim fails his audition, he joins Andy Dick’s acting class, and becomes a bad influence on his personal trainer.
- “Hoarders” – Jim joins Steve as he goes to pick up some old records from his parents’ home, but they soon discover that Janice has become a hoarder.
- “Bag Lady” – After he spends the night with the married host of morning show “Hey, LA!”, Jim must find a way to smuggle her out of his house without the paparazzi seeing her.
- “Cuckoo’s Nest” – In order to get closer to Billy’s physical therapist, Jim volunteers to help run the Sandy Grove Summer Fun activities, but Billy wants to keep Allie for himself, and organizes the other handicapped residents to help him. In the chaos and competition that ensues, Jim loses track of Rodney.
- “Hat Hair” – On his way to throw out the first pitch at the Quakes game, Jim accidentally runs over a cat. Upset at being dragged to the game just to get good seats, throughout the day Billy makes Jim look progressively worse in the eyes of the crowd.
- “Misunderstood” – Jim goes on an audition and hits it off with his scene partner, but when he makes a joke about rape, she abandons him by the side of the highway. Meanwhile, Steve’s ex tells him she’s getting remarried and moving away, and wants full custody of their daughter.
- “Fatherhood” – Wendy, the hooker from Vegas, shows up at the door claiming to be pregnant with Billy’s baby.
This DVD looks and sounds great. The season originally aired on the HD FX channel, and the presentation here pretty much holds up to the same quality. The discs are loaded with bonus features. Every episode contains an entertaining audio commentary by Jim Jefferies, Dan Bakkedahl and Peter O’Fallon. There is also a directtor’s cut of the pilot episode, a 15-minute gag reel, 10 minutes of deleted/extended scenes, another 26 minutes of extended monologues and more. Pretty much anything you could possible ask for is included here!
I highly recommend picking up this first season of Legit, and watching the second season, which is currently airing on FXX.
What’s Included:
Episodes:
- All 13 episodes of the First Season (4:38:32)
“Pilot”, “Dreams”, “Love”, “Anger”, “Justice”, “Family”, “Health”, “Hoarders”, “Bag Lady”, “Cuckoo’s Nest”, “Hat Hair”, “Misunderstood”, “Fatherhood” - 480p / Widescreen 1.78:1
- Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
- Director’s Cut of Pilot (38:51)
This extended version of the pilot episode runs over 16 minutes longer than the broadcast version. Some of the scenes are slightly different—for example, the discussion between Jim and Steve that takes place at immigration now takes place between Jim and a psychiatrist. The extended version also opens with an appearance by Eddie Izzard, and closes with another scene with the psychiatrist. There are a few additional/extended scenes at the brothel, but everything else is pretty much the same. While it’s great to see this included, the overall tone of the new material was a little more serious, and so I still prefer the streamlined version that originally aired on FX. - Episode Commentaries (4:38:32)
Stars Jim Jefferies (“Jim”) and Dan Bakkedahl (“Steve”), and co-creator/writer/director Peter O’Fallon provide lively behind-the-scenes commentaries for every episode of the first season. They give a lot of fun and interesting production tidbits and talk about where some of the story ideas came from. They also do some fun impressions—like their dueling John Ratzenbergers. - Deleted Scenes (9:57)
This collection of 8 deleted/extended scenes includes “The Cab Incident” (Pilot), “Deleted Hospital Scene” (Pilot), “Peggy Gets a Call” (Anger), “Love at First Sight” (Health), “Menage a Jim” (Health), “America!” (Hat Hair), and “Rodney Waxes Philosophically” (Cuckoo’s Nest) and “You Suck” (Bag Lady). These scenes contain some really fun moments—it would have been nice to see them edited back into the episodes. - Gag Reel (15:13)
One of the longest gag reels I’ve ever seen on a DVD—the cast forget their lines, crack up, improv lines and just have fun on the set. Also includes a lot of fun outtakes with guest star John Ratzenberger. - Jim Jefferies’ Journey (26:38)
A fun collection of 8 extended versions of some of Jim Jefferies’ monologues and scenes from the season as well as an impression duel-off between Andy Dick and Jim Jefferies. The segments include “…In the Beginning”, “Jim on Kids”, “What Do You Do?”, “There’s Nothing Funny About Rape…”, “What About My Accent?”, “Jim Takes Hollywood”, “50’s Dad”, and “May The Flaws Be With You” - Rodney Autotune (2:09)
An autotuned compilation of Rodney’s scenes from the first season.
Extras:
Final Thoughts:
I was pleasantly surprised when I first watched Legit on FX last year. The series is hilarious, edgy, and heartwarming, and I laughed along with the episodes just as much the second time around watching them on this DVD set. This release has an amazing collection of bonus features—pretty much anything and everything you could possibly want. I highly recommend picking up this first season of Legit, and watching the second season, which is currently airing on FXX!
