Monty Python's Flying Circus: Set 3, Episodes 14-19
What do you do for an encore after confounding the general public with something completely different? Simple: give them something more completely different, from a semaphore version ofWuthering Heightsto the last meeting of the Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things (you were expecting the Spanish Inquisition?). This two-volume set contains for the first time on DVD in chronological order the first six episodes fromMonty Python's second season. No sophomore slump here. Episodes 14-19, which originally aired in 1970, contain the signature Python sketches The Ministry of Silly Walks and The Spanish Inquisition. Also in the Python pantheon are the documentary about The Piranha Brothers and their reign of violence and sarcasm, The Architect Sketch, and the scandalous game  showBlackmail. While the sketches, filmed bits, and Terry Gilliam animations  are enduringly silly,Monty Python's Flying Circusremains a loony  marvel in the way it shattered television convention. In Episode 15,   a clueless Graham Chapman character is recruited to be the straight man in a  sketch, but is not given the punch line. In the same show, the dreaded, but tardy, Spanish Inquisition races to make its entrance before the closing  credits run their course. All three volumes are indispensable for Python completists.--Donald Liebenson