Mission Hill: The Complete Series (1999)

TV. Slightly funnier than Gary & Mike (not yet available on DVD) and a hair short of the chuckle gradient of Undergrads. Andy French is a 24-year-old wannabe (hit and miss, unpublished) cartoonist whose life interests are drinking and sex and who "works" for a day job at a waterbed store owned by a burly, hairy Slav who patronizes strip clubs and briefly takes Andy under his sordid wing. Andy's roommates are the Lincolnesque Jim, the breathy New Age Posey, his geeky (and I do mean freaky-geeky) high-school-age brother Kevin, and their slightly crazed and unsanitary dog Stogie. Neighbors include an unlikely gay couple and a Latino-hyphenate het couple. Great fun is poked at science fiction conventions and fans, Ivy League enrollment angst, MTV reality shows, and much more. A must-see if you're interested in "adult animation" series beyond (edgier though not as funny as) The Simpsons, Futurama, King of the Hill, The Critic, Family Guy, and so on. 4 stars.