Run's House: The Complete Seasons, 1 and 2 DVD: Review By Mushy

Run's House: The Complete Seasons, 1 and 2 is an in-depth, no holds barred look at the life and world of Reverend Run aka Joseph Simmons aka one third of the groundbreaking rap group Run-D.M.C.. This show spends the majority of it's time in Run's home where we get to see him, his wife Justine, his three sons Jojo, Diggy, and Russy, as well as his two daughters Vanessa and Angela. Spending his time talking to everyone in his family, Reverend Run isn't so much preaching as he is telling it how it is. This is a guy who has been around and his family seems to have a great deal of respect for him. However, these aren't fans but his family and no matter what happens, at the end of the day Reverend Run is little more than dear old dad.

With 16 episodes filling up these discs we get the full spectrum of Run's family. It all begins with "Angela's Graduation" and the Reverend having to bring her down to earth as far has her expectations of a party. "The Fruits of Labor" focuses more on the girls in this episode as we see Justine struggle with her love of all things edible. Angela spends her time trying to convince her family she can work for a subsidiary of the Phat Farm brand. Lastly, "All Work and No Peace" is an enlightening look at Reverend Run and how sometimes even he needs a break from everything. With countless business ventures, his family and his ministry he lets his guard down and seeks advice form the Bishop of his church.

Reality TV is imminently watchable and when it features someone as multi-faceted as Reverend Run at the forefront, one can't help but be engaged by Run's House: The Complete Seasons, 1 and 2.

MTV Overdrive and Extended Scenes

As far as I know, this segment of the DVD is all the online components that aired along with this show. Basically, they are extended scenes which is why I grouped them together. Their biggest difference occurs in their presentation. The extended scenes are just longer moments from a lot of the shows. They are interesting but it is obvious that with each episode playing for 30 minutes or less, they had many time considerations as they were putting this show together. MTV Overdrive is a very slicked up version of this in which members of Run's House set up the segments, and then we see them play out. As they were originally created for the web it makes sense that they are all fairly succinct in length.

Full Screen. These shows looked good but not as sharp as some other Reality shows like The Simple Life. MTV seems to be trying to elevate the artiness behind reality TV. They cut quickly and all of that other stuff, but they don't seem like they go out of their way to constantly keep the camera's moving. Also, they seem to favor a lot of close-ups and almost seem like they are trying to make viewers forget that they are watching TV. In a lot of ways, Run's House seemed like a film.

Dolby Digital - English Stereo. Close Captioned. The audio on this set was good but forgettable. It's not bad but I don't think people are going to watch this three disc set and come away saying, "The show was good but I was really blown away by the sound." Even though this is an MTV production and they are (or they used to be) known for music, audio doesn't seem like it's a top priority here.

Reverend Run stands in front of his family with his arms outstretched on this black, white and gold slipcase cover. The back offers up another shot of this family with a Special Features listing and a description of this show behind them. There are some small technical specs here and on the bottom of this slipcase are even more. The three discs are stored in three slim cases which have the same color motif, and spotlight different family members on each one. The back of these cases lists out all the episodes with a tiny description, but they sadly don't list out where the Special Features are.

I knew I was going to like Run's House but I liked it a lot more than even I think I expected to. I don't know what I was thinking this would be, but I loved every aspect of this show. Yes, it is very much Reverend Run's deal but his family is an integral part of it. Without his wife and all the kids, he would not be the person that he is. I also love that he wasn't afraid to show how much he cared. I never got the impression that he was doing things specifically for the camera. I often felt as I watched this show that he and his wife would be carrying on the same way with or without cameras being in them. In fact, I recently had the chance to interview Reverend Run and he had a really interesting take on why he thinks the show is successful. For more on that please click here.

If you are fan of Reality TV, Run D.M.C., or just hearing life philosophies spoken on a whim then I suggest you very much enter Run's House: The Complete Seasons, 1 and 2.