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STUDIO: A&E Home Video
MSRP: $12.95
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 94 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Deleted Scenes
• Year of the Dog Episode
The Pitch
The hunter becomes the hunted when Dog the Bounty Hunter is placed under arrest and thrown into jail. Torn between his duty to his family and his duty as a bounty hunter, Dog suffers a complete mental meltdown when he attempts to mace himself for jumping bail.
The Humans
Duane “Dog” Chapman, Beth Smith, Leland Chapman, Lyssa “Baby” Chapman and Tim Chapman.
The Nutshell
In 2003, Dog appeared on several news programs and staked out his next piece of prey: Andrew Luster. A trust fund baby and heir to the Max Factor fortune, Luster’s passion for surfing was matched only by his passion for rape. Like Creighton Duke hunting for Jason Voorhees, Dog pursued his pretty far and wide before tracking the serial rapist down to Mexico. Dog and his team captured Luster and dragged him back to the U.S. to face justice, but got themselves in hot water in the process.
Marvel Comics really started going into the shitter once Dog got the Venom symbiote.
We don’t live in the days of frontier justice anymore and bounty hunting isn’t as cut and dry as freezing someone in a block of carbonite. There are rules regarding the extradition of criminals from countries and Dog’s methods ran afoul of them. Mexican authorities charged Dog and his team with felony restraint and attempted to extradite him back to Mexico and put him in jail. This special follows this trying period in Dog’s life and the efforts his friends and family went to in order to bring this American hero back home.
The Lowdown
The case of Andrew Luster is a pretty interesting one and is undoubtedly the biggest criminal Dog has ever managed to bring in with his bounty hunting. There was an outpouring of support for Dog during his entire ordeal and the story was featured on several news programs over the course of the year. It’s really no surprise that A&E would devote an entire special to covering Dog’s greatest triumph and tribulation, but there’s a little too much focus on the family at the expense of the more interesting criminal extradition issues.
The smartest people to ever appear on Fox News.
In typical Dog fashion, he over dramatizes everything, but that’s what makes him so lovable. Would anyone really watch the show if Dog didn’t love his job so much? Watching Dog and his crew get decked out in bulletproof vests and tactical gear in order to bring down someone who jumped bail for parking tickets is just part of what makes the show such a joy to behold.
Getting thrown into a prison in Mexico is no laughing matter and it’s understandable how Dog and his crew were distressed to be housed with the very criminal element they’re sworn to take down, but he still pushes his situation to the limit in order to make it seem like his life was constantly in danger. To hear Dog tell the story, it’s a wonder that the criminals didn’t stage an entire riot for the purposes of killing him with a sharpened spoon.
Since you already have him in the pound, could you guys please neuter the Dog?
The show is an entertaining piece of fluff, but there’s really no reason it couldn’t be included in the same package as the regular season sets are. You can get more in depth information about the entire case on Wikipedia than you can in the special. Unless you’re really big into Dog and his entire clan, there’s precious little reason to buy this stand alone special.
The Package
The bulk of the special materials consist of an hour long special about Dog’s big year in 2006. He got married, lost a daughter, got arrested and released, got a hometown parade thrown for him, got parodied on South Park and so on. Dog and his family reflect on all the big events they went through over the course of the year and offer their thoughts and feelings on the matters. Surprisingly enough, Dog and Beth loved the South Park parody of their show and were overjoyed to be on the program. The wedding was important enough to have its own special on A&E, but you get enough of the highlights in this special satisfy your curiosity and see what outlandish outfit Dog wore at his nuptials.
Got dog? Sure. Got dignity? Nope!
The deleted scenes include a message from Beth to the fans working to get Dog out of prison, footage of Beth crying on the phone, Leland getting snatched by the cops and one of the youngling Chapman’s sporting an impressive mullet for a seven-year-old.