Brand X with Russell Brand

It's funny how such a simple show can be so entertaining. Russell just gives a standup performance in what looks like a small college lecture room with Power Point presentations and kind of a bland professor sidekick who seems to do nothing other than be someone Russell can make fun of. You can see the subtle catering to the college crowd as almost everyone there appears to be young and it's much like seeing a college lecture. He really knows how to work the audience, taking audience participation a step further, rather than maybe send an intern into the audience to put a mic up to them, he goes in and sits on their lap, male or female. One of the best shows on FX and barely costs anything to make, it's a good part of the guy show lineup on the network.

Being an old guy (73) I suspect that this is not my demographic, but I love vulgarity and this had a great deal of that.

I also like Legit and Archer, which are part of FX's vulgarity segment.

I have said what I have to say in a cogent and concise manner, yet IMDb' rules require me to pad this.

If what you have to say can be said in twenty works, why be forced to use two hundred.

Let me say again and again, being forced to pad this review is silly and counterproductive. Isn't it enough to know that and old guy (I will avoid using my favorite term for that since it it vulgar (hint: its initials are O.F.)

Who's idea was it to give this idiot an hour of live TV?...Who ever it is should be fired asap! Russell Brand is a Plato wannabe, he thinks he's so intellectual, clever, smart...and some people get wow by his crap.Well he doesn't fool me, because the only thing he does is repeating the same crap we all know by now. An another thing, if you're going to have guest in your show, let them speak for God sakes! I watched the show because a friend of mine is a big fan of him and she was supposedly to be on the show...what a waste of time! I waste an hour of my life watching this idiot! because she never made it to the studio, because the address on their website was wrong! It doesn't get more crappy! than this! oh wait it might!

PS I gave him one stars because there's no 0 stars!

I was skeptical at first, because I didn't understand the format. I was glad when it evolved into something more varied. I have to say that I adore Russel Brand for his wit and intelligence. I love how he brings in people with hateful views and then has a discussion with them to try to mellow our their hatred, but also doesn't shy for calling them on where their reasoning is idiotic, and in an eloquent and glib way that isn't actually disrespectful. The fact that he brings homeless people into his show is very touching to me. I always think about how cool it must be for the guy to be on TV. It doesn't solve their problems, it's just a cool experience that the world has probably largely denied them. And it makes you realize that such people exist - not only the ex-homeless, but the currently homeless, with an unpleasant predicament, and they are people like you and me. Most of all, this show is funny and made me laugh so hard that I cried on a few occasions. I really hope that it stays on air.

Mr. Brand gets dinged sometimes for inconsistency, but who among us is 100 24/7/365? Whether one series of his is deemed stronger than another is less important to this reviewer than the generally high observational value presented at any time.

So why is it that humorists with English bloodlines (a nod to Konstantin Kisin here too) are often at the front of the satirist line? Deeper literary genes perhaps. Close geographical vulnerability to aggressive forces in two World Wars maybe too.

Whatever the nature of the decidedly English truth-to-power acumen, it typically rings deeply to the observer paying attention. And Mr. Brand carries that tradition with joyful aplomb.