Pimp My Ride: The Complete First Season (review)

It's Souped-Up Car for the Poor Guy, a reality show for young swains desperate to impress the world with their wheels but too destitute to pour twenty thousand bucks into their automobiles. And so descends fairy godrapper Xzibit, a "hip-hop impresario and car enthusiast" who, with the help of the "world-famous" body shop (who knew there was such a thing?) West Coast Customs, gives sorry cars extreme makeovers. (Actually, some gals' vehicles get the Cinderella treatment too, but c'mon: this is a guy's fantasy.) All 15 episodes from the first season are on the first two discs; the third bonus disc features 80 minutes of deleted scenes, a music video (Xzibit's "What You See Is What You Get"), a blooper reel, two featurettes ("West Coast Customs: What We Drive," and an "exclusive tour" of the pimped-up 1954 Cadillac Coupe Deville owned by Travis Barker of Blink 182), and more. It's not just my inability to enjoy vehicular voyeurism that inhibits my appreciation of this show: it airs as part of MTV's Sunday Stew, and I'm old enough to remember (and miss!) the MTV that showed nothing but music videos.