The concept of Red vs. Blue is an interesting one - the campaign game of Halo is an epic sci- fi action adventure that follows a solid storyline with well told cinematics. And why not? Humans in a losing war against aliens is a good opportunity for some dramatic action. The makers at Bungie found it also to make the game, engine wise and story wise, to be as realistically convincing as possible. However, outside of the campaign mode, the largest use of the game is little games such as Capture the Flag. The guys at Rooster Teeth, mainly creator Bernie Burns, asked: "What would happen if someone tried to write a story to a capture the flag game of life or death, as depicted?" Realizing that such a war cannot exist in the real world, as it's way too stupid and pointless, they go with it as a 'what if' scenario, and depict it accordingly. As such, this is a very funny tale of men in the most pointless war imaginable, everyone either not wanting to be there, is too into the violence to care that it's pointless, or too dumb to even think about it. It's proved pointless early on when Caboose is asked to watch over and guard the flag, and he tells his comrades that he doesn't know why he must do such a thing, and asks what's so important about it. The shock doesn't come to his friends when he asks so much, however, as when they realize they have no actual explanation to give him.
The genius is the semi-simplicity of the structure, while still following almost every war stereotype to have come about it. The story revolves around seven primary men in the canyon of Blood Gulch, in which this deadly game of capture the flag is going on. They've been there seemingly for months, and their bases are only about 500 feet away from each other, yet you are almost instantly subjected to the idea that they only shoot at each other once every few weeks or so, probably because they don't see the glory of a flag to be worth putting their own lives in danger. Instead, there's a lot of banter, which is arguably the most observant and creative I've ever heard. One primary example would be when the camera moves to Grif and Simmons, who are arguing whether the word 'both' is pronounced as 'both' or 'bolth'. This works not only because most people do indeed pronounce an 'L' in the word, but it's easy to imagine these two soldiers being so outrageously bored given their current situation that they have to bicker about things on an all new level that redefines 'mundane.'
That's not to say that the story doesn't advance - in fact, it moves with more twists and turns than most war movies, usually driven by accidents, misunderstandings, or evolving subplots. A prime example of a subplot would be from Season 2: a love triangle between Pvt. Caboose, Sheila (the woman's voice for the Blue team's tank), and Lopez, the captured robot built by the Reds. It also moves at a good pace, as initially each sequence of events could only span a week or two, otherwise the audiences would be able to guess what would happen (supposedly they guessed the most sudden plot twists sometimes, that had no clues leading up to them). As such, each season, which operates on DVD more as a chapter to an ongoing saga, and it is built up of multiple sequences of events, that when one is over, they simply start to set up the next one, which sometimes follows suit.
If you want to know what the atmosphere is like, think of it like this: The series is about a 'war' yet there isn't even a villain introduced until the second season, and he doesn't even do anything until towards the end of it. Neither Red nor Blue are the heroes or villains in the majority of the storyline, as their only enemies until later on are each other. And luckily, the writers were smart enough to give both the Reds and the Blues an equal amount of screen time, so that you can decide which one you like better for yourself, or you can do what many do, which is to like both sides equally.
The characters themselves are a perfect half and half. Half of them are almost frighteningly realistic in such a situation that they say and do just about anything one can think of, because thinking of things to do or talk about is all that there is to do. The other half are almost over-stereotyped, such as Sarge's obsession with the Red's victory, and Caboose, who is literally so dumb that they have to give him a full tutorial on how to operate a switch (or a personal favorite couple of lines of mine -- Tucker: "Church, we've got a problem." Church: "Is this a new problem, or did Caboose get his head stuck in the freezer again?"). These stereotyped characters would normally grow to be almost painfully overtoned, but the realistic characters hold everything in realistic perspective, and luckily, they're the ones who really drive the narrative, given a good 2/3 of the screen time.
Along with the fantastic series, there are also some Public Service Announcement videos, which are amazing in their sense of parody, and with the DVD's, you get some surprisingly good deleted scenes, additional content, and rather entertaining commentary tracks. If you're looking for something with a new spin on sci-fi comedy that's so convincing sometimes that you'll swear that the characters are people that you know, then Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles is more than recommended. Just bear in mind that Season's 2 & 3 are funnier than Season 1, as the start took a while to get going.
The genius is the semi-simplicity of the structure, while still following almost every war stereotype to have come about it. The story revolves around seven primary men in the canyon of Blood Gulch, in which this deadly game of capture the flag is going on. They've been there seemingly for months, and their bases are only about 500 feet away from each other, yet you are almost instantly subjected to the idea that they only shoot at each other once every few weeks or so, probably because they don't see the glory of a flag to be worth putting their own lives in danger. Instead, there's a lot of banter, which is arguably the most observant and creative I've ever heard. One primary example would be when the camera moves to Grif and Simmons, who are arguing whether the word 'both' is pronounced as 'both' or 'bolth'. This works not only because most people do indeed pronounce an 'L' in the word, but it's easy to imagine these two soldiers being so outrageously bored given their current situation that they have to bicker about things on an all new level that redefines 'mundane.'
That's not to say that the story doesn't advance - in fact, it moves with more twists and turns than most war movies, usually driven by accidents, misunderstandings, or evolving subplots. A prime example of a subplot would be from Season 2: a love triangle between Pvt. Caboose, Sheila (the woman's voice for the Blue team's tank), and Lopez, the captured robot built by the Reds. It also moves at a good pace, as initially each sequence of events could only span a week or two, otherwise the audiences would be able to guess what would happen (supposedly they guessed the most sudden plot twists sometimes, that had no clues leading up to them). As such, each season, which operates on DVD more as a chapter to an ongoing saga, and it is built up of multiple sequences of events, that when one is over, they simply start to set up the next one, which sometimes follows suit.
If you want to know what the atmosphere is like, think of it like this: The series is about a 'war' yet there isn't even a villain introduced until the second season, and he doesn't even do anything until towards the end of it. Neither Red nor Blue are the heroes or villains in the majority of the storyline, as their only enemies until later on are each other. And luckily, the writers were smart enough to give both the Reds and the Blues an equal amount of screen time, so that you can decide which one you like better for yourself, or you can do what many do, which is to like both sides equally.
The characters themselves are a perfect half and half. Half of them are almost frighteningly realistic in such a situation that they say and do just about anything one can think of, because thinking of things to do or talk about is all that there is to do. The other half are almost over-stereotyped, such as Sarge's obsession with the Red's victory, and Caboose, who is literally so dumb that they have to give him a full tutorial on how to operate a switch (or a personal favorite couple of lines of mine -- Tucker: "Church, we've got a problem." Church: "Is this a new problem, or did Caboose get his head stuck in the freezer again?"). These stereotyped characters would normally grow to be almost painfully overtoned, but the realistic characters hold everything in realistic perspective, and luckily, they're the ones who really drive the narrative, given a good 2/3 of the screen time.
Along with the fantastic series, there are also some Public Service Announcement videos, which are amazing in their sense of parody, and with the DVD's, you get some surprisingly good deleted scenes, additional content, and rather entertaining commentary tracks. If you're looking for something with a new spin on sci-fi comedy that's so convincing sometimes that you'll swear that the characters are people that you know, then Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles is more than recommended. Just bear in mind that Season's 2 & 3 are funnier than Season 1, as the start took a while to get going.