The Wayans Bros.: The Complete Series [DVD]

Cast: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, John Witherspoon

Release Date: February 4, 2025

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 6/10

Synopsis:

Shawn Wayans (In Living Color, Scary Movie, White Chicks) and Marlon Wayans (Scary Movie, In Living Color, White Chicks, The Ladykillers) — real-life brothers and members of the prolific Wayans family —star in this hilarious and physical comedy series as Shawn and Marlon Williams, two very different brothers who live together in New York City while searching for success. As the series begins, Shawn wants to be promoted from delivery man to dispatcher to impress his girlfriend, Lisa (Lela Rochon – Waiting to Exhale, Any Given Sunday). Marlon works in the diner operated by his and Shawn’s father, Pops (John Witherspoon – Friday, The Tracy Morgan Show, Boomerang, The Boondocks). The two brothers often get into trouble with their moneymaking schemes — but it’s always entertaining to watch! The series also features numerous notable guest stars.

‘The Wayans Bros.’ follows the everyday lives of close, yet notably different brothers Shawn and Marlon Williams as they live in New York and repeatedly try to find a way to get ahead in the world. The majority of the series sees Shawn as the owner of a newsstand in the Neidermyer building where he is assisted (if that’s what you want to call it) by his brother Marlon, with their father Pops running a connected diner and therefore consistently involved in their world. As the brothers navigate the world of business and dating, as well as pulling random schemes to try and get an upper hand when the opportunity presents itself, things rarely go right for them, although you can always count on hilarity ensuing.

‘The Wayans Bros.’ made its premiere in January of 1995 and served as one of the flagship series for the WB network where it ran for five seasons until concluding in May of 1999 only to be unceremoniously cancelled; something that clearly upset the real life pair of brothers as Shawn can’t help but break the fourth wall to call it out in their film ‘Scary Movie’. It’s a fun, over the top and notably funny show that’s never afraid to get somewhat dark or twisted with the humor, at least within the limits of network television naturally. The series finds a suitable balance of realistic and ridiculous as it tackles real situations like break ups and trying to find where you belong whether it be career-wise or other, yet at the same time is never hesitant to take things to goofy levels like Marlon becoming fully engulfed in flames after cooking some fries goes wrong.

The key cast for its entire run included Marlon and Shawn Wayans as Marlon and Shawn Williams, in addition to John Witherspoon as their father and diner owner Pops, while Anna Maria Horsford joins as a regular partway through Season 2 as the lobby security guard. A few elements of the series were switched up and altered in the first season and partway into the second, yet it only helped the show to find a perfect balance and location that was retained for the remainder of the show’s run. ‘The Wayans Bros.’ still delivers plenty of fun, heart and humor and if you’re a fan of the brothers (or the ever hilarious John Witherspoon) then it’s definitely still worth checking out if you’re looking for something funny and easygoing to enjoy, and now the entire series is finally available in one convenient DVD collection after all of these years.

‘The Wayans Bros.’ arrives home in its entirety on DVD for the first time in one collection courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment in a 14-disc set featuring all 101 episodes from all five seasons of its run. The set doesn’t offer any new masters or disc creation and simply repurposes the previous releases (although with matching discs for the set) including the initial 2-disc DVD release of Season 1 from Warner Home Video, while Seasons 2-5 use the Warner Archive Collection season releases which are each comprised of three discs, although it is worth noting that every disc in the set is pressed, not burned MOD releases like many previous releases of Warner Archive DVD‘s typically were.

The video presentations are pretty decent, although still a slight step down from what many might expect today, even for the aging DVD format, although that’s not to say they are problematic whatsoever and the entire series looks generally clean and solid, with fully capable stereo soundtracks accompanying every episode. No bonus content is included within, but for fans of the series who don’t own the previous season sets on DVD and would love to physically own the series, this Complete Series DVD collection is recommended, especially if you can snag it at the right price.

VIDEO:

The DVD release of ‘The Wayans Bros.: The Complete Series’ features a 4×3 presentation utilizing the show’s original 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio on every episode of the series. The video presentations look quite good for the most part and while they may not necessarily be on the level of other recently produced discs, everything within is generally clean, sharp and problem free, with capable detail and clarity throughout that may not have fans blown away by any means but they certainly still do the trick and provide the whole series looking very decent as a whole. The discs themselves are newly pressed, yet utilize the same disc sources as the Warner Home Video release of Season 1 and the Warner Archive Collection releases of the other four seasons. Overall, these are mostly solid presentations that aren’t spectacular but don’t disappoint or look horrendous by any means either. They’re certainly still incredibly watchable to say the least.

AUDIO:

The DVD release includes a 192 kbps 2.0 channel Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack on every episode of all five seasons; the rear of the case sleeve and slipcase lists 5.1 audio for season one, although I can confirm that’s not the case. These stereo soundtracks offer clean, crisp and well balanced audio presentations on each episode of the series. They do a rewarding job of balancing the various audio elements within and everything from the music to dialogue sounds clean, sharp and absent of any issues; all sharing the two channels nicely. Overall, these are great 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo soundtracks that do their job well and should easily please fans of the show.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The DVD release of ‘The Wayans Bros.: The Complete Series’ does not include any bonus content.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the DVDs and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 6/10

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 ‘The Wayans Bros.: The Complete Series’ is Now Available to Own on DVD from Warner Bros Discovery Home Entertainment.

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You can purchase ‘The Wayans Bros.: The Complete Series’ on DVD at Amazon HERE!

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