The Complete Monty Pythons Flying Circus: Collectors Edition Megaset

Apart from the full run of the original Flying Circus series (45 episodes, which is like 200 American), the 21-disc set includes Monty Python Conquers America, a documentary about the group’s voyages outside of Britain; Before the Flying Circus, a documentary about the troupe’s beginnings; a 20th anniversary sketch compilation; the full Live at the Hollywood Bowl performance, the group’s 1998 reunion at the US Comedy Arts Festival, and six “personal best” specials. So yes, enough material to fill a paragraph. Once you go down this path, though, hungering for a full history annotated with all of the films, you’re just a smidge away from wondering why they couldn’t have included the Cleese/Palin collaborations A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures, or Gilliam’s Python-ish feature Jabberwocky, and that way lies madness. The Python legacy is like the Python treatment of death: vast, ridiculous, constant. If you plan of giving this gift to your resident Monty Python fan (which you should), don’t plan on seeing them for a few days, they’ll be occupied.