Punk?d is an interesting concept… a moderately famous celebrity (Kutcher) decides to take his prankster behaviour one step further and create a show, with some friends, where he plays elaborate pranks on other celebrities while they are secretly filmed. It?s kind of like a ?celebrity candid camera? ? but with an obviously much higher budget and more well known participants, which is one of the main attractions for watching. All of this funded by MTV.We are introduced to the first series by Ashton, who tells us what the meaning of being ?Punk?d? is ? basically when someone makes you feel like an idiot. This is the main premise of the show. In each episode Ashton and his crew setup several scenarios involving some unfortunate victim (usually a celebrity of some sort), who is in some way made to look like a complete fool, usually with the aid of a close relative or friend. Ashton picks a good mix of celebrities in this series to ?Punk?. In episode 1 we see Justin Timberlake arrive home to his house boarded up with all of his belongings piled up in his font yard in crates, while a man with a clipboard tells him he owes almost a million dollars in back-taxes, and his house has been seized. Hilarity ensues when Justin quickly becomes a mess, sitting on the front step of his house almost in tears. In episode 4, Justin exacts his revenge on Kelly Osbourne, with help from her mother Sharon, by bringing her into a studio with some ?record execs? trying to convince her to go for a more ?Christina Aguilera? look. This brings out her well known temper and next thing Kelly is swearing and punching before she realises she?s being had.Other celebrities Punk?d include Mandy Moore, Pink, Eliza Dushku, Jessica Simpson and many others. Also, in most episodes, a non-celebrity is Punk?d by Ashton?s team ? sometimes involving other celebrities who are the ones doing the punking ? like some poor baby-sitters made to think they allowed Tom Arnold?s son to be kidnapped by a delivery man.All in all I thought the show was pretty funny ? I?m a bit of a celebrity lover and it was fun to see these people, normally with such a face for the public, squirming in these situations. Ashton gets a bit annoying sometimes screaming at the camera during the interludes, but this was mainly due to the fact I watched the whole show in one sitting, as a weekly event I?m sure he wouldn?t start to grate as much. I thought the show was original and funny and allowed us NW readers to see a side of celebrities that we normally don?t get to.I rate this 3.5 our of 5 for originality and fun ? and the fact it?s a good fun DVD with short pieces to chuck on when you have some friends over and you want a laugh at someone else?s expense.

THE EXTRAS

The extras included on Disc 1 and 2 are:Audio Commentary with SubtitlesDeleted scenes from each episodeI was pretty pleased with the extra?s the audio commentary was by Ashton on others on his team, which gave really interesting insight on the conception of their schemes. The deleted scenes, were sometimes fun ? and sometimes it was obvious why they were deleted.

CONCLUSION

Punk?d is an interesting concept… a moderately famous celebrity (Kutcher) decides to take his prankster behaviour one step further and create a show, with some friends, where he plays elaborate pranks on other celebrities while they are secretly filmed. It?s kind of like a ?celebrity candid camera? ? but with an obviously much higher budget and more well known participants, which is one of the main attractions for watching. All of this funded by MTV.