STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Almost exactly a year to the DVD release, I had to see Science, Gervais's latest live show, in what I think was one of the test shows before he polished it up and took it nationwide. All the material in this DVD release was exactly the same as I remembered it, so it looks like he pretty much had it sorted when I went to see him.

The title, as it would imply, revolves around the concept of 'Science' which, Ricky tells us, can be used to find the cure for deadly diseases or create something like the atom bomb. But Gervais, with his trademark cutting humour, informs us that in fact this was a perfect example of science going right. Like the other three releases before this, it pretty much veers off this theme for a lot of the show, but the humour is still fairly consistent in it's style and delivery through out.

By a fourth instalment, you may think the format may have lost it's edge a bit and it all may be sagging, but it seems as if Gervais was cutting his teeth with his first three stand up efforts and building it all up to his most accomplished effort, which he has with this more polished and slick show, which just comes off altogether as his most watchable and fulfilling entry. Certainly not for those easily offended or who just can't stand him, but what you've been waiting for for everyone else. ****

This is Ricky Gervais fourth themed stand-up comedy and for me it was one of his funniest if not the funniest. After Animals, which I also adored, you had Politics and Fame, and so now Science. It's not really about science, it's more about rational thinking, like he always does. Telling fat people it's their own fault they're fat is not insulting, it's just a fact. They won't like to hear it but it's just the truth. Why I loved Science and Animals more than Politics and Fame is because in those ones Ricky Gervais makes fun of religion. He shows how ridicule religion sounds by using true examples of the bible or whatever, and that in a very funny way. Mocking religion, it's one of my favorite things to do in daily life, so watching one of the best stand-up comedians doing it, thinking the same as I do, makes me just have a smile on my face. Science is one of his best shows and I honestly can't wait for the day that Ricky Gervais will make a show just called Religion. That's the only way to top every other show he did. Looking forward to that one.

Comparing this to Animals (his first stand-up) there are perhaps the same number of segments but the number of lines, particularly throwaway, seem far fewer. It makes the pace seem slower, the build-up longer, and now the similarly sized punchlines unable to match. Most disappointingly tho, there is a more aggressive, mean-spirited edge to the first half of the show which doesn't really work. I think Gervais' portrayal of a certain innocence makes so much of his stuff, particularly his religious deconstructions, work so well that the nasty edge doesn't really play for me. The themes of homosexuality, fatness and religion are present in both Animals and this in such a way that this seem repetitive. All in all, watch Animals and forget about this one.