That’s not to say there’s no structure to the Regular Show. Often, an episode will set up a classic trope in such a way that you can’t help but laugh. In "Video Game Wizards," for example, Mordecai and Rigby try to win a cool new video game controller called The Maximum Glove (which doesn’t even try to pretend to be anything but the Nintendo Power Glove). They unlock the real secret to winning, which is not caring if you win, and enjoying time with your friends (cue the live studio audience "awww"), and they end up being bestowed with magical video game powers. Like a lot of cartoons, this seems to be made by and for children of the 80’s in so many ways.
It’s impossible not to compare Regular Show to Adventure Time at some point. It’s actually kind of hard to distinguish the two shows in a lot of ways. Both shows have crazy scenarios. Both shows have their main characters regularly bestowed with magic or super powers. Both shows have a sort of realistic kind of writing. It might be wacky scripting, but it sounds less like a cartoon and more like a live sitcom. I guess if anything distinguishes the feel of the two shows, it’s the artwork. Regular Show has more of an old school art style, with kind of papery, watercolor backgrounds. The animation also seems slightly less fluid, also going back to an older style in cartoon history.
As for special features, you get a set of profiles that describe each character in the show. This can be nice for super fans, but it’s not a very exciting special feature. As for the 16 episodes included on this DVD, they skip around Season 3 and Season 2, but mostly come from Season 3. Overall, Regular Show is fun, but I don’t quite get the unique vibe from it that I do from Adventure Time, and the animation is relatively lackluster in comparison. If you’ve got someone who loves the show, this isn’t a bad compilation of episodes, but if you’re just checking out the show for the first time because you like Adventure Time, I’d check out some clips elsewhere before buying this DVD.
