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30 Rock: Season Two
R1 - America - Universal Pictures Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (14th November 2008). |
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The Show
 Winning the Emmy for 'Outstanding Comedy Series' did much for the low-rated (yet highly praised) "30 Rock" the smart writing, wonderful characters and spit-fire wit along with the publicity generated by high-profile wins at the Emmy's helped generate an audience and has seen the series into its third season. Unfortunately for the creators and producers of the show right in the middle of the show's success came the writer's strike that cut the number of episodes for this second season leaving the final episode of the season ending abruptly... still the show's sophomore year has seen an elevation of the genius established in the first, and the show remains smart, witty, well written and very funny. A successful second year is something that appears to be harder to do these days with the 'sophmore curse' often cutting show's down, as writers and producers tend to relive the magic of the first season but with additional story lines and the addition of more characters thrown into the mix, but "30 Rock" manages to remain solid. The writer's strike really messed things up for fans, cutting the season down to just 15 episodes and the wait between the second and third season was nearly unbearable (although not nearly as unbearable as the long wait for the new season of "24" (2001-Present), "Lost" (2004-Present) and the second half of the fourth season of "Battlestar Galactica" (2003-Present), seriously January can't come any sooner!) even though I have the complete second season on DVD after the 15th and final episode of the season I was left with slight sadness that there wasn't anymore... this season sees a lot of fun story lines including Liz's (Tina Fey) false pregnancy, Tracy's (Tracy Morgan) attempt to make a porno video game, Jack (Alec Baldwin) leaving GE for Washington, Frank (Judah Friedlander) thinking he's gay and Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) experiencing the sins of what the city has to offer including coffee among others... those of course listed above are among my favorite moments of this season. As I mentioned in the review for the first season (read that review here), Alec Baldwin is really one of the best things going about this series, he delivers such an incredibly funny performance, equally as such Fey, Morgan and McBrayer also deliver the goods, I especially love McBrayer's page character Kenneth, who has some truely hilarious lines throughout the series, he's so perfect for this role that it's scary. I can't gush enough about this series, "30 Rock" is among the best that TV has to offer and continues Io deliver the goods two and half years into it, I hope it continues it's run of sheer awesomeness and for those that haven't experienced it yet or have missed it, lucky for you two seasons are now available on DVD. There are all 15 episodes of this season available on this 2-disc set which includes: - "Seinfeld Vision" - "Jack Gets in the Game" - "The Collection" - "Rosemary’s Baby" - "Greenzo" - "Somebody to Love" - "Cougars" - "Secrets and Lies" - "Ludachristmas" - "Episode 210" - "MILF Island" - "Subway Hero" - "Succession" - "Sandwich Day" - "Cooter"
Video
Presented in the show's original broadcast ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen this anamorphic transfer is excellent. I was pleased that although Universal chose to cram 10 episodes on the first disc alone that the image didn't suffer from any compression flaws. The picture remained sharp and nicely detailed. Colors appear bright, vibrant and well balanced with natural skin tones and deep blacks. Overall we have a solid image transfer for these episodes.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included in English Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the series with its 5.1 track, keep in mind that this series is mainly a dialogue based sitcom. In that case the dialogue is clear and music cues are really what make up the majority of the sound mix and these elements are all well rendered. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired and Spanish.
Extras
Universal has released this series with a collection of audio commentaries, a collection of featurettes, deleted scenes and bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements broken down per disc. DISC ONE: First up are a series of episodic audio commentaries that feature various cast and crew, the participants talk about the episodes in question, what they love about the episode as well as touch about their characters/roles in the series. The tracks range from pretty interesting and funny to boring and uninteresting. I was a little disappointed that a few tracks only include one participant when the DVD producers could have packed each track with cast and crew members. I was also a little disappointed that not enough behind-the-scenes information was the topic of conversation on these tracks. There's plenty of light facts and joking at times which makes these tracks worth listening to but in the end leaves a bit to be desired. Below are the commentary tracks available on this disc: Audio commentary on the episode "Jack Gets in the Game" by actor Will Arnett. Audio commentary on the episode "The Collection" by actors Jane Krakowski and Jack McBrayer. Audio commentary on the episode "Somebody to Love" by guest star Fred Armisen. Audio commentary on the episode "Cougars" by actor Judah Friedlander. Audio commentary on the episode "episode 210" by actor/creator Tina Fey and Producer Jeff Richmond. The first disc also includes a collection of bonus trailers for: - "30 Rock" which runs for 34 seconds. - "Baby Mama" which runs for 32 seconds. - "The Office: Season 4" which runs for 1 minute 2 seconds. - "Saturday Night Live: The Complete 3rd Season" which runs for 45 seconds. DISC TWO: Five more episodic audio commentaries are included on this disc and are in the same vein as the ones from the first disc. They include: Audio commentary on the episode "MILF Island" by actor Scott Adsit. Audio commentary on the episode "Subway Hero" by actors Tim Conway and Jack McBrayer. Audio commentary on the episode "Succession" by executive producer Robert Carlock and co-executive producer John Riggi. Audio commentary on the episode "Subway Hero" by actress/creator Tina Fey. Audio commentary on the episode "Cooter" by actors Jane Krakowski and Jack McBrayer. There are deleted scenes included for the following episode: - “Seinfeld Vision” includes 2 scenes, the first entitled "What I did this summer" runs for 27 seconds and features the writing staff asking about each other's summer break. The second scene is entitled "Outside the bridal store" which runs for 10 seconds and sees Liz leaving the store after having bought the dress. - “Rosemary’s Baby” included one scene entitled "Kenneth's burned jacket" which runs for 52 seconds, Jenna is concerned that Kenneth is still wearing his burned page's jacket. - “Cougars" features one scene which is entitled "Lutz wears a onesie" and runs for 35 seconds, Frank discovers that Lutz wears a onesie while in the bathroom. - “MILF Island” features one scene entitled "Candy bar" that runs for 41 seconds, and is an extended scene of Pete having his hand stuck in the candy machine, he finds a candy bar under the machine and tries to eat it. - “Sandwich Day” also has one scene and it's entitled "Jack's job interview" which runs for 1 minute 14 seconds, Jack interviews for a job at an online company run by some hipster kids. ”Cooter” Table Read featurette runs for 31 minutes 28 seconds and is video of the cast's first reading of the series' final episode. The read is part of the process that allows writers to see the flow of a script, whether jokes work and to make changes if necessary. This is a neat extra to have included and provides insight into the development process of an episode. "30 Rock Live at the UCB Theater" featurette runs for 46 minutes 45 seconds, during the writer's strike the cast of the show put on a live performance of one of the episodes at the Upright Citizen's Brigade theatre in New York to raise money for the production team during the strike, this is a rough video of that performance and despite the poor quality of the audio it's a pretty funny clip. "Backstage with Tina Fey: Hosting Saturday Night Live" featurette runs for 8 minutes 5 seconds and follows Fey as she returns to SNL for her hosting duties through the week until showtime on Saturday. "The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Presents: An Evening With 30 Rock" featurette runs for 23 minutes 8 seconds and is a Q&A with Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, Lorne Michaels, Alec Baldwin, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer, Lonny Ross, Judah Friedlander, Keith Powell, Katrina Bowden and Scott Adsit. They talk about the story lines, characters, inspirations and working with each other among other things in this candid and funny Q&A which is also worth watching but not everyone on the panel is given a chance to talk which is a bit sad and the great Tracy Morgan is not included in the panel.
Packaging
This 2-disc set is packaged in a fold out digi-pack housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
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