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TITLE: THE GOLDEN GIRLS - THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON
Info:
DVD Release Date: May 17, 2005 (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
Color
MSRP: $49.99
Number of Discs: 3
Number of Episodes: 26
Running Time: 644 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: N/A
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English
subtitles; Closed Captioned
Special Features: "Go for the Gold Trivia Challenge"
My Thoughts:
Miami's favorite girls are back for another season!
The Golden Girls: The Complete Second Season is the
second installment in the DVD series of one of
America's favorite television shows, and it is
complete with 26 great episodes full of Sophia's
stories of Sicily, Blanche's many men, Rose's St. Olaf
stories, and Dorothy's... well... whatever it is that
Dorothy has.
Unlike most series, The Golden Girls did not really
fluctuate in overall quality over the years. Instead,
it just maintained a high quality standard that is
seen throughout ever single season. And undoubtedly,
the second season is no exception. We get to see
Blanche go through menopause in "End of the Curse."
Burt Reynolds guest stars as the girls get
(accidentally) thrown into jail for prostitution in
"Ladies of the Evening." The girls fight their hated
neighbor Frieda
Claxton to save a tree in one of my all time
favorites, "It's a Miserable Life." One of Dorothy's
friends (a lesbian) visits the girls and accidentally
finds romance among the girls in "Isn't It Romantic."
Mario Lopez makes a guest appearance in "Dorothy's
Prize Pupil." George Clooney makes a guest appearance
in "To Catch a Neighbor."
Finally, the pilot for the television series Empty
Nest concludes the second season, although the pilot
is much different than the actual show.
The way that this set was put together really isn't
much different from The Complete First Season at all.
Perhaps the biggest change is that a blue color scheme
is used in this set as opposed to the "golden" color
scheme. Once again, a digipak has been used, with the
far left panel having a list of episode titles (along
with writing and directing credits), the far right
panel containing Disc Three, and the middle panel
containing Discs One and Two (once again, to my
disappointment, they have chosen again to place Disc
Two in a position where Disc One must be removed from
the package before Disc Two can be removed). The set
contains 26 episodes on three discs. Disc One contains
eight episodes (as well as the special feature) and
Discs Two and Three each contain nine episodes. Each
disc contains a picture of one of the girls, and also
has a list of the episodes that are on the disc.
The menus are very simplistic, containing just the
basics. When you put the DVD into the DVD player, the
Main Menu comes up after the FBI warning (there are no
trailers to wait through on Disc One this time!) and
from there, you can choose from Play All, Episode
Selection, or Setup. Additionally, Disc One has an
option to play the "Go for the Gold Trivia Challenge"
special feature. The Play All option is
self-explanatory. Episode Selection takes you to a
menu where you can (as one would expect) select which
episode you want to watch. Setup takes you to a menu
where you can turn on the English subtitles, and also
gives you information about how to register your DVDs,
which probably is not a bad idea to do (even though
I'm still not quite sure what the benefits of
registration are). On the Main Menu and Episode
Selection menu, the music from the closing credits
plays in the background.
The overall video quality in the set wasn't perfect,
but it was still pretty good. The only problem I had
was that the colors weren't quite as sharp as I'd like
for them to be. The audio quality was decent as well,
although there was some inconsistency in audio quality
from one episode to the next. Some episodes had very
loud and clear audio, while some of the episodes had
audio that seemed a bit muffled. The audio is
presented in Dolby Digital Mono. Each episode on this
set is uncut, running approximately 25 minutes. Also,
there are no chapters included in this set! That is a
change from the first season, which included many
chapters in each episode.
Just like the first season, The Complete Second Season
contains only one special feature. HOWEVER, the
special feature included in this set is MUCH better
than the one that was included in the first season!
What is included is a very interesting interactive
trivia game called "Go for the Gold Trivia Challenge."
Basically, you watch a short clip from the show, and
then you are given a multiple choice question that is
(in some way) based upon that clip. There are eight
questions, and at the end, you are given your score
and your ranking. You can either score "Clueless as
Rose," "Wise as Sophia," or you can score "Average as
Dorothy." I scored "Average as Dorothy" both times
that I completed the trivia. The questions are not all
about the show itself, and in fact, some of them have
very little at all to do with the show. Some of the
questions are designed to see just how closely you pay
attention to every little detail in the clip, such as
remembering what Dorothy was pouring in the clip
(obviously you can't rewind just to get the answer). I
am not quite sure how many questions there are on the
disc (I estimate at least 20), but each time you play
it, you should get a random set of eight questions.
The whole game lasts approximately ten minutes, and
there is a time limit on how long you have to answer
the questions. I really enjoyed this special feature
(in fact, I think it is one of the most enjoyable
special features I've encountered on any DVD set),
although I wish that the trivia focused more upon the
show and there were more questions, because certainly,
after playing the game a couple of times, you will
have the answers memorized.
Overall, this set was a great set, and even better
than the first season set, mainly because of the
special feature that was included on this set. I'd
still like to see more special features, particularly
interviews and/or commentaries. Still, though, I'm
glad that the series is even being released. And there
is no need for fans to worry about the third season
either! A promotional booklet included with this set
indicates that The Complete Third Season is coming
soon (along with Home Improvement S3)!
Hopefully Buena Vista will keep these short time
periods between releases going and have the entire
series released before we know it. But for now, just
pick up The Complete Second Season... every true fan
needs it!
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):
Video Quality: 4/5
Audio Quality: 4/5
Special Features: 4/5
Menu Navigation/Design: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 04/25/2005.
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