Smallville Season 2! (1 Viewer)

[Greg_S_H]

Menus:

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Cool menus, Greg, thanks for posting them!

They look like more of the same, except Blue Instead of Red. I do love the really evocative landscape shots in the background though.

 

[Greg_S_H]

The Kent farm looks really nice.

Only having seen one episode from this season, I'm really looking forward to this.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Until it fizzles into total absurdity at the end, it's probably the best. Some real gems like "Insurgence" and "Rosetta."

Season three's has some series standout episodes, but is much more lazy in the plausibility department.

 

[Chad R]

Season 3 has been picking up here at the end. It just seems that the end of season 2 and the beginning of season 3 were some of the weakest points for the series.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Season three's has some series standout episodes, but is much more lazy in the plausibility department.

Is it still enjoyable in spite of that? Or, would you say the non-standout episodes are clunkers?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

It depends. It's almost always enjoyable, but sometimes more of the type of enjoyment you get out of sitting back and watching an old Dukes of Hazard episode. Dumb fun.

The last four episodes have been magnificent though, among the best of the show. "Memoria" is just a notch under "Rosetta" as best episode of the series. Even in the creative drought, gems like "Perry" and "Relic" slipped by. And the Drew Greenberg episodes have their surreal charm. It's alot more hit and miss.

Season two, until its two-part season finale was almost uniformly strong.

 

[Chad R]

Agreed.

 

[oscar_merkx]

cool menus indeed

 

[Greg_S_H]

Got my copy, but one of the discs was off the hub and has some pretty deep scratches. So, back it goes. Still, I watched the first episode and can't wait to get my new copy and continue watching.

 

[Sebastien S]

One of my discs was off the hub too! It was the disc with "Chloe's face" on it...

 

[Greg_S_H]

That's the very one. I hope this isn't going to be a problem.

I've had discs floating in the case before, but this is the first time I've gotten a scratched disc. If it wasn't a disc that's so deep into the set, I might keep it and watch the disc to see if it was okay. But, I wouldn't be getting to that disc for a while, and the scratches look pretty deep.

 

[Chad R]

We had the same problem with our Gilmore Girls set which is the exact same packaging. Two discs were off the hub, discs 3 and 5. Disc 3 wasn't scratched but disc 5 was. Since we couldn't get back to Circuit City until the weekend, we started to watch them.

Lo and behold disc 3, which didn't have a visible nick on it, wouldn't play.

My advice: return it anyway.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I think the menus are boring. Anyone can do that in Photoshop. How about some moving menus with Clark Speeding across the screen or something?
Never the less, looking forward to getting this.

 

[Chad R]

The main menu is animated, with different photos and what not appearing. With four episodes a disc I'd rather they conserve space for the shows (which look excellent btw).

 

[Greg_S_H]

I took it back, and the discs on the new set are all properly seated.

 

[Bill Williams]

I just received my set yesterday through Amazon.com (got it for only $38.69), and I have to admit, this set is looking really nice! Here's my review until HTF or The Digital Bits does a full review:

Having all 23 episodes on DVD is good... and in widescreen, to boot! On the WB's local affiliate here, they have an annoying habit of pulling the screen upwards so they can do their weather report blurb during the program, which fills up a full third of the screen. That really sucks! With one of the recent third season episodes, they did it seven times within the first three minutes - completely annoying! But having the episodes preserved, with the end credits intact, they look and sound even better than on TV. One thing, though: they're still in DD 2.0 surround. For a show this good, it should be in 5.1. (Oddly enough, the Canadian single-disc release of the pilot and "Metamorphosis" was in 5.1, yet the first season release was in 2.0. Warner Home Video should be able to boot things up to a 5.1 for a current series like this, and I hope they get to do so for future season sets. Still, it's good that they're at least consistent.)

I listened to the Millar/Gough commentary on "Rosetta", and they have a lot of reverence and respect for the Superman mythos and for Christopher Reeve. They even mention that a wise editing decision gave them two scenes with Chris instead of just one - a nice added touch. And the group commentary with Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, Greg Beeman, and James Marshall on "Rosetta" is a hoot! It's obvious that everyone has great affection for one another, and the camaraderie comes across in this audio commentary. (For the record, is this the same James Marshall who played bad-boy/good-boy biker James Hurley on David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" in 1990-91? Methinks it is!) I haven't listened to either the Millar/Gough or the Welling/Kreuk/Rosenbaum commentary on "Red" yet. One thing I will say about the cast: they should come back and do more commentaries in future season sets. Also, they should get John Schneider, Annette O'Toole, John Glover, Sam Jones, and Allison Mack involved in future commentaries as well in future sets.

The deleted scenes are a nice addition, though they could have been in 1.78:1 widescreen format like the episodes themselves. The audio is production audio only for all of the segments, though for a couple of the deleted scenes music from the final episode is remixed into the scene. Most of them are quickie snippets less than a minute long, with a couple of them a bit longer. As far as the content goes, some of it is nothing to write home about, though two of the deleted scenes provide further interesting moments to their respective episode climaxes.

The Christopher Reeve featurette: This is one that just has to be experienced rather than simply watched. Mark Snow's adaptation of the John Williams music for "Rosetta" should be issued on CD, it's that good. And there's some great commentary from Alex Ross, perhaps comics' finest painter of the current age. Despite its brevity (only 10 minutes), it's perhaps the best featurette on the entire set.

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: This begins to give a glimpse into the production of the FX of the set. It's great to see all of the nuts and bolts, not to mention CGI and green-screening, that go into a series like Smallville. Even Christopher Reeve chimes in to talk about how special FX has changed in the 25+ years since he first worked on "Superman". Future season sets should have more featurettes like this to provide more behind-the-scenes footage, CGI tests, raw footage, etc. For technical wizards and aficionados, this is where the interest lies.

Gag reel: While some gag reels and bloopers are very quick, it's great to see the actors relax and enjoy their on-set camaraderie. Watching Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum fool around reflects their working friendship well. The final gag shot with Rosenbaum is priceless... yeah, baby, yeah!

The Chloe Chronicles: I first caught these 3-4 minute online videos through the WB's web site and found them to be both entertaining and informative, as Chloe (Allison Mack) took viewers further into the episodes themselves. I'd longed to see these included on DVD, and it's a pleasure to finally have them here. I hope that the current batch of Chloe Chronicles will make its way onto the eventual Season 3 set next year.

And having the 16-page summary guide/"yearbook" is a nice touch as well, providing episode synopses, chapter listings, etc.

For all of the positive points of this set, there are still a few things that bum me out:

- Lack of episode trailers: for the second straight year, no episode trailers or preview reels for the series. Where are they?
- The Verizon wireless spots: I'm thinking that they should be included on the Season 3 set, since they bridge the gap between Seasons 2 and 3.
- DD 5.1 sound: If other recent sets can get 5.1 sound on their DVD sets, and if the Canadian release can get 5.1 sound, then the Smallville season sets should certainly merit a 5.1 soundtrack as well.
- And wasn't there some exclusive online content featuring John Glover (Lionel Luthor) during the first season? IIRC, it had something to do with a LuthorCorp press release or something. If the Chloe Chronicles can make it onto DVD, then this should be on DVD as well, along with the five Verizon spots.
- The original pilot: Why hasn't the WB acknowledged that this exists? For an upcoming set, they should do a bonus offer where fans can get a legit DVD pressing of the original pilot, a la the "Dead Zone" first season set. Having a mail-in coupon for a subscription to "Teen Beat" isn't appealing at all. Having a mail-in coupon for a limited edition DVD of the unaired pilot, however, is. Sadly, however, this unaired original version has been heavily bootlegged, and yet Warner Home Video insults us by putting clips from the original pilot on the DVD menus from first season. What gives into this kind of thinking?
- More DVD-ROM interfaces, perhaps even an exclusive DVD set-top feature or two, and maybe even an Easter egg or two.

All in all, there's some distinct improvements over the Season 1 set with the newest release. Solid quality transfers, great sound, commentaries, bonus features, and all at an affordable price make Smallville: Season 2 a wonderful addition to anyone's collection. Just the Christopher Reeve tribute featurette is worth the price of admission alone. Can't wait to see what happens when the Season 3 set is released!

 

[Pete Battista]

Thanks Bill... great review... mine shipped yesterday so hoping it will be here sometime next week.

I heard rumors that they changed the packaging for season 2... is there any truth to this? I kinda hope not... even though I didn't care much for the design... I do like for the sets to be consistant.

 

[Chad R]

The design is the same as season 1.

 

[Cliff C]

hmm. I opened up my set today and found that all the discs are securely in place. The thing is, the booklet is missing!

Just to make sure that this is not some kind of new cost-cutting measure, I wanted to ask if you guys got a booklet with your sets?

Thanks