Archer – The Complete Season Two (2011/Fox Blu-ray) + Adventure Time: It Came From the Nightosphere (Warner DVD) + Super Jail! – Season Two (Adult
Swim/Warner DVD) + Delocated! – Season 1
& 2 (Adult Swim/Warner DVD) + The
PJ’s – Season 3 (Lionsgate DVD)
Archer: Season Two (Blu-ray)
Picture:
A- Sound: B Extras: B- Episodes: A-
Sterling
Archer is the self absorbed, drunken, at times dimwitted, spy that is the
exaggerated playboy we have seen time and time again in the form of James
Bond. Sterling Archer gets the job done,
just not quite as smooth and tactful as Mr. Bond.
Archer
and his snarky, colorful cohorts work for spy agency ISIS
(run by Archer’s mother). The crew is
completely out of control; persistently drinking, sleeping around, and delivering
a brand of international espionage so crude it is practically indescribable.
The team
foils some of the biggest terrorist plots, but it is the journey to that point
that is what audiences get to enjoy. The
ISIS agents are certifiably insane as their
narcissism takes center stage. Where as
on one hand we can see Archer take down mysterious killers, we spend more time
watching him have sex in X-Ray machines, battle paternity suits, search for his
father, battle breast cancer, and making one idiotic move after the next; as
pure hysteria ensures.
Archer: Season Two is better than the First and from what I have seen of Season Three it only gets more
insane. I can not express how wonderful
this series is. The writers create an
elaborate world that combines aspects of Arrested
Development, James Bond, and a mental institution to make an amazingly
entertaining experience.
What
might seem like completely random sets of events are in actuality important to
the developing storyline, whereas in Archer
continuity plays a huge role and episode references are aplenty. A truly great series.
Extras
for Archer include:
- Archersaurus – Self
Extinction
- A joke from Season One that
is quite funny
- Ask Archer
- Answers some questions, but
not very worth while
- Semper FI
- Archer reads a fan letter in
a hilariously mocking manner…what a jerk
- L’Espion Mal Fait
- After a horrible accident
Archer wakes up looking quite ugly…and by that I mean exactly like his
real voice actor
- ISIS Infiltrates Comic Con
- Just as it sounds as a panel
of 5 approaches the nerdy masses
Adventure Time: It Came from the Nightosphere
Picture:
B Sound: B- Extras: C Episodes: B
The Emmy
nominated Cartoon Network series returns to DV with 16 random episodes; I
repeat this is NOT a complete season release.
I have never watched this series before this release, but found it
strangely enjoyable with enough creativity to peak a child or adults interest.
These
adventures follow Jake the Dog and Finn the ‘Human.’ They live in The Land of Ooo with various
kingdoms ruled by a variety of wacky princesses. Together with Jake, the 12 year old Finn looks
for trouble and treasure helping anyone he can along the way. He battles powerful foes and uses his ability
to shape shift to his advantage.
The series
obviously takes place in the head of a young boy (or at least it seems implied)
where adventure, treasure, princesses, and trouble are the most awesome things
ever. Every episode has a good sense of
heart, soul, and silliness with a creative animation style that holds your
interest.
The 16
episodes are a pleasure as a talented voice cast with a ton of guest stars
propels the storylines forward; eliciting plenty of chuckles and smiles along
the way.
The
episodes for this random set are as follows:
- It Came From the Nightosphere
- Rainy Day Daydream
- Wizard
- Power Animal
- The Enchiridioni
- Slumber Party Panic
- The Real You
- Memory of a Memory
- Prisoners Love
- Crystals Have Power
- Business Time
- Mystery Train
- Guardians of Sunshine
- The Monster
- Hitman
- The Creeps
Special
features include one short segment entitled “Little Did You Know,” which
doesn’t offer up much and I would expect more from the team once they do whole
season releases.
Delocated: Season 1 & 2
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: B- Episodes: B-
Adult
Swim has become a breeding ground for the creatively insane and Delocated is no exception. For the first time on DVD Delocated: Seasons 1 & 2 follows a
family in a witness protection program who have their own reality show; crazy I
know, but oddly hilarious. Playing as a
completely deadpan comedy, Delocated has
the family donning ski masks and voice changers to protect their identity,
while concurrently going about their mundane lives. The family is followed by a troupe of black
suited, ear piece wearing agents who are as stern and statuesque as they
come. ‘Jon’ (Jon Glaser) is the head of
the household, who is in witness protection after he put Russian mobster Yvgeny
Mirminsky (Eugene Merman) in jail; who outside of being very dangerous is an
aspiring standup comic.
The
series has ‘Jon’ attempting to live a normal life while concurrently dodging
the mob, an assassin, and dealing with his out flaws and shortcomings. It is mostly ‘Jon’s’ own insecurities and
flaws that make the show and are its main focus, as his idiocy combined with
the bumbling antics of characters like Yvgeny make the show a welcome dose of
zany satire. The show is heavy on the
deadpan comedy, but makes no attempt to tone down the hysteria as ‘Jon’ and his
fellow cast members deliver a brilliant brand of comedy that satires the
world’s obsession with reality TV and celebrity obsessed culture. A true pleasure.
Special
Features for this two season set include some interesting features. The commentaries are odd, yet informative and
the Deleted Scenes are definitely worth a look.
All extras include:
Deleted
Scenes
Outtakes
Flip
Books
Demo
Commentaries
Super Jail!: Season Two
Picture:
B Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: A-
Gruesome. Explicit.
Totally awesome. Just a few words
I would use to describe Super Jail! The series took off like a rocket to
begin with and did not take long to find its groove. Super
Jail is brilliantly sadistic as it takes creative animation to a new,
shocking level. Each episode is a treat
as it is unlike anything I have ever seen.
Super Jail is hard to describe as it is an
odd conglomeration of science fiction, horror, drug culture, and sexually
explicit humor unlike any other. Every
moment of every scene has something going on like it was drawn on the pages of
a serial killers marble note book; ala Kevin Spacey in Seven. It is pure brilliance
and 10 episodes or less a season is just not enough and ends way too quickly.
I love
this series and can’t wait for more aliens, cyborgs, battle royales, and much
much more.
The 10
episodes this season are as follows:
- Best Friends Forever
- Mayhem Donor
- Lord Stingray Crash Party
- Hot Chick
- Gay Wedding
- Ghosts
- Jailbot 2.0
- The Budding of Wurbuxx
- Superjail! Grand Prix
- Vacation
Bonus
features include Live on the Cheeseburger Set!
The PJs: Season 3
Picture:
B Sound: B- Extras: D Episodes: B-
Finally
on DVD we have The PJs the Third and final season of the short
lived series. Again the series follows
Thurgood Stubbs (formally voiced by Eddie Murphy before he left the series in
disgust) as the chief superintendent of a housing project where he lives with
his wife Muriel and a host of other interesting characters.
The
series did not make any drastic chains of three seasons, nor did it concern itself
too much with continuing storylines.
Instead we have independent, standalone stories that have Thurgood and
crew getting into and out trouble. By
the end of each episode someone or everyone learns a lesson; usually with a
snarky, tongue in cheek ending. The
tenants of the Hilton Jacobs community are outlandish and demented, but
strangely lovable…down to the last crack head.
For its
last season The PJs were kicked off
FOX and struggled to stay afloat on The WB Network. It seems The WB clipped The PJs wings a bit as the jokes aren’t as good and with much less
controversy. The PJs was a great series whose life was cut all too short, again
falling victim to FOX’s stupidity of shifting time slots and lack of foresight
and ingenuity. The PJs could have went far, but critics of the series (like Spike
Lee) bullied FOX into destroying the series creativity and in turn a creative, Claymation
series was lost to time.
No extras
are available on this set.
Technical Features
The
technical features on Delocated and The PJs are worse than Super Jail and Adventure Time; whereas Archer
fairs FAR better on Blu-ray. Delocated is shot in High Definition,
but being a pseudo-reality show is handled on a ‘camcorder.’ The colors are very muted and lean heavily
toward grey scale, though bursts of colors shine through. The crispness and clarity is adequate on this
DVD though certainly nothing fantastic. The PJs Full Frame presentation again
is a bit rough with the stop motion animation overall being excellent but the
clarity and color of this release is lacking.
Super Jail has a weird psychedelic quality that is intentionally bad
(think old MTV animation style) again with the crude animation being crisp,
clean and very bright. The color
spectrum is wide as the primary colors pop from scene to scene with reds,
greens and blues light up the screen. Adventure Time being a newer series
(not an Adult Swim series) is also bright, crisp, clean, and clear. The
PJs and Adventure Time are
simple Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo tracks that get the job done, but come solely
from the front and do not utilize any of the surrounds. Super
Jail does slightly better with its Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Track, but
again is heavy on the front speakers and weaker with the surrounds; even at the
height of the action surrounds are absent, though when the musical score kicks
in the surrounds are at their best. The
best of the best in this review would be Archer
on Blu-ray as the flash video series goes above and beyond in terms of
video quality. The 1080p 1.78 X 1
Widescreen presentation is amazing as you could not have a crisper image. The blacks are deep and inky which frame the
bright, bold color palette perfectly. My
old gripe with this series would be that since it is a flash video created series
there isn’t much texture; there is plenty of detail (this is no dimple
presentation), but flash video prides itself on smooth, crisp lines and not
deep, gritty textures. The sound on Archer is an excellent 5.1 DTS
HD-Master Audio Track that uses the whole speaker range as Archer and crew
attempt to save the world and concurrently destroys it. Panning effects blast
across the whole speaker range and dialogue is spot on; well done.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
