Home :: DVD :: Television :: General  

A&E Home Video
BBC
Classic TV
Discovery Channel
Fox TV
General

HBO
History Channel
Miniseries
MTV
National Geographic
Nickelodeon
PBS
Star Trek
TV Series
WGBH Boston
King of the Hill - Season 2

King of the Hill - Season 2

List Price: $49.98
Your Price: $37.49
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: YUP!
Review: Other than "The Company Man" being on the season 1 set this is the complete season. I wrote a review slamming this set for not being complete , I am now retracting that statement.
Now just waiting for Season 3.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Season 3 Delayed
Review: Season 3 of King of the Hill, originally promised for spring 2004, is now tied up in the same kind of music-clearance issues that plague Malcolm in the Middle. No release date has been set yet. (You can write to FoxDrop@4icc.com to ask them to release King of the Hill season 3.)

Good to see this excellent set selling a bit better at amazon.com (as of this writing). Hopefully season 3 will come soon.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another Great Season
Review: The first full season of KING OF THE HILL (the first season was only 13 episodes) is one of the best. While the show remained grounded in small-scale stories and character comedy, creators Greg Daniels and Mike Judge expanded the show's scope a bit to encompass a wide variety of episodes: Farce (Hank unwittingly uses crack for fishing bait in "Jumpin' Crack Bass"), politicial satire ("Junkie Business," featuring the return of the "Twig-Boy" from the pilot, makes fun of abuses of the Americans With Disabilities Act), and even a mixture of comedy and drama ("Leanne's Saga," where Bill falls for Luanne's alcoholic ex-con mother). The characterizations, always the great strength of KING OF THE HILL, were deepened in this season; characters like Hank, Peggy, Bobby, Luanne and Bill emerged as three-dimensional characters who couldn't be reduced to a single "redneck" stereotype. One of the reasons KING OF THE HILL is so good is that it doesn't settle for stereotypes; an episode like "How To Fire a Rifle Without Really Trying," where Bobby discovers a talent for marksmanship, makes fun of the gun-obsessed culture but also portrays that culture sympathetically (Peggy: "Guns are the only thing keeping this family together"). And KING OF THE HILL is funny, in the best way: The laughs come not from random jokes but from the personalities of the characters and the situations in which they find themselves -- which means that the episodes are still funny on repeated viewings, because there are always new things to discover about these very lovable people.

The complete second season set will be on 4 discs with 23 episodes, including such favorite episodes as Bobby's stint as a model in "Husky Bobby," Luanne's Christian puppet show in "Meet the Manger Babies," and Hank's paintball war with a bunch of annoying teenagers in "The Man Who Shot Cane Skretteburg." The extras will be up to the high standards of the first season set. There will be in-character commentaries by voice actors Kathy Najimy, Pamela Segall Adlon, Brittany Murphy, Johnny Hardwick, Stephen Root, and Toby Huss. Seventeen episodes will have special director introductions. There will be featurettes on the animation of the show, more deleted scenes, excerpts from the now out-of-print book "The Boy Ain't Right," a selection of recordings and music videos inspired by the show, and more.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It Just Gets Better
Review: The first season of King of the Hill was outstanding, but the second brought it to new heights. The actors were getting better with their characters, the episodes were better written, and the characters were growing into what we see today on the show. If you thought the first season was great, just wail until you see the second.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: King of the Hill - The Complete Second Season
Review: The second season was my favorite season of King of the Hill history. Here are all the episodes of the second season.

"How to Fire a Rifle Without Really Trying" - September 21, 1997
"Texas City Twister" - September 26, 1997
"The Arrowhead" - October 19, 1997
"Hilloween" - October 26, 1997
"Jumpin' Crack Bass (It's a Gas, Gas, Gas)" - November 2, 1997
"Husky Bobby" - November 9, 1997
"The Man Who Shot Cane Skretteburg" - November 16, 1997
"The Son That Got Away" - November 23, 1997
"The Company Man" - December 7, 1997
"Bobby Slam" - December 14, 1997
"The Unbearable Blindness of Laying" - December 21, 1997
"Meet the Manger Babies" - January 11, 1998
"Snow Job" - February 1, 1998
"I Remember Mono" - February 8, 1998
"Three Days of the Kahndo" - February 15, 1998
"Traffic Jam" - February 22, 1998
"Hank's Dirty Laundry" - March 1, 1998
"The Final Shinsult" - March 15, 1998
"Leanne's Saga" - April 19, 1998
"Junkie Business" - April 26, 1998
"Life in the Fast Lane, Bobby's Saga" - May 3, 1998
"Peggy's Turtle Song" - May 10, 1998
"Propane Boom (1)" - May 17, 1998

A good season

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Season 3
Review: The TV show altogether is better then the Simpsons and every other animated show. Unlike most every show on televion King of the Hill can make laughs and entertain you without the use of of crude sexual content, violence, obscene language or most any other immoral elements that pollute our television.

Aside from that... The DVD is great. The first and second season DVDs are better then both Family Guy and the Simpsons. What I love the most about the King of the Hill DVD is the commentary on the episodes with the characters from the show.

For instance... On the first boxset, Peggy and Bobby make comments through 2 epsisodes. Similar to how directors make comments, only this is something fun that you actually want to watch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Special Features
Review: This is a review of the special features on the season 2 set (see below for my review of the season itself).

Audio Commentaries: The only "crew" commentary is on the season premiere, "How To Fire a Rifle Without Really Trying," by Greg Daniels (co-creator and showrunner) and Paul Lieberstein (writer). This is an excellent commentary, extremely informative about the production process and the show's style and tone. My only serious objection to the special features on this set is that there aren't more commentaries like this one; there are any number of other episodes that would benefit from them. One hopes that the third season will include more commentaries from Daniels and other writers.
The four other commentaries are "in-character" commentaries, where voice actors talk about the episodes while playing their characters. "Husky Bobby" and "Leanne's Saga" offer Peggy (Kathy Najimy), Bobby (Pamela Segall) and Luanne (Brittany Murphy) while "The Man Who Shot Cane Skretteburg" and "Three Days of the Kahndo" are commented on by Dale (Johnny Hardwick), Bill (Stephen Root) and Kahn or Cotton (both voiced by Toby Huss). The approach works better this time than on the first-season set; the actors sound like they're having fun, and occasionally break character to call attention to a favorite scene or actor. Still, it would be nice to have more "real" commentaries next time.

Deleted Scenes: There are 197 deleted scenes for the 22 episodes in the set. This feature is, if anything, even better than on the first set: by including more excerpts from the early animatics, it gives us a chance to view rough versions of scenes that were recorded and storyboarded but got cut or changed for various reasons. There are also plenty of fully-animated lines and scenes that had to be cut for lack of time. Many of these scenes are funny or interesting in and of themselves; they'll have you marveling at how much good material has to go to make an episode just right (or just short enough).

Animation Evolution: This feature allows you to see the climactic scene from "Texas City Twister" (one of the very best "King of the Hill" episodes ever) in two different forms: the animatic -- basically an animated storyboard -- and the final animated version. You can watch them separately or side by side, and hear various permutations of the soundtrack, from the rough audio track to the music/effects track to the final mix. There is also an audio commentary with Greg Daniels explaining what an animatic is and how it works.

The Arlen School of Drawing: One of the best features on the set, this newly-made featurette is basically an illustrated lecture by "King of the Hill" animator Glenn Dion, who shows us how to draw five of the show's characters: Hank, Peggy, Bobby, Luanne and Cotton. Dion takes each character through the steps of "construction," "detail," and "gesture," and explains the unique characteristics of each character's design.

Director Introductions: These animated sequences were apparently created by the show's directors to go with the episodes; this is the first time they've been seen by the public. They are quite funny and often violent (the "Bobby Slam" introduction features Connie beating Bobby to a pulp, and wait till you see what happens to one of Luanne's Manger Babies), and sometimes offer a chance to learn more about the sense of humor and drawing styles of the show's artists.

Music Inspired by the Hills: This is a collection of pieces of music from the show, sort of like a miniature "King of the Hill" soundtrack album. Many of the pieces are takeoffs on famous soundtrack themes of the past (you don't need me to tell you what "Halloween Flashback" is parodying), but it's an interesting opportunity to hear the work of the show's composers without the sound effects and dialogue. You also get two "music videos": Luanne performing the Manger Babies song and Peggy singing her Turtle Song.

The Boy Ain't Right: This allows you to read extensive excerpts from Hank's parenting book "The Boy Ain't Right," written and illustrated by the show's staff. Since the book is now out of print, this is your best opportunity to see it (I'd never seen it before, and it's often very funny).

Menus: The menus this time around are built out of animation and stills from the episodes themselves. But many of the screens include newly-recorded messages from the characters (e.g. disc 3 includes messages from Peggy on the languages screen and Luanne on the special features screen), and when you click on an episode title, you hear a character announce the title before the episode starts. There's also a "play all" feature, of course.

Overall, then, this is an excellent set of features, supporting a season without any dud episodes. The deleted scenes alone are some of the most fascinating supplements on any TV-on-DVD set. Except for wishing there were more commentary tracks, there's not much to complain about here. The box includes a card that says that season 3 will come to DVD in spring 2004.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GOOOD!!!!!
Review: This is a very good dvd set. It's bonus features are fantastic, and the episodes alone are some of King of the Hill's best.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GREAT TV SHOW
Review: This show is probably my second favorite TV show of all time. It is hilarious. Every episode is filled with laughs. If you have kids they would love it. It is a awesome show for any fan of cartoons.

THE EPISODES IN SEASON 2:

How to Fire a Rifle Without Really-10/10
Texas City Twister-10/10
Arrow Head-9/10
Hilloween-9/10
Jumpin' Crack Bass-10/10
Husky Bobby-8/10
The Man Who Shot Kane Skretteberg-10/10
The Son That Got Away-9/10
The Company Man-8/10
Bobby Slam-9/10
The Unbearable Blindness of Laying-10/10
Meet the Manger Babies-8/10
Snow Job-9/10
I Remember Mono-10/10
Three Days of the Khando-10/10
Traffic Jam-10/10
Hank's Dirty Laundry-10/10
The Final Shinsult-9/10
Leanne's Saga-8/10
Junkie Business-10/10
Life in the Fast Lane, Bobby's Saga-10/10
Peggy's Turtle Song.-9/10
Propane Boom (Part 1)-10/10

SPECIAL FEATURES:
-SELECTED EPISODE COMMENTARIES
-197 deleted and extended scenes
-"The Arlen School of Drawing" Tutorial
-"The Boy ain't Right" Book Excerpts
-"Animation Evolution" featurette
-Music videos
-Director Intros

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GREAT TV SHOW
Review: This show is probably my second favorite TV show of all time. It is hilarious. Every episode is filled with laughs. If yu have kids they would love it. It is a awesome show.

THE EPISODES IN SEASON 2:

How to Fire a Rifle Without Really-10/10
Texas City Twister-10/10
Arrow Head-9/10
Hilloween-9/10
Jumpin' Crack Bass-10/10
Husky Bobby-8/10
The Man Who Shot Kane Skretteberg-10/10
The Son That Got Away-9/10
The Company Man-8/10
Bobby Slam-9/10
The Unbearable Blindness of Laying-10/10

Meet the Manger Babies-8/10
Snow Job-9/10
I Remember Mono-10/10
Three Days of the Khando-10/10
Traffic Jam-10/10
Hank's Dirty Laundry-10/10
The Final Shinsult-9/10
Leanne's Saga-8/10
Junkie Business-10/10
Life in the Fast Lane, Bobby's Saga-10/10
Peggy's Turtle Song.-9/10
Propane Boom (Part 1)-10/10

SPECIAL FEATURES:
-SELECTED EPISODE COMMENTARIES
-197 deleted and extended scenes
-"The Arlen School of Drawing" Tutorial
-"The Boy ain't Right" Book Excerpts

-"Animation Evolution" featurette
-Music videos
-Director Intros

I can't wait for season three but the release for it was pushed back to early 2005.


<< 1 2 3 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates