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Category:    Home > Reviews > Animation > Action > Comedy > Satire > TV > 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 S

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:

  1. It Came From the Nightosphere
  2. Rainy Day Daydream
  3. Wizard
  4. Power Animal
  5. The Enchiridioni
  6. Slumber Party Panic
  7. The Real You
  8. Memory of a Memory
  9. Prisoners Love
  10. Crystals Have Power
  11. Business Time
  12. Mystery Train
  13. Guardians of Sunshine
  14. The Monster
  15. Hitman
  16. 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:

  1. Best Friends Forever
  2. Mayhem Donor
  3. Lord Stingray Crash Party
  4. Hot Chick
  5. Gay Wedding
  6. Ghosts
  7. Jailbot 2.0
  8. The Budding of Wurbuxx
  9. Superjail! Grand Prix
  10. 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


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