King of the Hill: The Complete 2nd Season (1998)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Series Created by Greg Daniels and Mike Judge
Starring the Voices of Mike Judge, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Segall, Brittany Murphy, Johnny Hardwick, and Stephen Root

Features:

• Running audio commentary on episode "How to Fire a Rifle Without Really Trying" by creator Daniels and writer Paul Lieberstein
  
• Running audio commentary on four episodes by characters from the series
  
• 197 deleted and extended scenes including animatics and alternate endings
  
• "The Arlen School of Drawing" Tutorial
  
• "The Boy Ain't Right" Book Excerpts
  
• "Animation Evolution" Featurette
  
• Music Videos
  
• Director's Intros
  

My Advice: Own it if you are a fan of the show, everyone else at least rent it

Welcome to the further adventures of Hank Hill (Judge). He's a simple man in Texas who happens to be in the propane and propane accessories business--and everything would be just hunky dory if life would just stop throwing him curveballs. His son, Bobby (Segall), is not quite what he would consider the perfect example of young manliness. His niece, Luanne (Murphy), likes to move about the house in...various states of undress, shall we say. And of course, all his friends want to hang out at his place, drink his beer and make things more difficult for him. It's not getting any easier to be a good old boy in the 21st Century.

The second season of this series did not suffer a slump in the least. The writing got better and the situations got even funnier, and the actors took it all in stride and perfected their already detailed characters. The family unit that Judge created gets even tighter here while Hank's friends get even more outrageous. And the humor doesn't let up. This season starts out taking on and making fun of both sides of the gun control issue and, later on, Hank's well-being is threatened when the Mega Lo Mart starts selling propane and propane accessories.

And, if you read my review of the first season of this series, you'll remember my comment about the packaging of the set--namely that slimline cases are the way of hte future. I'm happy to say that they continued this with the second season.

This second season set contains even more thorough bonus features. First of all, there are at least two commentary tracks on every disc. And, just like the first season, they are split between the people who put the show together and the characters themselves commenting on the shows as though they were home movies. These seem to be improved from the first season's commentaries in terms of entertainment value. The deleted and extended scenes are no real surprise. As is usual on most DVD sets, it's obvious why they were cut in the first place and offer no real expanded insight into the series as a whole. Still, if you are looking for more of the Hills, this is one way to get it. What's amazing about this set is the sheer number of these scenes. I don't think that I have ever seen such a number of them on one set before.

The Director's Intros are just a silly little waste of time. These are simply little five second long introductions to the shows which were never aired on television. I guess the directors would put them together for production meetings. They really are nothing to get excited about it. The animation evolutions are a multi-angle and multi-audio track presentations of a comparison between their final cuts and their rough cuts which were used for editing purposes before putting the whole show together. You have a choice of three visual images and four audio tracks that can be changed by pressing the angle and/or audio buttons on your remote. One of the audio options for this feature is a commentary track which, I feel, provides the best way to have what you are watching explained to you as you go along. This feature is nicely done.

Some of the more interactive features include the "Arlen School of Drawing" feature which takes you through the process that Animator Glen Dion uses to draw Hank, Peggy, Bobby, Luanne, and Cotton (Hank's father). These are broken down into steps that you can follow along with a piece of paper and pencil to learn how to draw them for yourself. This would be a lot of fun for younger children to follow along with, but not so much for older audiences. If there is a problem with this feature it would be that the contrast between Dion's pencil marks and the white page on which he draws makes it a little hard to see what he is doing. However, he does talk you through the process. "The Boy Ain't Right" is a collection of excerpts from Hank Hill's book (see the link at the bottom of the this page). These are simply text-on-screen clips from the "self help" book that is based on the wit and wisdom of Mr. Hill. I gather that it was intended to increase sales of the book, but I have to admit that this did not encourage me to buy it for myself.

If you are a fan of the show, you are a lot more likely to rush out and buy this one. Everyone else should at least rent it to see what the show is about--because it is pretty damn funny.