The William McKinley High School New Directions kids are back for a second season of Glee fun and musicals but all is not roses as they work hard toward the Nationals Show Choir competition.
Film making 23/25
Video 21/25
Audio 23/25
Bonus Features 21/25
Total 88/100
Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Michael Jackson, Queen and even a whole episode devoted to the Rocky Horror Picture Show are just some of the artists Glee performs this season. Not only does the show perform top current and classic songs and musicals they have broken out and created their own songs for the show.
Glee has been a hit and continues to attract not only music lovers but a wide range of fans due to the series touching on several genres at once. Glee is a musical, drama comedy series where they show and sing the life of the not so average high school show choir.
Show choir if you don’t get what they do simply performs at competitions and school events doing musicals, the show Glee takes this a bit further. Glee not only does the in school practice and events with popular music but they do competitions to really strut their stuff.
In this season you only get to see a hand full of special guest stars such as Meat Loaf, Carol Burnett and Katie Couric but no music from any notable musicians or singers. Gwyneth Paltrow does return to perform a few numbers in a couple of episodes but mainly you get the main cast of Glee and some great musical numbers.
Glee is all about the music both cover songs and new ones created just for the series, a wide range of music indeed and these contemporary versions are very successful. Glee has released their songs as full albums in volumes and a few specials like the Rocky Horror episode and a Christmas special along with a couple others.
These albums have not only topped charts around the world but singles of their songs both cover or songs from other artists and their own original compositions have hit it really big. The show can now claim they have had the most appearances on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, beating out groups like The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
Glee is a hit but even then some of the episodes and story line choices are a bit odd and not to everyone’s liking while some episodes are naturally better. Glee is a definite oddball when it comes to a series and this is one of the main reasons it is so popular, it appeals to such a wide audience.
The second season finds the New Directions group heading off to nationals and pitting their talent against other top show choirs only to have internal strife. The second season saw more single episode themes and less of a season long story even though these have been the norm in the past.
The show this season has concentrated even more on what is going on in each season even though we do see the goal of New York City and Nationals in the distance. Glee: The Complete Second Season on Blu-ray really is worth the purchase if you enjoyed the previous season and quality is also not a problem here.
Video and audio are both really good but not crossing the line over to excellent with really solid video and really good music sound quality. Video is clear and crisp for the most part, the series is shot on video instead of digitally and this may be the reason for the not quite excellent video quality.
Audio is also very good but with a definite lack of surround use during normal scenes but not during the musical numbers. The series has a definite studio sound and a regular series sound with a distinction between in sound quality.
There is a studio quality to the musical numbers that keep you focused on the sound and they do a great job of keeping out background sounds during these moments. The audio is great as far as surround with a distinctive use of the full sound field for many of the numbers for different instruments or singers.
Audio and video are great and I would have to say that audio has been bumped up a bit from the previous season’s quality with a less noticeable difference from numbers and the rest of each episode. Bonus content is a bit of a mixed bag with no audio commentary but with plenty of other features that are great.
Bonus features include the usual jukebox for Glee where you can watch their musical numbers, several making of features, a couple of features from the cast and a special with Stevie Nicks. All the features are worth several views and even the jukebox is great for a repeat visit to your favorite numbers of the season.
The bonus content would be perfect if it had at least some audio commentary but with what’s here I would call it great but not perfect. Glee: The Complete Second Season as opposed to my previous look at the first half of the season is about perfect and a great collection addition.