Those familiar with the surf guitar sounds of Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet's opening strums that introduce each and every episode of The Kids In The Hall know that while the first season was good, the second season is even better. It was during this succeeding run that the troupe very obviously started to gel in their transition from a live stage act to a television sketch act. The skits got funnier (and far, far stranger), the content got more interesting (and potentially more offensive) and the timing was down. This results in a much stronger grouping of off the wall comedy than we were treated to on the DVD release of the first complete season, and one which holds up much better under repeat viewings.

Dave Foley, Mark McKinney (before he went onto Saturday Night Live), Bruce McCulluch, Scott Thompson and Kevin McDonald introduced such Kids In The Hall regular characters as Gavin the boy who loves onions, Simon and his man servant Hecubus – masters of evil and servants of eternal darkness, Mr. Heavyfoot, the 'It's A Fact' girl, and more. They also brought back some of the better characters from season one such as The Headcrusher, the Cops, and Cabbage Head (who meets an ugly but reasonably nutritious demise in this set). This season also marked the first (though thankfully not the last) time that Scott Thompson would play Queen Elizabeth II, in one of the funniest of the Buddy skits, Queen To Queen.

Whereas some sketch comedy series' seemed to lose their steam after the first season or two, The Kids In The Hall just got more and more unusual with no regard whatsoever for conventional television taboos. Nudity? Yep. Some mild flesh is exposed from time to time. Foul language? Sure thing. "That's good f**king ham!" How about men tongue kissing each other? Sure, why not. Let's throw in an amazingly random but utterly hilarious sketch where Kevin McDonald's character passes out and gets sodomized by a big dog just for good measure. Sure, much of this material is in really poor taste but that's half the fun – some of the material is still shocking in that you don't expect to see it on a show that aired on Canadian national television given that it's run by the government and all but even that is touched on in the skit entitled "Screw You, Taxpayer!" Even social issues such as gay bashing, alcoholism and child abuse are skewered in such a way that it really should be deeply offensive but is too damned funny to really get anyone too upset.

It's not all crass and nasty though – there are some great parodies here of Doors fans, French slapstick, classic movies, and country music. Bruce even gets semi political in his soliloquy about America going so far as to call it 'a place… for Americans' in one of the funniest musical monologues ever recorded. They are never afraid to make fun of their own origins either, parodying Canadian stereotypes far more often than they do those south of their border.

The skits on this set are contained in the following order in the appropriate episodes as they were originally broadcast and are presented here uncut with all the naughty words intact.

Episode 1:

Spring/Comfortable/Trucker #2/Hard Day/Off Swingin'/The Doctor/ Bobby and The Devil

Episode 2:

Cops - O Canada/ Trapper/Cabbage Head - Old Friends/Not Working Out - 1/The Loner/Not Working Out - 2/Simon and Hecubus/Not Working Out - 3/Girls of Summer

Episode 3:

Mark's Newscast - Paper Airplanes/Sizzler & Sizzler/Pageant/Tony and Nick Mark's Newscast - Meech Lake/A Little Something/Phone

Episode 4:

Nutty Bunnies/Opening/Queer Nation/Cops - Uniform/Excellent Dinner/Cops - Stanze/The Parrot/ Cops - Running Naked/Customer/On the Run

Episode 5:

The Jury/Cops- ShootOut/Prisoner/Sizzler And The Bank/Cops 17- 211 In Progress/Chicken Lady/Drugs Are Bad/Cops- Prisoner/Clean Sheets/Justice

Episode 6:

Second Novel/Baboon/Hair Loss/Conversation/Buddy - Wood Nymph/Anecdote/Groovy Teacher

Episode 7:

Lady is a Tramp/Opening/Meet the Geralds/I'm English/ Bumper 1/Lady is a Tramp Part II/Bumper 2/Painting a Chair/The Lack O Trust Blues/Bumper 3/Lady is a Tramp Part III/End Credits

Episode 8:

I Can't Play the Piano/Opening/ Democracy/Tampa Bay/Cops-Goose/Freak/Bumper 1/Cops-Tony Baldwin/Seminar/Bumper 2/Celebrity/Bumper 3/Liposuction/End Credits

Episode 9:

Cops - Dream/Crushing Hospital/Cops - Dad/Daddy Drank/The Leash/Cops - Shelley Long/ Knocked Out/The Leash - Shelley Long/The Last Straw/Parenting/Dead Dad

Episode 10:

Guess Your Weight/Go For Guilt/Hustlers - Math Teachers/Fag Basher/Friendly Rivals/Show Within A Show/Mr. Hugula/Housework Hustlers/Chocolate

Episode 11:

Fact #2/That's America/Prisoner's Jam/Fact #3/Cuttin' It Close 1/Secret of Broadway/Cuttin' It Close 2/Hustlers- Richard Nixon/Mispronouncer/Fact #3A/Dead Fish

Episode 12:

Cops - Bubble Bath/How I Sleep/Old Friends/Standing/Vegas/Carpenter/Cops - Daughter/Encounter

Episode 13:

Cops - Good Cop, Bad Cop/Brad & The Phone/Fact - Uncle Tony/Book, Bottle, Blonde/Cops - Money/Shoes/ Evil T/Fact - Bigfoot/Heckler/Fact - 45 Years of Love/The Long Note

Episode 14:

Report/Gandar 1/M. Piedlourde Court un Marathon/Jazz Music/Gandar 2/Touch Bellini #1/The Affair/M. Piedlourde Essait l'Auto/Queen to Queen

Episode 15:

M. Piedlourde Donne Un Coup De Pied Au Ballon/Scott's Not Gay/First Time/Bad News/Poo Guy/M. Piedlourde A Une Rendez-Vous/Victim/Night of the Cow/M. Piedlourde Sur La Lune

Episode 16:

One of These Five Men/Cincinnati Kid/Career Ending 1/30 Second Stories - Joe/No Words/30 Second Stories - Dump/Career Ending 2/The Trip/Wild Weekend

Episode 17:

Thousand Dollars/Thousand Dollars/Cops - Towing/Decorator 1/Headcrusher - Rival/Shortest/ Bellini Finale/Cops - Graveyard/Governor/Ham of Truth/Decorator 2

Episode 18:

Clandestine Meeting 1/The Letter/Plungers/Clandestine Meeting 2/Fact - Aliens Are Super Intelligent/Mr. Pin/Liza's Party/Clandestine Meeting 3

Episode 19:

The Cure/Secretaries- Logey/30 Second Stories- Tess/Directions/Excellent Guy- Big Brother/30 Second Stories- Office Party/Taxpayer/30 Second Stories- Fries/Into The Doors

Episode 20:

Lively Party/Butcher Shop/Cops - Sexism/Who's To Blame/Cops - Clouds/Having Tea/Faux Pas/Cops - Partners/Messages/Tube Top Justice/Hazy Movie

Video:

Seeing as this material was all made for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and shown on television, it should surprise no one to find that the image is presented 1.33.1 fullframe, which is how it should be. The video quality is pretty good overall. There is some evidence of mild damage to the materials used for the transfer that shows up in the form of the odd speck here and there. Some mild edge enhancement is also present as are a few instances of compression artifacts but everything is quite clean and watchable throughout despite these small problems. For a TV show fast approaching fifteen years old, this set does do justice to the visuals with nice color representation and accurate looking skin tones. The odd small flaw in the presentation is easy to overlook as they don't really distract from the material much at all and each and every one of the episodes looks just as good if not better than they did on broadcast television.