For better or worse, "Spin City" is the model sitcom. It has a versatile but easy-to-understand premise: Mike Flaherty (Fox) is the deputy Mayor of New York City, and he and his team (Richard Kind, Alan Ruck, Michael Boatman, Connie Britton, Alexander Chaplin and Victoria Dillard) work their hardest to make their dim captain (Barry Bostwick) look his best. Since the mayor's office deals with any number of subjects, it allows the show to go anywhere and do pretty much anything: topics covered in this second season set include adult video stores, Santa Claus, cancer and The Pope, to name a few.

First, the good: while the show is a little too easy to be laugh-out-loud funny, it's probably one of the most consistent shows I've ever seen. This is both a blessing and a curse -- none of the episodes really stand out -- but watching the second season I don't think I was bored or annoyed by any one of the 24 episodes. Each episode of "Spin City" is exactly as good as the one that came before it, which makes for an awfully pleasant viewing experience.

This is likely thanks to its powerhouse cast: every one is a professional that comes in and does solid work, episode after episode. They all get a chance to flex their muscles as well -- every episode isn't evenly divided, but the season overall is. I don't think anyone got the short end of the stick. As for my personal favorites, I went in expecting to enjoy Richard Kind and Alan Ruck, the cast's two most notable names, but while they both give excellent performances I came out enjoying Chaplin the most: his character is just the right combination of innocent, dim and naïve and yet he avoids becoming an unbelievable, overly schticky character. Jennifer Esposito also joins the cast in the within the first few episodes as the new secretary, and she's a top-notch dork. Someone that laughs at their own jokes would be insufferable in reality, but she's got the goofiness to pull it off.

Fox's performance falls right in the middle. It's very strange: Fox anchors the show, and he has lots of jokes, but his character is a more like a device to keep the plot moving than he is a comic highlight. He's very watchable, but I'd be lying if I told you I'd pull out "Spin City" first and foremost as a document of Fox's talents. Regardless, he's never a detraction or a distraction, and his good nature probably has a lot to do with the show's consistency. I also liked how many of Mike's story arcs were given more room to breathe than the average sitcom might have afforded: an early series of episodes with Paula Marshall would have been resolved much quicker (one episode, even) on a lesser show.

On the downside, there's Carter Heywood, the character played by Michael Boatman. I wouldn't want to call Carter an outright stereotype, but sometimes the way the character's homosexuality is played for punchlines seems a shade questionable. Don't get me wrong, I like Boatman's performance (especially when he's paired with Ruck), but every once in awhile things leaned towards exploitation rather than progressiveness. Also conflicting is how Carter's both gay and African-American, which adds to the occasional unfortunate sensation that he's the show's "stock minority". Another complaint I had is how the show makes a big deal out of New York City, yet ninety percent of the episodes take place in the cheap-looking office set. Even when the show does venture outside, it's lit so poorly it still looks fake (some locations, like the top of the Empire State Building, might actually be sets). There aren't even silly little bumpers out on the streets of NYC, like most sitcoms would have done. It doesn't make a huge difference in the show's content, but it does makes the opening title sequence look out-of-place and it'd be nice to see more on-location shooting. Lastly, I noted that "Scrubs" mastermind Bill Lawrence was a co-creator of "Spin City". I like "Scrubs" to an extent, but one of my biggest problems was how each episodes insists on having a neat little moral for J.D. to talk about wistfully in voice-over narration. "Spin City" isn't as bad as "Scrubs" (mainly because there's no voiceover here), but some of Mike's plotlines do feel like his character is Learning a Lesson based on the mechanics of the script more than anything.

Ultimately, though, I maintain that "Spin City" is a model sitcom. It's consistently watchable, features a talented cast and is delivered relatively painlessly in 22-minute increments. Unlike Mike, I'm no spin doctor: admittedly, the show wouldn't rank among my favorite series of all time, and once is probably enough for the majority of the episodes on this DVD, but it's the perfect show to put on while you're working on things around the TV or computer, especially if you have fond memories of it from when it was still on the air.

The episodes break down as follows:

Disc 1: "Paul Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Porn in the U.S.A.", "Wonder Woman", "The Goodbye Girl", "In the Heat of the Day" and "Radio Daze".

Disc 2: "Thirty Year Itch", "My Life is a Soap Opera", "Family Affair (Part 1)", "Family Affair (Part 2)", "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and "Miracle Near 34th Street".

Disc 3: "Same Time Next Year", "The Paul Lassiter Story", "Gentlemen's Agreement", "Deaf Man Walking", "The Marrying Man" and "One Wedding and a Funeral".

Disc 4: "A River Runs Through Me", "Th Pope of Gracie Mansion", "Bye, Bye, Birdie", "The Lady or the Tiger", "Single White Male" and "The Paul Bearer".

The DVD
It's hard not to look at "Spin City": The Complete Second Season and not feel like this DVD release is a little half-hearted. The four-disc set comes in a rather bland, single-width slip with two transparent two-disc slimpaks inside. The front cover is designed to resemble the first season DVD and the slimpak covers are similar, but all of the back covers scream of empty, wasted space. Aren't there more pictures they could have slapped on these to spice things up? A short booklet with episode breakdowns is included.

The Video and Audio
"Spin City" Season 2 gets an extremely underwhelming 1.33:1 full frame presentation on this DVD. The episodes are grainy, interlaced and filled with blurry video noise. The picture is soft, so fine detail is lacking, the color seems a tad washed out as well, and there are even some scratches and print damage. Now, the show doesn't look abjectly horrendous -- these all appear to be source-based and not compression-based, and much of the above is true of most 90's television shows on DVD -- but even if the episodes would never be a digital revelation, it should really look a little better than this. On any sort of large display, frankly, the picture is probably going to look pretty bad; while it may be a step up from old VHS tapes (somewhat sharper, anyway), it's not a distinct upgrade. The Dolby 2.0 sound, at least, is acceptable if completely straightforward. Disappointingly, no subtitles of any kind are provided.

The Extras
Sorry, "Spin City" fans, there's only one bonus feature here. "Team Fox" (6:10) is a featurette about Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's fundraising organization, and it's actually a nice little featurette, including a smile-worthy moment where Fox meets a passionate team member. Of course, it has nothing directly to do with "Spin City", but I guess it's something.

Promos for "Spin City": The Complete First Season, "Sports Night": The Complete Series, "My So-Called Life": The Complete Series and www.getback.com open the disc. The first three are inadvertently depressing, especially the "Spin City" ad, because they all fawn over the multitude of extras on the DVD sets in question.

Looking at the DVDTalk reviews for the two releases of Michael J. Fox's favorite episodes reveal that some of those episodes (for which he recorded introductions) are included in this second season set, but the intros are not provided, nor are the other promos for Fox's Parkinsons organization that featured other "Spin City" cast members. Undoubtedly, this is because DreamWorks produced the two Fox volumes and Shout! Factory is bringing out these season sets, but they'd have made for a nice inclusion to sweeten the pot.

Conclusion
Even the most hardcore "Spin City" fans will want to wait until this frills-free box set with flawed A/V for a pleasant but unremarkable sitcom gets cheap in the local pawnshop. In the meantime, they and the curious can stick to renting it.