In 1998 the creators of 3rd Rock from the Sun introduced That '70s Show. It's a very hilarious sitcom that takes place in, believe it or not, the 70s. Located in a fictional suburb of Green Bay, Wisconsin known as Point Place, the series revolves around the comical daily interactions of the Forman family and their friends and neighbors. This second season has twenty-six great episodes and tackles similar issues to first season like sex, drugs, dating, friendships, and family values. These issues turn into a few sticky situations that should leave you rolling over with laughter. Like the first season, the second is filled with some really great comedy, which is mostly due to its great cast and funny episodes.

The general cast of That '70s Show is fairly big. The main character the show focuses on is Eric Forman (Topher Grace). It's through Eric his friends Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), Jackie (Mila Kunis), Fez (Wilmer Valderrama), Hyde (Danny Masterson), and Donna Laura Prepon) get into a few sticky situations. Eric's friends have their own interesting qualities that make them a riot together. Kelso is oblivious to the obvious, Jackie is a rich snob, Fez is the funny foreigner who tries to fit in, but never seems to do it right, Hyde is the rebellious kid who's mad at the world, and Donna is the girl next door. Some of the other characters on the show include Eric's parents, Red (Kurtwood Smith), a real hard ass no bull shit kind of guy, and Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp), the slightly neurotic mother, and the neighbors Bob (Don Stark) and Midge (Tanya Roberts), who are both dumb as bricks. This season also includes Laurie (Lisa Robin Kelly), Eric's sister whose overactive personality puts her in plenty of hot water, and Tommy Chong guest starring as Leo, who is always worth a quick laugh. Altogether, the second season cast is a little bigger than the first season, but the characters fit their roles well. The oddities and quirks in their personalities make for some truly hilarious situations.

As for the stories in season two, there is more emphasis on story arcs than in season one. However, the focus is not really big. While they can play an important role in creating sticky situations for Eric and company, they aren't so important that watching the episodes out of sequence could ruin your experience. Some of the story arcs build upon small life changing events from the first season and others are just themed from the common sitcom daily interactions.

Firstly, Red being in and out of work becomes the backbone of several episodes. One of the funniest situations to come from season two brews from a soon to be jobless Red. In "Garage Sale", my favorite episode of the season, the Formans have a garage sale. Kitty eagerly tries to get Eric and Hyde to participate in the sale. But, they both have their own agendas and aren't too excited to help out. Eventually, Kitty convinces Hyde to sell brownies. Hyde being Hyde decides to make "special" brownies, and the special ingredient is marijuana. What really makes this a strong episode is who ends up eating the special brownies. This crazy situation allows the cast to experience a role reversal. It's not everyday you get to see Red go from a hard ass to a stoned fool. Later into the season, Red gets another job as a manager at Pricemart. In "Red Gets Fired Up" something pretty rare in the world of That '70s Show happens, Eric and Red bond.

There are also some stories about love and relationships. One of the funniest long running stories with Kelso's love triangle. In season one, Eric's older sister Laurie put the moves on Kelso and in season two, the relationship gets taken up another notch. But where there's Kelso, there's Jackie and both girls have their eyes on him. The relationship theme continues with Eric and Donna exploring young love. "I Love Cake" is a good example, where Donna expresses her feelings of love for Eric. Like a fool, he tells her how much he loves cake. There is also some focus on the Pinciotti's. Bob and Midge's relationship starts go south. The best episode with this underling story is "Red's Birthday". Bob and Midge bring dates to Red's birthday party. The catch is they still live together.

Overall, this season does well playing off of reoccurring stories. As earlier mentioned, the story arcs play a role in setting up the situations, but they aren't so significant you need to be familiar with them to enjoy the season. The episodes are good on their own merit. One very good example is "Halloween". The episode takes a look into Red and Kitty's past, before they had kids and Eric and the gang get into odds with each other when they start revealing very personal secrets. Another solid episode is "Holy Crap". It marks the first appearance of guest star Kevin McDonald (Kid in the Hall) as Pastor Dave.

In general, the second season of That '70s Show is just as the strong as the first season. The characters and their situations are more outrageous, cliched, and comical. I find it is really hard not to enjoy this show. If you enjoy good slap stick comedy, That '70s Show: Season Two has twenty-six hilarious episodes to entertain you over and over again.

The DVD

Video:
This season two release is given in its original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame color. The picture quality is very good, providing a clear and clean picture with minor color distortions and compression artifacts. Overall, it looks substantially better than its original television broadcast presentation, providing less grain in the picture.

Audio:
The audio track in this release is given in English Dolby digital stereo surround. The audio in this release comes off fairly flat. However as with most TV on DVD releases it's not necessarily bad, as the majority of the audio is spoken dialogue. The sound quality is very good, providing an audible and clean audio track. There is also very little distinction between audio channels. This release also has subtitles in English and supports closed captioning.

Extras:
The extras supplied with this release include audio commentaries, several short behind the scene featurettes, and a couple of other featurettes. The audio commentaries are for episodes "Halloween", "Hunting", and "Cat Fight Club". Each commentary is with director David Trainer. There are a few insightful comments about the series, but the mood is pretty dry. The behind the scenes featurettes are slightly more comical and include the entire cast. They are short featurettes for episodes "Keloso's Serenade", "Jackie Moves On", "Holy Crap!", "Red Fired Up", "Cat Fight Club", and "Moon Over Point Place". Then there is "Season One: A Look Back" is a 5 minute montage of clips from season one. Most of the content are hilarious one liners and joke punch lines. While good for a quick laugh, it is nothing compared to the experience of watching the entire first season. Finally, there is a season two featurette with David Trainer. It's about as entertaining as the commentaries, which is not saying very much.

Final Thoughts:
I've been a pretty big fan of this series since the first time I saw it on television and like season one I really enjoyed season two. The show has quite a great cast, who really work well together. The jokes, while cliched and sometimes a bit out of reality are quite funny. This second season is really entertaining and worth purchasing. I highly recommend it.