Jesse James returns for a second season of Monster Garage!  Only not until the end of this set.  Though it's billed as "Season Two" this is really the last eleven show from season one, with the first couple of shows thrown on at the end.  While I'm disappointed that Sony and the Discovery Channel would incorrectly label this set, it's still a fun series of shows to watch.

The show's premise is simple.  A team of professional mechanics led by custom motorcycle builder Jesse James has to take an assigned vehicle and modify it.  Each episode has a different challenge.  They might have to create a lawn mower, a fire truck, or a golf ball collector.  The twist is that when they are finished, the vehicle has to look like an ordinary stock car, and they only have six days.  The team has $3000 to spend on parts, and there is a challenge at the end.  If they pass the challenge (which they don't always do) the members of the team each receive a $3400 set of MAC Tools.  Not bad for a week's work.

This show takes you through the build, day by day.  The first day is always a design day, where the team finds out what car they are going to be modifying, and what they have to turn it into.  The next five days are the build, and on the seventh, the challenge.  Through the team members chatting and some narration, you see how the team is progressing as time marches on, and also the many the problems and catastrophes that occur.

This is a pretty fun show.  It has a lot of attitude, and the over-the-top creations are both unique and amusing.  I also like the fact that everyone one on the team is a competent professional, and can chip in with ideas and suggestions.  There is actually a fair amount of drama when something goes wrong in a major way, and it's very interesting to see how they overcome the hurdles that they encounter.

I have a couple of minor complaints with this show.  First, they give you glimpses of the finished product early in the show.  Sometimes that shows you changes in the design that were made, and consequently lets you know in advance when something isn't going to work.  Another nit-picking item is that they don't really stick to the budget, with some parts being "donated" and others "scrounged." from a junk yard for free.  In the Rock Climber episode, they get nearly $30,000 worth of parts for free!  They really aren't building these for $3,000.

The other thing that was a little grating was style of the announcers for the challenge at the end of the build.  They are pretty annoying, sounding like a commercial for a monster truck show rather than a color commentator.  Both of these were minor though, and didn't prevent me from enjoying the show.

The one thing that really did bug me was the way this show was marketed and labeled.  This set is that it is billed as "Season Two."  There were 24 episodes in the first season, 11 of which are included in this set.  (The previous 13 shows from the first season are on "Season One" reviewed here.)  After the first season is finished, they tack on the first two episodes from season two.  To add more confusion into the mix, the shows are not in their original broadcast order, according to the episode guide on the Discovery Channel's web site.  The later isn't a big deal since there is no continuity to the show, but with the former the publishers are being a little disingenuous.  On top of all that, the only extra on this set, the behind the scenes special "Under the Hood" is the same extra that was included on the Season One set.  It's really cheap and unnecessary to include that same special on both sets.

The episodes contained in this set are:

Mega Mulcher: Jesse wasn't that excited about this build.  "This is Hollywood guys trying to think of something that is cool, but really it ain't."  This time around they have to turn a 2002 PT Cruiser into a wood chipper.  Not the best episode to start the set off with.

Snow Mobile:   Brand new Mini Cooper is turned into a snow mobile of all things this time around.  But where are they going to find snow in Southern California?  Make it of course.

Wedding on Wheels: A Wedding Chapel is made out of a Chevy Suburban, and Jesse even marries people in it!

Dune Demon: In a rather cool build, the team turns a Mazda RX-7 into a Dune Buggy.

Ultimate Half Pipe: Okay, this was a little odd.  The crew had to convert a Winnebago into a skate board half pipe.  Skate board pro Tony Hawk helps with the build, and there's a larger crew this time, but larger doesn't mean better, as tempers flare.

Mud Thrasher: They have to make a mud racer, so Jesse decides to start off with a Corvette Stingray and a 454 Chevy big block.  It would make Tim Allen proud.

Hot Dogster: The crew starts off with a Hot Dog vending truck.  What will they make?  Why a dragster of course.

The Rock Crawler: A viewer suggestion gets turned into a reality: Jesse and his team transform a Ford Bronco into a Rock Climber.

Tundranatar:  The guys have to turn a Toyota Tundra into a cycle launcher.  They have a T3 theme in this show, with the movie's production designer and Arnold's stunt double for the movie helping with the build.

The Demolisher: An all woman team (well, except for Jesse) takes a Cadillac Deville and makes it into a killer demolition derby car.

Low-Ridin' Rodeo: In this build they create a mechanical bull.  What do they start with?  A Ford Ranchero of course.

Shark Boat: The inaugural show for the second season aired during "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel.  In honor of that, Jesse takes a pontoon boat and turns it into a shark observation ship complete with shark cage.  Not one of the best builds.

Donut Shop Squad Vehicle: Okay, the whole cops-like-donuts thing has been way over done in my opinion.  It was mildly amusing 15-20 years ago, but now it's just trite and kind of stupid.  In any case, Jesse and the crew take a cop cruiser, and turn it into a mobile donut shop.

Though it says so on the cover, this really isn't the second season of Monster Garage.  It's the second half of the first season, with a couple of season two shows tacked on to the end.  These  13 episodes (not in broadcast order) are on three single sided DVDs that come in thinpacks and all of them are housed in a slipcase.

Audio:

The stereo audio track sounds good.  This is a dialog based show so there's not any need for more than a two channel mix and this one does a good job.  You can hear the mechanic's frustration when something goes wrong and their joy when things finally start coming together.  One complaint that I have is that the swearing is bleeped out, like on the TV show, but this is minor gripe.  There are no subtitles.

Video:

The full frame image is about average for a TV show.  It's not as tight as a feature movie, but that's to be expected.  They manage to cram four and sometimes five 50-minute shows onto a single DVD, so there are some compression artifacts.  Aliasing is the main culprit, with many diagonal lines having a stair-step effect, and car grills seeming to move on their own when they glide past the camera.  Corporation logos on T-shirts and such have been blurred out, but that's not a huge complaint.  A nice, if standard picture.

Extras:

This set has one bonus item, the same one included on the first season set, a 50-minute special Under the Hood.  This documentary looks back on the (whole) first season and looks at what it takes to create a show.  From the concept, to picking the crew and actually filming an episode, this is a thorough look at the show.

I'm disappointed that they didn't include one of the other specials from the show's history.  Monster Nation - American Monsters would have been a good choice.

Final Thoughts:

I am really disappointed in the way they are marketing these sets.  If they had labeled this Season One Part Two, I wouldn't have any problem, but stating that this is "Season Two" when it's really the second half of the first is not right.  The fact that they included the same bonus show in both "season" sets also sucks.  Having said that, I like the show despite these faults.  The builds they come up with are pretty wild and crazy, and the show has a bad boy attitude that's fits it well.  Recommended.