Eureka: Season Two – DVD Review

Eureka is about the town of Eureka, built back in the 1950s by the government. Its purpose is to bring many of the country’s top minds together in one place to invent. As a result, living in Eureka is like living in the not-too-distant future. Of course, with all the cutting edge experimentation going on, things can go wrong. And go wrong they often to. Fortunately, Sheriff Carter and the geniuses of Eureka usually manage to come up with a solution before things get too far out of hand.

At the end of season one, four-years-in-the-future Jack had to travel back to the present in order to stop four-years-in-the-future Henry from saving Kim’s life, and in the process, bringing about the destruction of the universe. The timeline was corrected and Kim did indeed die. However, Jack and Henry still retain the memories of those missing four years. As one might expect, they are having a bit of trouble adjusting.

There are a number of major arcs running through season two that all tie together in some way or other. First up, we’ve got Henry’s quest to find the how and why of Kim’s death. Henry’s willing to take some drastic steps to find his answers and as the season progresses it becomes harder and harder for Jack (and consequently the audience) to trust Henry.

The same accident that killed Kim exposed Allison’s son, Kevin to the artefact. Nobody is sure exactly what happened to Kevin, but Allison and Stark are determined to find some answers. In the course of that search, Nathan and Allison are beginning to reconnect as well.

That’s bad news for Jack, though Henry does something that makes it a easier to deal with the fact that Nathan is once again winning Allison’s affections.

There are a number of other plots running through out season two as well: Zoe’s mom comes to Eureka, possible new love interests are introduced for both Jack and Jo, etc. The major plots are all related to the artefact and/or Kim’s death however.

Season two is definitely a bit darker than season one. It’s still a light-hearted and humorous show most of the time, but it does get dark every now and then .

Henry, however, is not the only person on the show to evolve over time. These are not static characters in static relationships. Over the course of the season, we see many characters grow and change, both individually and in their relationships with others.

Season two also has a lot more focus on actual story arcs. Season one, for the most part, was nothing but standalone episodes. Sure there was some plot advancement from time to time, but most episodes were more or less self-contained. I think the change was for the better, but it’s really a matter of personal preference.

One major benefit of having a season long arc is that season two has a great final two episodes. All the major arcs that have been running through the season are all tied together and are brought to satisfying resolutions. The season is wrapped up quite nicely.

While season two is really strong, I would be remiss if I didn’t spend a little time talking about “God is in the Details.” Eureka is, of course, a town filled with scientists. Thus it’s not surprising that even with town or world threatening problems cropping up every other week, there aren’t a whole lot of weekly church goers in Eureka. There’s nothing wrong with the fact some of the cast goes to church either. While scientists are less likely to be big on Jesus, the two are by no means mutually exclusive.

The problem with “God is in the Details” is that all of the sudden a town full of scientists used to inexplicable and seemingly unexplainable events suddenly dives for religion when there’s yet another inexplicable and seemingly unexplainable event. And then, even when the event turns out to have a scientific explanation, the episode ends with the church filled to the rafters, including almost every major character on the show. It’s like for one episode everyone is wildly out of character. Fortunately, it is a standalone episode; once it is over the show goes back to acting like Eureka doesn’t even have a church.

One weak episode is not nearly enough to sink an entire season. Eureka‘s second season is a definite improvement over its first. And it was already pretty good in season one.

The video is presented in 1.78:1 and the audio is in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. Both the audio and the video are high quality.

Trailers – We get previews for a couple of TV shows: Battlestar Galactica (seasons 1-3), and The Incredible Hulk (seasons 1-4)

Deleted Scenes – Deleted or extended scenes about three quarters of the episodes. Some pretty amusing stuff to be found in here that was probably only cut for time.

Live Smart, Eureka PSAs – Fictional PSA educating residents about the unique challenges they face living in Eureka. Some of these are okay, while others are really funny.

Podcast Commentaries – There’s a rather odd assortment of commentaries to be found here. There are two commentaries for “Try, Try Again”, and one for “Sight Unseen,” “God is in the Details,” and “Maneater.” The commentaries have lots of good information but it is odd they chose these specific episodes instead of some of the more important ones.

Happenings Around Town, The Second Season – The cast talks about the respective challenges faced in the second season. Interesting, but nothing earth-shattering.

SciFi.Com Webcasts – The webcasts are broken into two parts. The first part has the cast covering a lot of the same ground covered in Happenings (in some cases, using the same clips). The second, more amusing, part has Colin Ferguson answering questions from fans.

Gag Reel – There are your standards bloopers to be found here. Oddly enough, there’s also bloopers from an intro Colin Ferguson was doing for Sci-Fi. And even some brief scenes of stuff that actually did air on the show.

Inside the Writers’ Room – Some behind-the-scenes footage of the writers in action. This was put together about a week after the writer’s strike ending so everyone is getting back into the swing of things. Season two aired before the strike so this also serves as something of a preview for season three.

A strong season combined with a decent set of features makes this a good buy for fans of the series. If you are new to the series though, you will want start with season one. There’s not really much effort put into the season premiere to make things accessible for first-timers.

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The Sci-Fi Channel presents Eureka: Season Two. Created by: Jean Flynn. Starring: Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson, Joe Morton, Jordan Hinson, Erica Cerra, Neil Grayston, and Ed Quinn. Running time: 540 minutes. Rating: NR. Released on DVD: July 15, 2008. Available at Amazon.com