Customer Reviews

Hill Street Blues Season 2

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Please, please release season 3 and the other seasons of Hill Street Blues. The first two season were excellent and I want more!


Other fans, please click on my review as helpful so the powers that be can see we want more HSB.

Hill Street Blues is not a happy show per se. Sure, it is frequently funny, but it is a MASH brand of gallows humor. The show is also tragic, violent, gritty, at times it is even emotionally overwhelming. So why do I call it feel good television? Because watching it makes me feel good. I can't describe it exactly, all I can say is that I have turned into a Hill Street Blues addict. It has reached a point where I can't sit down and watch a single episode, I have to watch two, three, even four. God help me, Hill Street Blues is wrecking my social life! But I'm loving every minute of it.

Needless to say, I consider Stephen Bochco's series to be one of the hallmarks of television. It is a brilliant, groundbreaking, highly ambitious program that isn't without its flaws, but then how many great works of art are truly flawless? Strangely enough, it reminds me of the original Star Trek, ahead of its time but also very much a product of its time. Sure, the acting isn't always the greatest, but every actor embodies his or her character so thoroughly that it is impossible to imagine these roles being played by anybody else. Sure, the show can be overly melodramatic, or didactic, or dated, or cliched, or juvenile, or even corny...again, so what? Watching Hill Street Blues is like watching the whole art form of TV undergoing an incubation process, gradually evolving into adulthood. Besides, each episode is so varied due to the ensemble cast and the multilayered style of storytelling that even if you're groaning one minute, you know that you are going to be laughing or crying or simply sitting back and admiring the incredible artistry of the whole thing the next. There may be bad moments, but no bad episodes. Even the opening credits are brilliant. Most TV shows on DVD, I fast forward through the main theme, but not Hill Street Blues, here the opening is an integral part of the rhythm of the show and losing it feels like missing out on something substantial. Hill Street Blues is endlessly entertaining, a joy to watch...feel good television.

I am eagerly looking forward to season three, and also dreading it because I know that I will once again be a slave to my house, to my television set. And loving every minute of it.

Half way through season one discs and season two will be a must have. Great characters Capt. Furillo, Sgt. Esterhaus, LaRue, Washington, Hunter, Goldblume, et al. If you're not familiar with these names buy season one and then join me in ordering number two. Entertaining story lines mixed with part grit, humor and lots of pathos. Quality TV that stands up well about an inner city police precint. One of the best TV series ever, winner of multiple Emmeys and highly recommended.

The only reason I can see for Fox to drag their feet in releasing Season 3 is that Season 1 sold great and Season 2's sales fell way below the studio's expectations based on Season 1's sales. Having said this, if this is the case, I would hope that Fox would consider continuing to release seasons of this show and just manufacture far fewer units so that at least the true blue fans of the show can get it in it's entirety. I know Fox did this with The Mary Tyler Moore Show, so they can do it with Hill Street Blues as well.

Hill Street Blues was one of the most inovative shows of it's time. The writer of the show did an excellent job at looking into the daily life of urban america and the troubles of the times. Even though the show did not base the show in one city, it reflected many cities throughout the country. I showed this show to my students at school on our free friday and they loved it. I try to expose them to different things and try to relate things to their time of hip hop.

Let all the folks at Fox know how you feel. They claim support was soft for the series' release on DVD. Cannot believe that we will not get to see the addition of Buntz, Sid, and more.

I just finished watching the complete season 2. It is shocking
just how much better this series was than anything on the major
networks in recent years. First, and foremost, is the quality of
the writing. The cast has a diversity of behavior that simply
would not be permitted today. Some of the great scenes are just
too politically incorreect for today's TV. This show is gritty,
funny, and always entertaining.

Watching the first season on DVD, I was surprised at how well this great show has withstood the test of time, Belker's epithets withstanding ("Hairball", "Dogbreath", and all the variations of the two the writers could come up with). The secret to Hill Street Blues' greatness? It's the writing! (Okay, and the acting by a hugely talented ensemble of then-unknown actor..and the photography, shot with a film-like eye for detail...and Mike Post's music...okay, it's everything) But the writing is outstanding, even dealing with the restrictions the network censors put in their way (thus, "hairball" and "dogbreath"). If you have seen the first season, who could forget the moment at the end of the last episode of LaRue, finally confronting his alcoholism, attending an AA meeting, and finding Furillo there. What series in 1981 would have had its stalwart, heroic lead be a recovering alcoholic in AA? Today, of course, but then? Of course not. So I'm looking foward to season two, assured that great writing and acting will still entertain, shock, and move me, even after twenty three years.

During the real "golden age" of television, HSB was without any doubt the greatest cops show of all time, and perhaps the greatest TV drama series of all time.
Characters are believable, story lines are interesting and the dialogue is exceptional. The viewer quickly comes to identify with the characters and in a short time feels like they're watching the lives of friends play out on the screen.
Season 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 are a MUST!!

Hill Street Blues Is One Of The Best Shows Ever.
It's a shame that Fox is not putting the rest of the series out at this time. Rumors are that they are not going to. I don't know if that's true. It would be a shame. What kind of world do we live in where Hill Street Blues could be pulled from DVD without releasing the entire series yet some idiot thinks that "Stacked - The Complete Series" will sell off the charts!? What's wrong with this world!?
I have something for you. Here is a customer service line for Fox Home Entertainment.
1-888-223-2369.
Call Them & Tell Them You Want Your Hill Street Blues!
Sooner or later they will have to listen.
Hope this helps.
BY THE WAY......IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS SHOW YET, GET THE 1ST 2 SEASONS & GET ON THE BANDWAGON. YOU WON'T REGRET IT. IT LEAVES NYPD BLUE, LAW & ORDER, AND ANY OTHER COP SHOW (WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE SHIELD & THE WIRE) IN THE DUST.