Customer Reviews

Jeremiah Season Two

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

(This review is of the second season of "Jeremiah", not the packaging of this particular DVD release.)

This second and final season of Jeremiah was a great way to wrap up the series. It picks up immediately after the cliffhanger scenes from season one, and after resolving that storyline, it moves into a whole new realm of challenges, obstacles, and enemies. Most importantly, it brings the series to a close with an outstanding ending that stays true to the show's theme and doesn't leave the audience hanging.

The tone of this season was a bit different than that of the first. It held true to the theme of the series--the hope of building a better world--but it deviated a bit in its methods. Jeremiah, Kurdy, and Marcus each find themselves in new roles with new responsibilities, but these changes were logical progressions for the characters, and the second season raises the stakes to a new level. Don't let these changes worry you though. Look at it as two books in a series--this "book" introduces new faces, challenges, and events, but it's still a continuation of the existing story.

Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings) and Joanne Kelly (Warehouse 13) are both incredible additions to the cast, as is the antagonist in the second half of the season (I don't remember the actor's name).

It's sad that the series ended so quickly. Showtime didn't give it the advertising it deserved, and they delayed airing the second half of this season by almost a year, (allegedly) claiming that events in the second season too accurately reflected real-world things going on in U.S. politics (an utterly ridiculous claim), and they wanted to wait until it wouldn't look like they were trying to comment on current events. In doing so, the second half of this season was released a year late and with practically no notice, so much of its audience didn't even know it was back. It was never rerun, and many fans have never gotten to see the ending of the series. That is, until this DVD box set ships.

JMS (writer/producer) left the project, and Showtime decided not to continue it. Fortunately, despite some minor character threads that were never resolved, JMS did a beautiful job of wrapping up the storyline and providing a satisfying ending--something rarely seen in canceled shows these days.

To the reviewer who gave this only one star based upon the "on demand" production from MGM: I understand your concern, and you've got some legitimate points. However, I don't think it's fair to scare people away from this season (which you admitted you'd give five stars to) over POSSIBLE issues with how these MIGHT be produced. This "on-demand" production is a new thing for MGM, and the first series to use this aren't even being shipped yet. It's a bit premature to give the lowest possible rating allowed over mere speculation.

Frankly, even if these are just straight burns to DVD, that's not a bad thing. This season has been completely unavailable since it originally aired up until very recently, and then only through a subscription-based streaming service (whose name I won't mention here). There's no reason to assume MGM's DVD production, just because it's "on-demand", will be of poor quality.

Heck, I'm just happy that other fans will finally get to see how this story ends.

I really wish there were two star rating numbers here at Amazon, one for the content and one for the delivery mechanism/packaging/etc. If all you care about is getting a cool alternate take on the post-apocalyptic genre, Jeremiah is a great choice. Season 2 is heavily dependent on the first season and is much more serialized than the first, so you can't go wrong picking that one up first, but things get much more personal this go-around and the stakes, while certainly big before, really come into play here and set up what would have been a great third season, which of course we'll never get.

As to the single star, there are a couple of factors. The first one, which is annoying but would have not caused a downgrade to the score, is how the discs are delivered. This is a print-on-demand title and they sure took the route of least resistance: single-layer discs. There were only fifteen episodes in the second season which would normally be delivered on four discs, instead we get eight. Honestly this is not just a case of my extreme laziness, but two episodes per disc and then up again to swap? Please. As a print-on-demand title I can understand there being no special features, and while I would have loved some JMS commentary of the caliber heard on the Babylon 5 sets, the author's falling out with MGM makes this omission acceptable. After all, in the end we just want to see the show at the very least and that's what we get, the very least. And that point rolls over into the reason for the single star: full frame. That's right, this show which was broadcast on Showtime in high definition gets the full frame treatment. If you've seen the show in the past and are just trying to add it to your collection you will be highly disappointed. It's not like the show was well known for its cinematography, but there are quite a number of scenes spread across the season where the widescreen presentation really gave a sense of scale to the goings-on. It is doubly irritating that the only other legitimate method of acquiring Jeremiah Season 2, iTunes, delivers the shows in widescreen. Why Amazon's deal with MGM couldn't include UnBox version in high definition I don't know, as I would have gladly purchased them that way as I don't see a Blu-ray on the horizon. But releasing a show shot and broadcast in high definition in a full-frame format is just wrong.

For those not concerned with the video format or who have never seen the show before, Jeremiah is the tale of a worldwide virus that killed nearly everyone who hadn't gone through puberty, known as "The Big Death". Following events of the first season where Jeremiah and his friend Kurdy had become part of the Thunder Montain community and learned that some adults had survived, including Jeremiah's father, various factions hoping to gain control of the former United States come into play. Attempting to rebuild the country as well as survive, the challenges come in both large and small packages. Featuring action and philosophy, and following the vision of the show's creator, J. Michael Straczynski. There is betrayal and heartache, but hope and determination as well, with a number of new characters introduced including the enigmatic Mr. Smith. While the budget of the show prevents and truly large set pieces from being staged to complement some of the bigger encounters, the production does its best to show a world that has fallen apart due to neglect, desire for power and the breakdown of infrastructure we take for granted in this world. You'll like the characters, even the villains, as everyone has an agenda and a certitude to their convictions.

The second part of Amazon's reviewing process asks "How do you rate this item?" The item, single-layered DVDs containing cropped full-frame episodes that were broadcast in high definition widescreen, gets a single star. The content, however, is easily worth four stars and if you'd like to see an interesting show in this genre it's well worth a look.

I received mine yesterday, and just to let people know: the packaging is in fact the same as pictured, with the MGM logo. It comes as two separate DVD cases, each holding four disks. There are no extras of any kind and very basic menus.

It is also in FULLSCREEN aspect ratio, not widescreen, despite the fact that the streaming version is widescreen. That was my biggest disappointment with the release.

However, the reason I bought it wasn't for the extras, it was because I wanted the complete series finally on my shelf, which I now have. I'm glad MGM chose to give the fans this option (instead of never having it at all). At least I can finally get rid of those old VHS tapes I made when the second season was buried on Showtime.

I can't tell you how long I waited in trepidation for the 2nd season of Jeremiah to become produced in quality on DVD... 6 or 7 years! But now, at long last, it is here! Contrary to other reviews it always was in full-frame mode, since I first saw this broadcast on Showtime in 2002 and 2003. I know this because I recorded every episode onto VHS at the time and later burned my own DVDs from those old VHS tapes. And I went back and double checked... full-frame. Now if there are widescreen prints available, perhaps they will be used when/if the suits decide to reassess this GREAT SERIES and decide to produce them onto proper, hopefully Blu-Ray discs in the future, and I am all for that and I would purchase them again if that happens. But, for now, I am very happy to report the PQ and sound (surround 2.0) is as good as any "real" DVDs produced out there, better than most, and significantly better quality than I got when I burned my own DVDs from the VHS tapes! I urge that you people who have waited like I have - for a decent quality DVD set of Jeremiah Season 2 - to go ahead and order this set. Your wait is over.

Since I am a huge fan of the series, I hate to give this
set a thumbs down. It was a long wait for season 2 to
finally be released, but it has the feel that it was quickly
slapped together. Disappointing! Also the lack of a main
menu with options added to that sense of being cobbled
together with no thought. The lack of captioning is my
greatest complaint. There are thousands of us out here
who experience difficulty in hearing and feel left out
when there are no subtitles to assist us.Reading lips can
only work in some instances. I purchased the set with the
hope that I could finally find out what went on in the
second season since ,I did not see it when it originally
aired. Maybe at some point in the future the series will
be redone appropriately and I'll be able to have captions
that will capture all of the reflective dialogue that made
this series so compelling.

The first season was good but the second season was really awesome! More intense stories, great villain [Sims], new interesting characters [Mister Smith, Markus Alexander, Erin & Libby]. Shame it got canceled and also a pitty it never got the attention it deserved. Glad I get the chance to buy it On Demand.

The end of the world comes for everyone that is over the age of adulthood. That leaves a world filled with children left to mind an age filled with terrible things. sometimes that means Daisy Cutters falling into the hands of madmen and other thimes that means hatreds passed on to those who were too young to really understand the posion they consumed. all the while you watch two people as they get to know one another and they try to change the world, slowly finding people like them and slowly finding out that there are both pros and cons to the things happening both inside and outside places with the power to change the world.

In the second season, this series comes to a sad halt all-too-soon. Perhaps it was because of a lack of viewership or perhaps it was because not enough money was spend promoting the product. Whatever the case, the show was one of those things that had the concepts and the notions that could have continued on. I personally thought the ideas that were established in Luke Perry's acting had become great, with the letter writing to his father and the idealism really working. m.J. Warner was great in this, too, working as someone that a person could both try to understand and also see keeping the world at arm's length because of the past. combine that with Thunfder mountain and the struggle that was coming and you had some really good stuff. A man who took direction from his God and people who needed direction because of the terrible things science inflicted; the duality in the series really wasn't lost on anyone that put time into watching this develop.

As far as things go, there are always filler episodes involved in something. Still, these filler pieces were utilized to build up bigger and better things a lot of the time, making certain that stories went off in future episodes. From the words that Jeremiah was obsessed with in the beginning to the words that got them into Thunder mountain and involved in a finale that came too son but worked out, i thought the series played itself out well. The value of a battery, gasoline and the horizon, people wanting to get into that spaceship so they could see something better; I liked the reflections of now as well as that place and saw a lot of shows that came later in this run.
It deserves a rounded up 5, if not 5 stars right off the bat.

I just finished watching the second season and I was NOT disappointed. Granted there were no extras, no frills... but I didn't get the DVD's for that reason. I am just so happy that I was able to see the conclusion of the series. Would I like them to make more episodes? Who wouldn't!! Thank you MGM for seeing that the fans of this series wanted to watch the final season and finally making it possible!

I loved Season 2 of Jeremiah and couldn't fathom why MGM didn't put it out on DVD after its run on Showtime. Prior to DVD-On-Demand, we were limited to watching it on downloads from iTunes, or on homemade VHS tapes or DVR discs. While I'm grateful to finally have a professionally-produced Season 2, I'm disappointed in how little we got for our money.

This set is about as "no frills" as you can get. I'm not talking about the absence of extras such as cast commentary or featurettes. I'm talking about the basics here. There are no animated menus, no menus at all, not even scene selection. Your only option is to Play All, or choose either of the two episodes per disc. If you want to find a particular scene, you have to fastforward or rewind until you find it. What MGM has given us is no more than a homemade disc with better picture quality. For what we got, the price should have been much lower.

As for the show itself, it's one of my favorites. I especially loved the addition of Sean Astin to the Season 2 cast. Astin, in one of his first post-Lord of the Rings roles, does some of his best work in the series as the mysteries Mister Smith ("Mister. It's a proper name, not a title."). He brings just the right amount of drama and humor to the character, as well as showing he's pretty good in a fight scene. He's a perfect foil to Malcolm-Jamal Warner's Kurdy. The show may be called Jeremiah, and while Luke Perry plays the title role, for me, Kurdy and Smith made the show. Another standout is Peter Stebbings as Marcus Alexander, the leader of Thunder Mountain, a quiet, introspective man with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

The show is worth seeing, and I encourage you to buy this set if you're interested in seeing some great performances. But just know that if you're expecting what you normally get on a TV-on-DVD set, you'll be disappointed.

Have been waiting for this release for a long time, unfortunatly it's on demand:( wish canadian protocols would change so us diehard fans could get these releases too. Have fun with this realease guys. As for the product itself this is a very underated series picked first season in a bargin bin and was shocked I hadent watched this series when it came out.