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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
transcends mere nostalgia, September 25, 2005
This review is from: Land of the Lost - The Complete Second Season (DVD)
When I first ordered these DVD sets, I did so with great trepidation. Would seeing the shows again after a 30 year hiatus live up to my memories of it being a deep, compelling and thoroughly entertaining experience? Or, would I be disappointed and feel foolish for thinking so highly of the 70's fare? I can say happily that I am not only not disappointed, I even enjoy the shows more now. The sci-fi in these shows is original, deep and thought provoking. These are not just a re-hashed Gilligan's Island with dinos - these shows are so well thought out, even by today's standards. After seeing such technological feats as Gollum and the dinos in Jurassic Park, it's easy to get judgmental over the special effects, but the special effects in these TV shows trumped anything else on TV at that time by leaps and bounds. It was a forward thinking show that appealed (and still appeals) to children and adults. Not only are the shows awesome - the commentary tracks and interviews are pure unadulterated GOLD! I caught myself laughing out loud to some of the comments by Wesley Eure (Will Marshall) and Kathy Coleman (Holly Marshall). I was tickled by the interview with Walker Edmiston, who was not only the voice of Enik, but the voices of Sigmund, Burp, Slurp and Big Daddy on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (among others) and he gives demos of those voices - what a joy! My face hurt after watching these episodes from smiling so much during the commentaries and interviews. This set is so well done, I feel like sending a box of chocolates to everyone at Rhino. They even put an Easter Egg in the DVD - if you're in the Extras section and hit the menu button on your remote (not on the screen), you get a blow-up of an 8-track cassette showing Wesley Eure's greatest hits! I would have liked to have seen the stars show photos of themselves (and/or home movies) at different ages, with various stars out of makeup, etc. I loved the fact that the stars appreciated the shows as much as the viewers. This Season 2 set is purely awesome!
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29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Second season is the best, October 5, 2004
This review is from: Land of the Lost - The Complete Second Season (DVD)
I have to confess the second season of Land of the Lost is my favorite. Partially, because it introduced my favorite villain of the series--the Zarn. I don't know why the Zarn, wasn't continued on into the third season, but I loved that creature of lights, who could be harmed by humans just getting emotionally wound up. Whoever thought up the concept should be commended big time. It's little touches like these that make the program ahead of its time in so many ways, and though the special effects seem a little obsolete today, the writing and character development were top notch. While the extras on this set are not nearly as elaborate as on the first season, the commentary and subsequent interviews are fantastic, and really helps to give the show a history that the original viewers in the seventies were unaware of. Rhino is to be commended for the work they've put into these sets. They didn't have to go through all this work, but to their credit they did. And hopefully, they will continue to bring us more goodies from the seventies and eighties. Bring on season three, the Bugaloos, and Lidsville. Sincerely, JThree carolyn@dia.net
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My childhood in a blue cardboard box, November 28, 2005
This review is from: Land of the Lost - The Complete Second Season (DVD)
I've been waiting for literally two decades to see these episodes again. Buying the first four episodes of "Land of the Lost" on a bootleg VHS at a science fiction convention in Chicago in 1996 only worsened my pain -- the first jolt of seeing those special effects that I loved as a kid, rendered fuzzy and cheezy-looking in glorious nth-generation NTSC-o-vision, made me almost regret loving this show as a bespectacled 6 year-old. These DVDs provided much needed salvation, and made me again recapture the awe I felt watching the earthquake strike the Marshalls' tiny raft in the opening credits when I was six. What helps make "Land of the Lost" essential viewing even now is the care with which these DVD sets have been put together. These episodes look great all cleaned up, bearing in mind that most of us only ever saw them on non-cable TV in the 1970s or on UHF in the 1980s. The DVD producers have added lively commentary tracks on five of the episodes, the best of which feature Will (Wesley Eure) and Holly (Kathy Coleman) all grown up. They alternate their tracks singing the theme tune, praising each other's non-Emmy caliber performances, and making fun of some of the less plausible moments in each story. Eure also hosts an interactive trivia game on the final disc. Not only do these discs perfectly recapture the nostalgia value on "Land of the Lost", and celebrate the now cheezy look of the model dinosaurs and the old school chroma-key overlays, but they do something else: they display just how much thought went into the scripts for these children's shows. Think about it: "Land of the Lost" Season 1, script edited by "Star Trek"'s David Gerrold, brilliantly introduced the audience to a world of dinosaurs, reptilian Sleestaks, and missing-link hominid Pakuni. Season 2 continues the trend of strong SF scripts, but also goes a step further, by growing the characters and revealing more mysteries. We learn more about the Sleestak and more about the Pakuni; more about the mysterious Pylons that regulate day, night, entry and exit into the Land. The Marshalls have more tools and more luxuries, and the characters of Will and Holly are both seen to mature. They're even learning how to speak Pakuni, the language designed just for the show (and this is before America learned Klingonese). Character growth from season to season on a low-budget kids' show in the mid 1970s. Amazingly, this show was able to do some of the same things that "Lost" does so incredibly well for adults in prime time right now. I'm so glad I have all of this show on DVD, and my older nephew, almost six himself, has just a few months left before he too enters the Land of the Lost.
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