Farscape Season 2 DVD Review
Apr. 6th, 2014 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olivia_sutton
I didn’t enjoy the second season of Farscape as much as the first; however, there were some excellent episodes. I’ll discuss what I didn’t like first, then get on to the specifics of what I liked. Whereas in the first season, John Crichton had been a scientist and explorer, someone who’s innate curiosity often allowed him to see situations differently than the rest of the beings on Moya, in the second season, John is much closer to becoming just another soldier. No longer wearing parts of his IASA uniform, John now dresses like a Peacekeeper. And as good as Ben Browder looked in the floor-length black duster, by halfway through the season - I wanted the old John back. There are also far less creatures in season two, and more humans, or human-like aliens. I missed the creatures!
However, I did really like “Look to the Princess” — John’s willingness to sacrifice everything because of the situation was refreshing, and showed his, I hesitate to say moral, but his moral thinking and upbringing. When he’s told an entire star-system’s well-being depends on him marrying the princess - he does so. And when he finds out he’s the father of the princess’s child (thru’ in-vitro fertilization, basically) he’s willing to give up everything and be frozen for 80 years to raise his daughter. However, the re-set button is pushed (Crichton won’t survive the freezing process again).
The four-episode finale’ — “Liars, Guns, & Money” parts 1-3 and “Die Me, Dichotomy”, were truly, truly, awesome. And, it explained why Crichton had been acting so strange throughout the entire season. Crichton was slowly going insane due to a neural chip implanted in his head by Scorpius. Scorpius being a half-Scarran/half-Sabacean hybrid who is, himself, obsessed with obtaining “worm hole technology” from John. The problem is, John accidentally fell through the worm-hole. Though he has some theoretical knowledge of the subject - he truly doesn’t understand worm-holes, and he certainly can’t control them. It’s a bit like asking Dorothy to re-produce a tornado on the spot.
However, I’d challenge anybody who thinks Ben Browder isn’t a good actor to watch the end of Season 2 of Farscape. Browder has the ability to play a man who is truly going insane without overacting or making fun of the character. It’s something to watch.
I have the ADV DVD version of Farscape. The DVDs for the most part only put two episodes per disc. This is annoying — I’m used to three or four. Also, for the last set, the episodes are out of sequence on the discs. I watched “Die Me, Dichtomy” before “Liars, Guns, & Money” and was extremely confused — I ended up having to re-watch it in it’s proper sequence as the last episode in the season. Also, stretching the show to ten discs takes up a lot of space (especially in the double-wide cases). I ended-up re-packaging the discs in slim-line cases, but the more compact season 1 is a much better design, and still protects the discs. OTOH, I received sets 2-4 as a gift from a friend, so I can’t really complain. I’d just recommend not buying this version, but rather the more compact “complete season 2” version.
Overall, since the season both explained John’s odd behavior, and ended on a cliff-hanger leading into season three, even with the changes from season 1, I still think Farscape is an unusual, highly watchable, and excellent series.
Recommended!
