Gotham: The Complete Second Season [Blu-Ray]

Cast: Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, Robin Lord Taylor

Release Date: August 16, 2016

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:

Darkness saturates Gotham in its triumphant second season as the city’s villains continue to rise from the shadows, each more ambitious and depraved than the last. As Penguin continues to solidify his control over Gotham’s underworld, the battle for power in the city has become a game of interesting alliances on both sides of the law – with detectives Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock at the forefront of the fight against crime in the dangerously corrupt city. Season Two witnesses Gordon’s moral compass wavering as he confronts Gotham City’s most notorious criminals while simultaneously attempting to gain the trust of young Bruce Wayne, a boy now clearly on the path toward the man he is destined to be. And all the while, Gotham follows the intriguing origin stories and evolution of some of the city’s most infamous personalities, including Edward Nygma/The Riddler, Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Hugo Strange and Mr. Freeze.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

The second season of ‘Gotham’ picks up with the town in worse shape than ever and a desperate Detective James Gordon and his partner Harvey Bullock doing everything within their power to keep the criminals and insanity at bay, while also forcing Gordon to begin questioning his strong ethics and rule set in the midst of such mayhem and insanity. Fortunately a ruthless and by the book go getter takes control at the GCPD which could mean another potential ally for the two detectives. Meanwhile young Bruce Wayne and his trusty companion Alfred begin making real progress into the work of Thomas Wayne after some notable revelations; while elsewhere in Gotham a mysterious new billionaire named Theo Galavan has begun creating his own trusty team of the city’s most notorious villains for his own agenda which could mean an even larger problem for this already troubled city.

The sophomore season of ‘Gotham’ definitely never falls into that dreaded sophomore slump and is only a vast improvement over the solid debut season, upping the ante in every possible way and accelerating the show into one truly action packed and riveting ride, constantly taking things to a level we more commonly expect to be limited to the bookmark episodes for the season and the constant insanity is certainly a welcome surprise. Introducing us to a plethora of dastardly new villains (many of which fellow DC fans should be notably intrigued by) this time around including Mr. Freeze and Hugo Strange among others, while also delving deeper into the beginnings of many others including the ever wonderful Penguin, along with Edward Nygma (aka The Riddler), Jerome (aka Joker?) and many more. ‘Gotham’ is the perfect example of a series that started out on a high note in season one and has miraculously managed to top that in nearly every possible way this time around, tweaking things in order to discover what works best and then accommodating each to make it work just that much better. The end result is a wonderfully frenetic and simply outstanding season that should thrill fans of the first season and also easily convince the viewers who may have remained uncertain about the series after last year, I would highly recommend giving the second a whirl before calling it quits.

Fellow fans of this wonderful dark and action packed series will almost surely want to be certain to pick up a copy of ‘Gotham: The Complete Second Season’ on Blu-ray to add to their collections. The Blu-ray release for the sophomore season of the series once again delivers fairly impressive high definition video and audio presentations on each of the 22 episodes, in addition to a collection of solid bonus content including a number of new Behind the Scenes Featurettes and more(more detailed information regarding the bonus content can be found in the special features section of the technical specification coverage below), altogether quite likely to make this one a definite must own for many of the fellow fans in order to be able to relive this thrilling season time and again in the best quality currently available.

Overall, the fellow fans of ‘Gotham’ will likely want to make sure to grab a copy of The Complete Second Season on Blu-ray which once again delivers wonderful high definition video and audio presentations for each episode along with a number of worthwhile extras. Those who enjoyed the first season of the series yet haven’t had the opportunity to check out the second will definitely want to make certain to do so; it’s a vast improvement over the already promising previous season that any fan of the series as well as most DC/Batman fans in general won’t want to miss out on.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Gotham: The Complete Second Season’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the show’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio on all of the second season’s episodes. The video presentations looks pretty fantastic as a whole, delivering sharp and detailed presentations on every episode that suffer no notable faults and perfectly capture the vivid colors always on prominent display. Holding up admirably even during the constant darkly lit and/or fast moving sequences and never causing anything occurring on screen to become negatively affected or rendered indiscernible. Overall, these are gorgeous high definition video presentations that should easily thrill the majority of fans.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on all 22 Season Two episodes. These lossless multichannel soundtracks provide consistently crisp, clean and fairly aggressive audio presentations on each episode. Constantly utilizing all five available channels in order to fully immerse the viewer within the show’s fantastic score, in addition to sending a plethora of bullets, debris, and crowd effects along with plenty more throughout the various speakers, while never resulting in any dialogue which may be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible. Overall, these are outstanding 5.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtracks that contribute yet another layer of fun to the overall viewing experience.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Gotham: The Complete Second Season’ includes a number of enjoyable and worthwhile extras. Included on the release is a number of Behind the Scenes Featurettes including interviews/comments with the cast and crew, plus more. The included Featurettes are: ‘Gotham by Noir Light’ (running approximately 26 minutes in length), ‘Alfred: Batman’s Greatest Ally’ (running approximately 20 minutes), ‘Cold Hearted, the Tale of Victor Fries’ (approximately 10 minutes), along with ‘He Who Laughs Last’ (2 minutes), ‘New Day, Dark Nights’ (2 minutes), ‘Strike Force’ (2 minutes), ‘The King’ (2 minutes), and character specific looks at before and after in ‘A Look Back’ (approximately 3 minutes altogether), ‘A Look Ahead’(3 minutes in total), and ‘Aftermath’ (5 minutes altogether). We are also treated to the ‘Gotham: 2015 Comic-Con Panel’ (16 minutes), and a couple brief promos for the second season: ‘Father’s Office’ and ‘Maniax Jerome’ (approximately 1 minute combined).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

Disc Rating: 8/10

‘Gotham: The Complete Second Season’; Now Available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD from DC Comics & Warner Bros Home Entertainment

Purchase your copy today by clicking on the Amazon Cart Icon immediately below!