 | |
List Price: $59.99 | | Label: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Salesrank: 19658
Released: August 23, 2005 |
| Our Price: $33.95 |
| Used Price: $32.40 |
|
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
Golden Globe(R) award-winner Sela Ward and Billy Campbell star in the highly acclaimed second season of ONCE AND AGAIN. Celebrate the loves and experience the triumphs and heartbreak that made ONCE AND AGAIN a favorite among critics and audiences everywhere. It's "a great show," raves Robert Bianco of USA TODAY. Now you can experience all 22 episodes of season two in this spectacular five-disc set, featuring exclusive bonus features. It's everything you remember and so much more.
Description of Once and Again - The Complete Second Season:
After the romantic courtship and the awkwardness of first dates, Once and Again in its second season settled into charting the growing relationship between fortysomethings Lily (Sela Ward) and Rick (Billy Campbell), who finally shook off all their angst and family pressures to embark on a long-term relationship. And of course, once finally committed in their love for each other, life rudely interrupts what should have been a comfortable, winding road to happily ever after. Rick's architecture firm is hand-picked for a new high-profile project, but it's dogged by community protests and run by the ever-devious Miles Drentell (David Clennon, reprising his shady character from thirtysomething); what's more, Rick's ex-wife, Karen (Susanna Thompson), is the lawyer representing the project's opposition. Lily finds herself as the assistant to a twentysomething entrepreneur at a fledgling dot-com, and the victim of the amorous, non-professional interests of a consultant for the troubled company. She's also faced with the fate of her late father's restaurant, run by her ex-husband, Jake (Jeffrey Nordling), who's charming but not the best of businessmen, and his financial strain soon becomes hers as well. Oh, and then there are the kids: Rick's son Eli (Shane West) would rather start a band than go to college, and daughter Jessie (Evan Rachel Wood) may be anorexic; Lily's daughter Grace (Julia Whelan) falls into a friendship with a troubled girl, and only Zoe (Meredith Deane) seems to be the most normal--that is, when she isn't worried about Rick and his kids moving into her house.
The course of true love never did run smooth, and truth be told, there were a bit too many plot twists cooked up for this season of the Edward Zwick-Marshall Herskovitz drama (including a hostage episode at Jake's restaurant that garnered high ratings), but the creative team behind this show managed a deft balancing act among all the characters and plotlines. Teenage angst co-existed alongside more adult worries, and the specter of professional and money troubles for both Rick and Lily kept the characters grounded in a reality not often seen in television dramas. And in addition to giving all the cast members shining moments, Once and Again developed an extensive number of secondary characters, including Lily's mentally ill brother Aaron (Patrick Dempsey), Jake's flighty girlfriend Tiffany (Ever Carradine), Karen's hunky younger boyfriend (Mark Feuerstein), and an uncredited Edward Zwick as Jessie's therapist. It was the core cast, however, that made Once and Again soar--teen actors West and Whelan broke their characters' stereotypical molds, the young Wood (who would go on to star in thirteen) was outstanding as she navigated blooming adolescence: Nordling and Thompson, as the exes on the periphery, were two of the best supporting actors ever on television. As always, though, Ward and Campbell were the show's heart and soul, always communicating the underlying waves of frustration and anger in their character's facades as well as the love and happiness. Despite low ratings, ABC renewed Once and Again for a third and final season, giving all us fans of great television (and hopeless romantics) one more year with Rick and Lily after this one. --Mark Englehart
Once and Again - The Complete Second Season Reviews:
Where is the FINAL Season? 
2009-10-02 - I love this series. Great Story and Acting! But where is the FINAL Season? It has been years since the Second Season. I want my closure!!!!!!!
In my opinion even better than Season One
2009-06-07 - The biggest difference between Season One and Two of ONCE AND AGAIN is that while Season One continually came back to Rick and Lily's romance as the anchor of the show, Season Two shifted the action to the characters as a whole. If Season One was all about Billy Campbell and Sela Ward, along with their extensive supporting cast, Season Two saw the cast transform into a true ensemble. Instead of Rick and Lily's story overshadowing all others, there are multiple fascinating storylines. This would change even more in Season Three when their story would frequently not even be the primary one.
What I like about ONCE AND AGAIN is that it is a family drama that isn't, like the endless teen-oriented dramas on the WB and the CW. You get shows like GOSSIP GIRL where the adults are thrown in almost as afterthoughts, or other shows where the adults behave in ways that are almost like you imagine teens think adults behave. But ONCE AND AGAIN at no point, even in the arcs focusing on kids, feels like a teen drama. The show also displays a rare intelligence in its writing. The show does not often resort to cliché or hackneyed story, and often had some nicely fresh arcs.
The only thing I really dislike about this series are the black and white "asides," where character are interviewed away from the central action. Sometimes these have a documentary feel. Sometimes they have feel oddly disembodied, as if we have entered an astral plane of sorts. Sometimes it feels like they are talking to a psychiatrist. I just detest these digressions. MY friend who is a huge ONCE AND AGAIN fan doesn't dislike them as much as I do, but agrees that they are exceedingly odd.
It is absurd that these DVDs are out of print. I have only been able to see this thanks to one of my closest friends who not only has Seasons One and Two on DVD but who has recorded Season Three. If not for her, I would not have been able to see the entire series. She has for years been checking over and again whether ONCE AND AGAIN will ever see Season Three out on DVD. Frankly, I would like to own my own copies of all three seasons. So now I'm hoping for the whole thing to be issued/reissued on DVD. It is a shame that this fine show was cancelled prematurely. Now it is a shame that it isn't available at all. Except through the kindness of friends.
Love Meredith Deane
2008-12-18 - Meredith Deane is in this TV show and I love her. She's an amazing actress and a beautiful, talented and gorgeous girl. She's sweet and pretty and cute. I love her. "Once and Again" may be an old TV show, but Meredith was in it. I like Meredith and even though she quit acting and went off to college, I still admire her talent as a child. Zoe Manning was a wonderful, complex character and she held her own. She's a much better actress then Molly Gottieb and Mae Whitman and Miley Cyrus. This girl has real talent and she's a star and her smile is gorgeous. She could've been the future Julia Roberts. I love looking up photos of her at premieres and events. She looks cool and collect in the photos. Go Meredith!
Smart, sophisticated family drama
2008-12-15 - How rare to have a complex network drama that doesn't rely on shocking revelations nor overly sweet sentimentality. This show managed to sow the everyday lives of families that struggle with real life issues. The effect divorce has on children, the pressures of financial worries, the conflicts between personalities. Even though many of the characters in the 2nd season had to deal with difficult and darker issues, it still remained realistic. I miss the show and haven't found anything equivalent since.
great deal, easy handling and shipping
2008-08-10 - i got the season a coule of weeks ago and i didn't have any problems at all. ordering, confirmation, handling and spipping were smooth and easy.
great work,
than you.
