Dennis A. Amith (kndy) 2008-12-30
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
When the first season of "KYLE XY" appeared on television, what a refreshing and unique sci-fi drama series that features a young man who wakes up in the middle of the forest and is taken in by the Trager family despite the guy have no knowledge of his past or who he is. What is known is that he may be special and the fact that he has no belly button, even makes things a bit more interesting. Is Kyle an alien? Why does have this abilities?
The first season ended with Kyle leaving with his parents and leaving the Trager family, the only family that has taught him love and made him feel like's he's part of the family.
With the second season of "KYLE XY", because of the series becoming ABC Family's highest rated show, the second season jumps from the first season's ten episodes to a total of 23 episodes. And what an exciting season it was with the introduction of Jessi XX, Kyle getting to know the secrets of his past and who he is, Josh gets a girlfriend, Kyle and Andi get closer and so much more.
One of the strengths of "KYLE XY" are the characters. In fact, I was saying to myself how this series has that bond of friends that reminded me of series like the Scoobie Gang of the popular "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series and sure enough, the "KYLE XY" gang are talking about them being the Scoobie Gang and which character would they be? So, that was quite ironic but at the same time, the character dynamics and the time put into developing the characters of the Trager family, KYLE, Jessi and friends is well done.
I was quite impressed with each episode which season 2, there were no clunky/boring episodes and found each of the 23 episodes were well done. Each episode had a good balance of sci-fi drama, teen drama and witty humor and the episodes were well-written as well.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
Video is featured in Widescreen (1:78:1), enhanced for 16×9 televisions. There are a lot of outdoor and indoor shots with typical cloudiness that you would see from a television series. Audio is featured in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, the show is mostly dialogue-based but there are quite a bit of music featured in the episodes, which actually comes clear through your front speakers.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
I was quite surprised with the amount of special features included on this DVD set. There are a lot! In fact, nearly each disc contains special features. Here is what you can find on each of the discs:
* Disc 1: Audio commentary by Supervising Producer Julie Plec and Executive Producer Eruc Tuchman for "The Prophet" and audio commentary by Producers Chad Fiveash and James Stoteraux for "The Homecoming". Four deleted scenes with optional commentary plus sneak peeks.
* Disc 2: Audio commentary for "Ghost in the Machine" with actor Matt Dallas, Supervising Producers Julie Plec, Chris Hollier and Rudy Gaborno. Six deleted scenes with optional commentary.
* Disc 3: Features a good number of special features. This disc contains a 12-minute featurette titled "Livin' with the X's". This was an interesting featurette as it shows both Matt Dallas and Jaime Alexander waking up early in the morning and the things they do before they get to the set and a very amusing timeline of how the two get ready from the morning at home, getting makeup and then shooting their scenes. And how busy their schedule is throughout the day.
The second feature is "Facing the Future" which is a 7-minute featurette which includes interviews with the producers and the talent in regards to the second season.
Along with these two featurettes are two commentaries, "Leap of Faith" with commentary by actor Matt Dallas, Executive Producer Eric Tuchman and Supervising Producer Julie Plec. "House of Cards" features commentary by Producers Chad Fiveash and James Stoteraux. Plus two deleted scenes with optional commentary.
Also, featured is an alternate ending to one of the episodes. A surprising alternate ending that would have changed the relationship dynamics of the whole series between the Kyle and the people very close to him.
* Disc 4: This disc features two audio commentaries for "To C.I.R., With Love" with Producers Julie Plec, Eric Tuchman and writer Bryan Holdman. Also, commentary for "Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" with writers Steven Lilien, Bryan Wynbrandt and director Chris Grismer.
* Disc 6: This disc features 14 deleted scenes with optional commentary by producer Julie Plec, audio commentary by Producer Julie Plec, writers Chris Hollier and Rudy Gaborno for "I've Had the Time of My Life". Also, a featurette in regards to "The Science of KYLE XY" which comes from Albert Einstein's gestation in the womb may have led to him being a genius, so the concept of what if a person gestated for 16 years rather than nine months?
"KYLE: XY" is a fantastic series and I was very impressed by the second season from the characters to the enjoyable storylines but most importantly, how much they included on the DVD set.
It's one thing to get a television series box set with commentary but for this second season, they really go all out with commentary by actor Matt Dallas, the producers, the writers and you learn so much about the shows filming process through the commentary. From awkward scenes and even some talent disagreements, the producers were very straightforward in their commentary and know what they wanted to accomplish in each episode.
And the deleted scenes, of course, so much is filmed each episode and scenes longer than the 40 minutes allowed, thus it was good to hear the commentary of why certain things were cut out and not included in the final cut. And of course, additional featurettes that really go into the series and the talent behind the series which was great to see.
As mentioned earlier, I really enjoyed the character dynamics and how everyone just really works well with each other. I don't think I've been this giddy by a youthful sci-fi drama series since "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and it was one of those series on which I couldn't stop watching each episode on DVD one after the other. It's that good!
Overall, a fantastic series on DVD. This DVD set of "KYLE XY" is loaded with special features that I'm sure fans of the series will definitely be thrilled about. Highly recommended!
