The Good
A solid show that mixes light humor with some deadly stories.
The Bad
No extras.
Diagnosis Murder: The Complete Second Season brings us more adventures of Dr. Mark Sloan (Dick Van Dyke) and his team which includes Dr. Jack Stewart (Scott Baio), Amanda Bentley (Victoria Rowell) and Detective Steve Sloan (Barry Van Dyke). Together they work to solve crimes of a medical nature. Some of the standout episodes in this set are "Many Happy Returns," which sees Dr. Sloan get audited and chased by the police. "You Can Call Me Johnson," sees Dr. Sloan get in deep with the mob when Jack's "godfather" unfortunately dies during a medical procedure. Seeing Dick Van Dyke's reactions to this situation is priceless. "The Bela Lugosi Blues," examines how the loss of blood killed two men. However, Dr. Sloan isn't so quick to accept the facts at face value. Lastly, "How To Murder Your Lawyer" mixes medicine with the law as Sloan and his team trying and figure out why someone is after Steve's law professor.
Features
No Extras came with this DVD.
Video
Full Screen Format. This show looked good but it seemed a tad worn for only last being on TV in 1994. The colors weren't falling apart on the screen or anything, but they did seem to lack a certain kind of zing that I think I've come to expect from shows compressed to DVD. There's nothing too special about the way these shows look, but that doesn't really hurt them.
Audio
Dolby Digital - English Stereo. The audio for Diagnosis Murder: The Complete Second Season was solid but not great. The audio levels stayed pretty much the same over all the discs. They haven't done too much work with the sound design but it doesn't seem like they need to. Also, it looks like Paramount has done a good job of looking after those assets in the vault.
Package
The front of this slipcase cover features Van Dyke and the rest of the aforementioned cast with what looks like the hospital corridors behind them. The back features another shot of this cast that is obviously Photoshopped. There is a description of what this show is about and some technical specs. All six discs are stored in three slim cases and I guess my biggest question is why Paramount didn't go the digipack route with this release? The covers of these cases feature Van Dyke, Baio and Rowell and on the back there is a description of each episode and its airdate.
Final Word
What I really like about this show is its tone. In a lot of ways it's like Matlock except that Van Dyke is doing the role that Andy Griffith did on that show. He is an old medical mind who uses his brains and his resourceful team to get to the bottom of cases that have perplexed others. It's always Sloan against the bad guys and no matter what happens, no matter how dire the situations seem, Sloan and his team always seem to make bad people pay for their actions. Sure, there are times when you'd like to see some of the bad characters get away with their crimes, but this show has enough levity so that we don't root against our main characters. After all, seeing people like Sloan, Stewart and Bentley work as hard as they do, and deal with some of the people and situations they are put up against, it isn't like things are always rosy for this crew. That tone sticks out more than anything in this show and that's what helps make it so enjoyable.
Diagnosis Murder: The Complete Second Season is a lot of fun to watch and, even though it is devoid of extras, should make the fans happy.
Diagnosis Murder was released .