21 Jump Street: The Complete Second Season

The second season of this FOX action series continued to blend pop and politics together in an irresistible mix. People who were tuning in to drool over Johnny Depp (among others) may have subsequently had no idea they were getting a dose of `issues'. Building on the success of last season, this series talked about issues much more directly than the standard after school special.

"Two for the road" has the Jump Street squad confront the dilemma of what to do when their superior officer, Adam Fuller, is arrested for drunk driving during the investigation of a counterfeit drivers license ring. Because these cops are also supposed to have a clearly defined sense of right and wrong, they are visibly shaken by such a development inside their own tight knit group. Hinting at his own (then-upcoming) 90's issue-laden series, Jason Priestly guest stars in this episode.

"Honor Bound" is a junior grade foreshadowing of the gays in the military debate of the early 1990's. Penhall and Hansen go undercover at a military academy after the cadets are suspected of killing homosexuals. Their interpretation of the military code of honor subsequently prevents many cadets at this school from being open with the Jump Street program cops about what has happened. The cops are troubled by this development, but many of the cadets honestly had internalized their own silence as the normal and respectable thing.

Another riveting emotional storyline comes from Christmas in Saigon, when Harry Ioki is revealed to be working under an illegal alias which he used to escape from Vietnam. Based on the real life experiences of actor Dustin Ngyuen, this storyline asked viewers to consider that illegal immigrants were actually friends and coworkers. This issue remains amazingly relevant today.

One episode which does not translate well into 21st century America is "A big disease with a little name". Hansen must protect a youth with AIDS from being harassed by ignorant and scared peers. It is difficult to explain to many present-day elementary school and junior high school students that public schools across the country had once attempted to bar people with AIDS, the national cases of Ryan White and Ricky Ray undoubtedly had helped to influence this storyline.

Overall, this is another excellent season which would be a good purchase for the 1980's and/or Depp aficionado on your list.

I never saw 21 Jump Street when it originally aired but having become a fan of Johnny Depps in recent years I was anxious to check it out. Season One started off slow to me, I thought the show much improved when Jenko was replaced by Capt.Fuller. The picture was not sharp on Season One either. Even though I was slighty dissapointed with Season One I decided to give Season Two a try. It is MUCH better! The cast has really started to gel, especially Depp and Deluise. There are some outstanding stories, in particular an episode called Orphius 3.3 which I think really shows what talent a very young Johnny Depp has. The picture quality is also very much improved. As far as the complaints about the music being replaced, well, I never saw the original airings anyway so it hasn't bothered me a bit. I recommend the Season Two DVD's to any Jump Street fans or Johnny Depp fans.

I don't understand why you would give an entire season of a show on DVD a poor rating just because the music has changed! What about the writing and the acting and even the lighting? There must have been other aspects of this show that you enjoyed. I mean, it wasn't an opera!

I'm sure the DVD producers would have kept the music the same if they could have gotten the rights to the songs, but clearly the music industry has some issues. Why not write and complain to the companies and individuals that refused to give the rights to the songs that you liked so very very very very much to the DVD producers, instead of giving the entire DVD a poor rating based on something the DVD producers probably couldn't do anything about (short of not releasing the show at all)?

Personally, I didn't even notice that the music was different. Any song they used on this show originally has probably been played a million times by now. I mean, it's 2005, and they were written in the 1980's for heaven's sake! Sure they probably enhanced the show at the time, and it would have been nice to have everything the same as before, but they hardly make or break the entire production.

I'm really glad that they are putting all these old shows out on DVD. If you liked 21 Jump Street the first time around, for any reason besides the music, then you should be very happy with this set. It looks and sounds great, and it has wonderful commentary on one episode (see below). If you only liked it for the music, go buy some used CD's and QYB.

(Oh, and to the person who was upset about Peter DeLuise not giving an interview...he provides truely excellent commentary for an episode in both the first and the second season. He gives you all sorts of fun behind-the-scenes stuff, and he is neither bored nor boring, which is tons more than can be said for most people who do commentaries. Please, cool TV and movie people with nothing better to do than read lame reviews on Amazon, if you are going to do a commentary on a DVD, do your fans a favor and watch this guy's first!)