The Cleveland Show: The Complete Season Two

Considering the irreverent and politically incorrect humour pervasive throughout The Cleveland Show (aka Black Family Guy), I have to assume the syntactically incorrect box set title, "The Complete Season Two," is intentional for reasons I'll avoid stating outright. It makes sense considering the frequent jokes about the Polish, fat people with frog tongues and midget (or little people) mayhem. While nowhere near as offensive as Family Guy, or even American Dad, for that matter, there's still a propensity for sexual humour not seen on broader prime time animated fare like The Simpsons. And while this second season is more consistent than the first, having a solid roster of characters and a developed world, it's actually quite a bit tamer than the first, following plotlines about Cleveland flirting with a stalker and Cleveland Jr. being ridiculed on Halloween after dressing up like a pancake, rather than actively insulting ersatz celebrities like Chloe Sevigny. Amidst the standard shenanigans that never quite reach hilarious status, the episodes often play off gimmicks, like a "Cleveland Live" satire and a send up of Comic-Con and '70s exploitation films with Robert Rodriguez. They also spend a lot of time preoccupied with guest stars like Will.i.am, Kanye West and Justin Timberlake (as a singing booger), playing off celebrity recognition instead of focusing on plotlines and comedy. They even focus on this in the special features, wherein they discuss what it was like to work with different celebrity guest stars, putting them on commentary tracks whenever possible. It's probably interesting for the cult of celebrity contingent, but for anyone not awe-stricken by straw-head actors and musicians it's sort of dull. Also included with the box set are an abundance of deleted scenes and uncensored episodes ― so you can hear John Slattery repeatedly say "fuck" ― and an amusing "Worry Journal" by Cleveland Jr., where he reflects on his concern about getting raped by a sexually predatory skunk should a trail of white paint slide down his back. There's also a supplement on Comic-Con, which is pretty much like every other DVD supplement on Comic-Con on just about every related box set.