Posted on: July 23, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

I feel that the second season of 30 Days was actually stronger than the first one, but that FX seemed to sabotage that by not having too much in the way of advertisements for the show. The second season consists of six different episodes, “Immigration”, “Outsourcing”, “Atheist & Christian”, “New Age”, “Pro-Life, Pro-Choice” and “Jail”, each of which places individuals into a situation that is diametrically opposed to their own. For example, “Immigration” places an individual from the Minuteman group in the home of illegal immigrants, and forces Frank (that individual) to work as a day laborer for the money that ey will use to support eirself.

The “Outsourcing” episode does not seem to turn the tables on the main individual (Chris Jopin, a computer programmer); where Chris had eir job outsourced to India, ey has to go to India and take up a job that was outsourced. Individuals, regardless of whether they have had a chance to actually watch 30 Days before, must watch the “Jail” episode. This episode goes back to the style perfected during “Supersize Me” and actually brings director Morgan Spurlock back as the focal point of the episode. This episode brings Spurlock into custody at the Henrico County Jail in Virginia, where ey for all intensive purposes ahs to take up the life of a prisoner.

This means that ey only gets two visits over the course of the thirty days, while working nearly two-thirds of a day shifts at the jail’s kitchen. “Jail” will give viewers a slightly different perspective than shows like Lockdown and Lockup have, as it really portrays the prison experience as really soul-crushing . The bonus features that are present during this DVD set are few in number, but are pretty strong in quality. This means that there is a commentary for two episodes – “Jail” and “Immigration”. The third season of 30 Days has just ended (capped off by the stellar “Life on an Indian Reservation” episode, and it will only be a matter of time before that season is brought to DVD by FX and Arts Alliance America. Make sure to pick this and the first season up, and take a look into how the other half lives; with over four hours of footage, viewers will have a lot of material that they will have to digest.

Rating: 8.0/10

30 Days: The Complete Second Season / 2008 Arts Alliance America / 270 Minutes / http://www.artsallianceamerica.com /

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