Golden Girls: The Complete Second Season

Review by: Zak Santucci

ZakSantucci@TheCinemaSource.com

I could review this show as a normal person would,
however I'd much rather be somewhat ridiculous and
focus my review on the reason why I have fallen in love
with The Golden Girls' Estelle
Getty. As Sophia in the show, she is
magnificent. Honestly, I found myself wishing before I went to
bed that she was 60 years younger so I could marry
her. Her deal is that she is Dorothy's (Bea
Arthur) mother, despite the fact that in real life
Estelle Getty is actually younger than Bea Arthur.
She is from Sicily and always tells violent stories
but also there's no holding her back as she makes fun
of anyone and everything with a sarcastic comment or
two. She has now officially beat out Heidi Klum as my
dream girl.

For those of you that are considering purchasing the
DVD, I guess I have to put some normal stuff in there.
The plot is that there are four old women living
together, but the twist is that they're pretty racy
and solve their problems over a cheesecake every
night. It's a gorgeous premise. Sophia is the wise
and unadulterated one, Dorothy is her sarcastic and
reasonable daughter, Rose (Betty White) is the
small town idiot, and Blanche (Rue McLanahan)
is a super skanky ho. They all live in a house in
Miami and have a lot of conversations about sex and
make fun of each other. It's the type of banter that
sells sitcoms today.

The Golden Girls is honestly a really
funny show, and this season hosts early appearances by
Mario Lopez (of A.C. Slater fame) and even
George Clooney. But the important thing is
that I'm in love with Sophia. She is by far the
funniest character. Rose is funny as well as the
naïve and innocent member of the group and if you've
seen Betty White's profanity-filled role in Lake
Placid, this show gives it much more meaning. And
very racy, hell, the first 7 episodes topics go as
follows: 1. Rose goes through menopause (and there are
some pretty in depth period discussions), 2. The girls
get arrested for prostitution, 3. Dorothy gets mad
because she thinks Blanche is banging her ex, 4. A
mean neighbor dies (lots of tasteless jokes about her
death ensue), 5. Dorothy's lesbian friend gets a crush
on Rose (An Emmy-winning episode), 6. Blanche's father
marries a woman half his age, 7. Dorothy's son and
Rose's daughter are caught having sex together by
their respective mothers. This sounds like my type of
show, huh? The episode with the neighbor dying and
the lesbian friend are my two favorites, incidentally
they have the same writer. And they're the ones where
Sophia gets to

shine the best. Also the last episode
of the season inspired the sitcom Empty Nest
which I did not know was a spin-off before and sports
one of my favorite tv show theme songs (right behind
Ren and Stimpy, Dukes of Hazzard, and
Magnum P.I.).

However, this show has a lot more to it. It's a
display of old people as just like everyone else and
not caught up in old-fashioned ideas or really boring
things like most people think. They date, they work,
they kid around, and most importantly they enjoy each
other's company immensely. And even though the show's
fictionalized, there are four fine actresses on the
screen there saying the lines and taking on the topics
that people normally don't associate with 60 year old
women.

My only real criticism of the show itself is that
while for the first disk and a half I was enthralled,
for the last one the jokes started to get old. Yes, I
understand, Blanche is a slut and Rose is boring and
stupid. However, each episode recycles formats for
jokes. You know how Austin Powers would kinda
use the same jokes but not really? That's sort of how
this show is. But they keep in enough variety to keep
you lively and keep the show enjoyable.

Overall, the show's great. Only other problem I had
was that there were no extras except for a quiz on the
first disk that actually had nothing to do with the
show at all. It was odd. And the announcer for the
"game show" the viewer was playing was really
obnoxious. For extras I could have used a naked photo
spread of Estelle Getty or something, but no. But
seriously, at least some commentary, I'm sure there
was some real interesting backstage stuff, concept
ideas, anything. Regardless, it's a hysterical show
and consistently made me laugh. Hope you enjoy.

Season Grade: B+

DVD Features Grade: D

Overall Grade: B