Laguna Beach: The Complete Second Season DVD Credits:

Region: 1

Laguna Beach: The Complete Second Season DVD Release Date: 24th July 2006

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Laguna Beach: The Complete Second Season DVD Review:

As embarrassing as it may seem, I love The O.C. and will defend the quality of the show (at least through the second season), but Laguna Beach is about as real as The O.C. in my mind. Not only do I believe it to be the least real of all reality programming, but I have no interest in watching spoiled little rich kids whining about their high school relationship drama. I am sure that this show is a big hit for the fourteen-year-old girls in areas of considerably less wealth, but anyone with the intelligence to spot the trickery and forced situations in the show’s set-up will realize that Laguna Beach is a generic machine designed to create instant celebrities of nothingness. At the same time it is easy to get dragged into the drama and find yourself watching while feeling guilty for listening to the word “like” more than any word should be said in such a short amount of time.

Season two begins with a homecoming episode where all of the college teens return, but quickly after that season two focuses on the drama of the new seniors. There are plenty of relationship problems, mostly because the spoiled brats have no consideration for each others feelings and they string a web of games with each others hearts. Basically, there is the usual selfish behavior seen by teenager, only with the added ego of money and newfound celebrity.

The people that deserve the most praise for a show like Laguna Beach are the editors. They work magic on the material they are given in order to manipulate it to be the most drama filled episodes as possible. Each sequence is elaborately pieced together, with constant issues being far more important than continuity. There are scenes which seem perfectly arranged to ensure that audiences will misinterpret certain character intentions. I call them characters because the kids at the center of the “reality show” have been groomed for the camera to fit certain roles, and I can no longer see them as real people, because with the camera on them they never act like real people. They are the worst actors on television, but it is obvious that they are acting through many staged scenes. The dead giveaway is the high school boys that ask each other about personal subjects. Anyone who has ever known a teenage boy knows that they are not too generous about asking sensitive questions to their friends.

If it sounds as though I am too harsh on this show, I will regress a bit and admit that it sucked me in. As I hated each minute I found myself unable to turn it off. It is perhaps the worst guilty pleasure I have ever experienced because there is absolutely no worth in any of the show. It is all just fake entertainment that is impossible to pull away from.

In case you haven’t seen enough of the drama and silly conversations there are a number of deleted scenes on the third disc of this three disc set. There are also cast interviews, which I had a difficult time swallowing. Some of the other features are just obsessive, such as the Laguna Memories feature which has old home videos and childhood photos. There are also Laguna Beach highlights, behind the scenes of photo shoots and the season finale. The worst of the features is the Laguna Guide to Love. The last thing in the world that anyone need to do is take relationship advice from this wretched show.

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Laguna Beach: The Complete Second Season DVD review written by: Ryan Izay