Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Part 2 of 4. You should really start at the beginning. If you haven't checked out Season 1 or at least read about it you're starting in the middle of the "book." I'm going to build on rather than repeat the #1 review so even if you don't plan to get it (though if you're going to get #2 I don't know why you wouldn't want #1) at least read the review to get a feel for the style of the show.

Since you're likely to also be a fan of Matt Groening's Simpsons series I'll use it as a comparison. Season 2 of The Simpsons was a major improvement in quality as well as a solidifying of the character designs, personalities, and voices. Futurama season 2 is also an improvement over #1 but nowhere near as drastic a change. By the end of #1 the characters were pretty much set in stone so it's difficult to distinguish season 2 episodes from the ones at the end of #1. I think the art improved slightly (3D renders mostly) as did the actors and overall storytelling, but they are subtle improvements that noone but an avid fan of the show is not likely to notice or care about.

As far as the overall story there's not much development. Fry goes through several love interests: Amy, Umbriel, and Michelle. His unquenchable desire for Leela is not yet established. Amy and Kif's relationship is somewhat solidified though she is still playing the field. She has a short relationship with Fry and is seen picking up guys in numerous episodes: she doesn't become a one-amphibian gal until next season. She does show a continuing interest in Kif, though. Zapp's continuing obsession with Leela deepens.

A few recurring characters show up for the first time including the sewer mutants, Cubert, and Flexo. One new character I don't particularly care for is Scruffy. Thankfully his roles are more like cameos. He has some funny moments, but he remains one of my least favorite recurring characters.

I was hoping for a return of Fender from "Hell is Other Robots" and the organ peddler from "My 3 Suns," but Preacherbot, Calculon, Tinny Tim, and others do show up again. Sal changes jobs with his underwear and a different profession every time. It's a running gag that sounds stupid but works.

Richard Nixon shows up frequently and with occasionally sizable roles throughout the series. He's one of my least favorite of the recurring characters, but I guess some people enjoy him if he keeps showing up. Mom and her 3 sons are also frequent. Mom is the type you love to hate and her sons provide some 3 Stooges type comedy.

The stories are some of the most disturbing of any season including a murderous Santa Claus, Fry's head being grafted to Amy's neck, and Fry learning about the anatomy of a mermaid. You'll get more details in the episode guide below. Farnsworth also has the line, "Sweet zombie Jesus!" Which I don't much appreciate. If I were to rank the seasons in the order of the most likely to be offensive this would be at the top of the list. I told you before that you can't be easily offended and enjoy this show, and that applies even more so to #2 than #1.

Content:
There's plenty of bad language once again. I still think Mom in "A Fishful of Dollars" is the worst single scene, but there's plenty unsuitable for young ears around in these episodes. I think every episode has at least a little. There are a couple of episodes with partial female nudity and a couple more with bare male butts. There's some sexual content particularly with Fry and the mermaid, and some violence here and there though it's mostly comical rather than horrifying.

DVD:
The packaging has changed a bit since the initial release so I'm not going to try to detail all of it.  I prefer the original thin clamshell cases in a box with the matching artwork. You can get the first 4 seasons in the Bender's head set as well as individually.

The picture quality is as good as any TV show I've seen aside from HD. The audio is 2.0 rather than 5.1, but it sounds good.

The menus are better because of the animation, music, and creativity. For example, one menu is spray painted on a U-Haul type trailer, and another is written on planks of wood from a crate that explodes. The individual episodes' menus have a common template but with unique items from the corresponding episode scattered around. It's fun to look around.

Chapter division is mostly well done and logical for easy navigation.

Extras:
While there isn't so much that your jaw will drop, you do get more for your $$ than a set of episodes. The most notable of them is the commentary each and every episode has. They all include creator Matt Groening and exec. producer David Cohen. The rest of the speakers vary from episode to episode but include writers, directors, and voice talents Billy West and John DiMaggio. Sometimes they're boring or chaotic with so many people trying to talk at once, but they are more often informative (even if it's useless information) and entertaining particularly when the actors get into character.

The vast majority of the episodes have deleted scenes, and a few have other things. I'll include those in the episode guide at the end. Here are some of the others that you get.

There is a concepts gallery that has some good artwork, an alien alphabet translation guide, and a video game trailer that I don't think is particularly well done.

There are 4 alien ads. These are the three ads shown at the beginning of some of the episodes collected in one easy-access menu. There's a 4th ad that was, as far as I know, never aired. It's for Soylent Chow and features a familiar voice.

Remember the hidden movie poster parodies scattered throughout Vol. 1? This time we get yearbook photos. Here's how to find them all.
Disc 1:
I Second That Emotion menu, highlight Nibbler's 3rd eye (Matt Groening)
Disc 2:
The Lesser of 2 Evils, highlight the crown (David X Cohen)
A Biclops Built for 2, highlight the star medallion (Eric Kaplan)
Disc 3:
How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back, highlight the data disc (Bill Odenkirk)
The Problem With Popplers, highlight Jurr (Patric Verrone)
Disc 4:
War Is The H Word, highlight the bomb activation remote (Eric Horsted)
The Cryonic Woman, highlight I Hate Mondays (J Stewart Burns)

Episodes:
As with all Futurama seasons the airing and productions dates don't match. Volume 2 is the production season, so the seasonal episode lists you find on the net might not be the same as what's actually here (one of the main reasons I like to lay out exactly which episodes are in these kinds of packages).

This one has 19 half hour epsiodes meaning without commercials they clock in at around 22 minutes (give or take).

1) I Second That Emotion: Bender gets an empathy chip after he flushes Nibbler down the toilet. The chip causes him to feel whatever Leela is feeling. After a while he can't stand her sadness at the loss of her pet and goes to the sewers to find him. They meet the sewer mutants who are terrified of El Chupanebre. The trespassers are to be sacrificed to the monster, but Leela thinks it's Nibbler.

This one has an OK deleted scene.

2) Brannigan Begin Again: Zapp finally does something so stupid that he is stripped of his rank. Unemployed (in a sequence parodying Midnight Cowboy) he convinces Prof. Farnsworth to hire him. Since he's a much less strict captain than Leela, Fry and Bender mutiny to put him in charge of the ship. His actions put them in danger of imminent destruction and only Leela can save them, if she's not too ticked off.

This one has a few decent deleted scenes.

3) A Head In The Polls: Bender sells his body for cash, literally. The head of Richard Nixon buys the body and attaches himself to it. Using the mobility that gives him he runs for president of the world. Bender wants his body back, though, and implores Fry and Leela to help. Claudia Schiffer has a cameo.

This one has a decent deleted scene.

4) Xmas Story: In the year 3000 Santa is a large, murderous robot. As a result the holiday previously known as Christmas has been officially renamed Xmas and is a day of utter terror for everyone. Fry is targeted by robo Santa, and Leela rushes to help only to become a target herself.

Conan O'Brien makes a cameo and John Goodman plays Santa.
This one has a few funny deleted scenes.

5) Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love: It's mating time on Zoidberg's planet. He goes back to find a woman, but when he does she falls for Fry. Fry has no interest in dating such an alien, but Zoidberg's male jealousy blinds his reasoning. He challenges Fry to a death duel for the honor of "his" woman.

This one has a few funny deleted scenes and an animatic which is basically pencil drawings of the episode with temporary dialogue. It's like watching a coloring book. If you like the episode you'll enjoy this alternate version of it.

6) The Lesser Of 2 Evils: Fry runs over another bending robot, Flexo, that turns out to be the spitting image of Bender except for having a beard. Fry is jealous of the friendship Bender develops with Flexo, but Farnsworth hires the bot as extra security to guard a particularly valuable cargo. When the cargo is stolen Flexo turns up missing bringing the rest of the crew in hot pursuit.

Bob Barker has a small role.
This one has a deleted scene that's not that great.

7) Put Your Head On My Shoulders: Fry and Amy start dating. When they decide to break up they get into a terrible car accident. The only way to save Fry is to temporarily graft his head onto Amy's shoulders. Problem is, with them no longer a couple they want different dates for Valentine's Day.

This one has a decent deleted scene.

8) Raging Bender: Bender picks a fight at a movie theatre and gets recruited for the Ultimate Robot Fighting League. Leela becomes his trainer because she wants revenge on her old Martial Arts master who mistreated her. Bender is torn between throwing the final fight and appeasing his boss or sticking it out for Leela and getting the gears beat out of him.

Rich Little and Russ Leatherman make cameos.
This one has a few funny deleted scenes.

9) A Biclops Built For 2: Leela meets another Cyclops online. She finds him in real life and learns the tragic history of their race. She's ready to repopulate their race with him, but she learns he is not what he appeared to be. There's a great parody of Married With Children in it.

This one has a few deleted scenes that are kind of funny and a storyboard gallery. If you like storyboards this one goes from beginning to end. It's hard to read the text, though, and is very long.

10) A Clone Of My Own: Farnsworth is near the end of his life. He has reached the age where people are taken to the Near Death Star, a sort of Matrix-style rest home. His clone Cubert is named his successor, but Cubert doesn't share his creator's vision. The crew wants Farnsworth back, but no one knows where the Near Death Star is. Cubert is along for the ride whether he wants to be or not and begins to realize that the Prof. may not be full of hot air after all.

This one has some very funny deleted scenes.

11) How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back: Hermes is obsessed with being a perfect bureaucrat, so when his review goes badly he loses his reason to live. His reviewer falls for Fry, and so she names herself as Hermes' replacement. She removes Bender's memory and ships it to HQ. Only a bureaucrat can get the memory back so it's up to Hermes to save the day. Includes a nifty musical number.

Nora Dunn guest stars.

12) The Deep South: The crew finds the lost city of Atlanta. It's deep in the ocean and inhabited by merpeople. Fry falls for a hot, young mermaid but calls it off when he realizes she doesn't have the anatomy needed for them to copulate. The crew meanwhile is trying to fix the sunken Planet Express ship before it is crushed by the weight of the ocean.

Singer Donovan sings, and Parker Posey plays Umbriel (obvious parody of Ariel).
This one has a deleted scene about Zombie Jesus. Glad it got cut.

13) Bender Gets Made: Bender joins the Mafia only to find out they plan to hit the Planet Express ship. He has to find a way to fool the mobsters into thinking he's on their side while saving his friends without them knowing he's doing it.

This one has a deleted scene that's best to watch after you've listened to the commentary.

14) Mother's Day: Everything with AI, which includes everything from robots to cars, to coffee pots, revolt in an attempt to make Mom ruler of the world. The only thing that can stop them is a remote control Mom keeps hidden in her underwear. The only way to get to it is to get her naked, not an easy, or desirable, task. If Farnsworth can rekindle his romance with her, there may be a chance.

15) The Problem With Popplers: The crew lands on a planet in hopes of finding food. They come across craters full of unidentified, shrimp shaped things that taste incredible. They take some back to Earth and market them as Popplers. Leela realizes they are sentient beings, and though she was the start of them being marketed as food, she becomes the strongest opposition to people eating them. To make matters worse it turns out that Popplers are infant Omicronians, and they want revenge. They want to make an example out of Leela, and only her campaign against eating Popplers has a chance of saving her.

Phil Hendrie guest stars.
This one has a deleted scene with a Honeymooners tribute.

16) Anthology Of Interest 1: A collection of 3 stories. Farnsworth wants to show off his What If Machine. It can take a hypothetical set of circumstances and display what would happen. Bender wonders what would happen if he were 50 feet tall. He would go on a human killing spree. Leela wonders what would happen if she were less inhibited. She would become a serial killer. Fry wonders what would happen if he didn't come to the future. He ends up destroying the universe. This is one of my all-time favorite episodes.

Lots of cameos including Al Gore, Nichelle Nichols, Stephen Hawking, and Gary Gygax.

17) War Is The H Word: Earth is at war with a race of balls. Zapp is leading the troops into war so of course they're ineffectual. Bender is secretly set to explode and sent on a negotiation meeting with the enemy. All he has to do is say a particular word and BOOM!!

This one seems to have a lot of Starship Troopers references.

18) The Honking: Bender's uncle Vladimir shuts down leaving his castle to Bender if he will only spend a night in it. They soon realize that the place is haunted by robot ghosts (which sounds stupid since robots don't have spirits, but there's actually a pretty good explanation). Bender is struck by a werecar (like a werewolf except robots turn into cars and try to run over people). They must find and destroy the original werecar if Bender is to go back to normal before he kills one of his friends. This one has numerous horror movie parodies including Dracula, The Howling, Christine, and others.

This one has some deleted scenes that are kind of funny but really not that special.

19) The Cryonic Woman: The PE crew gets fired and has to go back to their original jobs. Leela mixes up the career chips, and Fry actually gets her cryogenics job while she becomes a delivery "boy." Fry discovers his girlfriend has been frozen. Once she is thawed they rekindle their relationship, but all is not happy between them. She cannot stand the creatures Fry associates himself with so she persuades him to freeze himself with her for another 1000 years. They awaken in a desolate wasteland and discover they can't stand each other.

Pauly Shore has a cameo.
This one has some deleted scenes that includes a great asteroid scene.

Final Thoughts:
If you liked season 1 you will most likely enjoy this one more. I would like to have had a Play All feature as well as a table reading so we could see and hear the actors in their roles. The creative animated menus are an improvement, but most everything else was high quality already. If I were giving half stars I would give this one 4.5, but I keep going back to watch this enough to give it 5*.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age