MASH is one of my top 10 favorite TV Shows of all time and it is a joy to see the antics of these Mobile Army Surgical Hospital doctors. I am not a big fan of seasons 1-3 because the characters seem to too cartoonish for me and story lines seem a little weak. I guess the producers wanted to keep close to the movie which was a little on the corny side. With these faults, the show remains a classic for all generation and the dialogue is rather simple to understand. Season 2 continues the tone for the introduction part of the show to millions of viewers.

If I rated Films or TV Series based on whether I liked them, I would have rated the entire series a 5 or a 6, but I rarely do this. Each episode is high quality and the sound is great. They bring back the joy I originally had when I first saw them minus the commercials (which are really not that important.) One problem exists the DVD itself dose not have a lot of features. You can not "play all", there are no filmographies or even a list of the extra and cameos that made M*A*S*H one of the best shows. It would have been more interesting to see where all those extras went off to do.

I highly recommend the series with these limitations.

Enjoy

I am very pleased with this product. it came in without a blemish on any of the disks which allowed me to watch the most awesome 2 season of a series!!!!!!! i love mash! alan alda is brilliant!

The best seasons of MASH, for me, are those that feature the final cast grouping - with B.J., Potter, and Winchester - but this second season of MASH is still very enjoyable (and better than the first). The original cast is in its best form here, comfortably settled into their characters. My objection to the early seasons is twofold: (1) everyone behaves more or less the same way (e.g. everyone cheats on their spouse) so there's a redundancy of characters; (2) Frank is too buffoonish to serve as an effective foil for Hawkeye and Trapper. Luckily, there is a lot of variety in this season - they are not all Burns vs. Hawkeye and Trapper storylines. More importantly, we start to get a glimpse of the underlying respect that Margaret has for Hawkeye - she can separate the skills of the brilliant surgeon from the sophmoric prankster, much to her credit as a growing character.

Also importantly, we continue to get a sense of the growing extended family of the 4077 Field Hospital. Psychiatrist Sydney Friedman makes a couple of appearances, and Klinger's role continues to grow. Most importantly is the injection of the warmth and humanity of Father Mulchahey - he brings a needed dose of down-to-earthiness, and is presented with respect and sympathy (unlike many Catholic priests in sitcoms).

The key to the success of MASH was the development of controversial storylines. In this season, they tackle racism (several times) and homosexuality. Captain Pak, the Korean liaison officer, gets into a couple of episodes and has some choice lines regarding the "assistance" of U.S. troops on Korean soil ("We thank you from the bottom of our bomb craters") - a comment on war in general that would resonate with current Iraqi and Afghan civilians. Other highlights include a trip through the empire-building beauracrats of any large military operation in "The Incubator", Trapper deciding to desert so he can see his daughters in "Mail Call", Hawkeye and Margaret running the hospital by themselves (and dragooning Radar and Mulchahey as nurses) in "Carry on Hawkeye", and Korean squatters moving into the compound claiming it's their farmland in "The Chosen People". The biggest guest star of the season is John Ritter as a post-trauma stress disordered patient who threatens to kill Frank in "Deal Me Out." There are also some episodes played straight for laughs, the best being "Five-O'Clock Charlie", wherein an inept North Korean in an ancient crop duster attempts to blow up a nearby ammo dump every day at 5 pm.

Unfortunately, this is another bare-bones disc, featuring the episodes only. There is the option to play with or without the laugh track (when played without there are some weird pauses where the laughter would be, but overall it's much preferable to that inane 70's laughter!).

MASH season 2 starts as a re-introduction. The first episode gives you a great synopsis of the show thus far, and to some degree where it's going.

The totality of the season in better than season 1. With episodes like "The incubator", "Five-O'clock Charlie" (my wife's favorite episode for the whole series), "Smattering of Intelligence" this is really a great season for MASH, and probably one of the better ones.

You also see some of the characters really come into their own. Col. Blake shows his true comedic leadership style, Hawkeye and Trapper are really at their peak as the dynamic duo. Radar begins to take on the personality that made him famous on the show. Klinger makes several memorable episodes, and you also see for the first time some of the cast that will follow the the whole series. Col. Flagg shows up at the end of the season and shows why his commitment to craziness makes him unforgettable. Maj. Sidney Freeman also shows up, and his calmness through everything is so amazing I find myself immediately liking him.

Pat Morita shows up as well in a few episodes. I wish he stayed around for more. Also in the episode with the nose job, the soldier that gets the nose job is one of the two voices that you hear over the intercom through the entire series.

The season also has two of the best directors for the whole series in Jackie Cooper and Hy Averback. Honestly Averback's shows are some of the best for the whole series.

In short this is the season that put the series on people's minds. If you plan on buying just a few of the seasons, then buy this one. It truly is a great season.

The first two dvds are fine however the third dvd doesnot play right. First part of the program has many squares and skips. The rest of the episodes play alright.