The Osbournes: The 2nd Season

BY Stuart GreenPublished Jan 1, 2006

Having turned their perverse, voyeuristic novelty show into an international hit, rock music's premier dysfunctional family continues to exploit its pain for mass consumer gain. With the first season having made bigger stars of Ozzy Osbourne's family than the patriarch himself, they understandably enjoy more air time in the second season's ten episodes.

It's now more than just laughing at a punch-drunk Ozzy shuffling around the house and negotiating dog shit on the living room floor, or trying to decipher his garbled, brain-damaged slurring, which isn't as funny as some of the priceless lines he comes up with. The show is more like a real life show with some drama, tension, laughs and poignancy. The most jarring aspect is Sharon Osbourne's bout with cancer.

The show deserves credit for not shying away from the subject and for revealing the family to be perhaps not as over the top as they'd have us believe. There's a lot of love and concern for Sharon from both Ozzy and children Jack and Kelly. But the show is meant to be funny and the fact she comes through the other side allows the producers to intersperse the heavy stuff with the light.

We follow Kelly as she attempts to kick-start her recording career and watch with morbid fascination as Jack turns into an even bigger bratty ahhss-hole (that's British for asshole) than he was before — his behaviour here seems to lay the foundation for the substance abuser he recently became.

For the benefit of American audiences who only got the bleeped version, included are the uncensored versions. The dual audio track extends to the hour of deleted scenes and commentaries, which shed some, but not a whole lot of, light on the family's off-camera life. Plus: deleted scenes, Ozzy translator, on-screen games. (Buena Vista)

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