Fans of the Nickelodeon boy band TV series “Big Time Rush” will enjoy this fun and enjoyable series featuring the last six episodes and TV movie of the first season. Also, includes the pilot episode of “House of Anubis”. If you enjoy “Big Time Rush”, this series is definitely worth checking out!
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DVD TITLE: Big Time Rush: Season One, Volume Two
DURATION: 6 episodes/1 movie (Duration: 192 Minutes)
DVD INFORMATION: Full Screen Format, Dolby Digital (English Stereo), Closed Caption
COMPANY: Nickelodeon/Paramount
RATED: G
RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2011
Directed by Savage Steve Holland, Jonathan A. Rosenbaum, Jonathan Judge, David Kendall, Paul Lazarus, Joe Menendez, Stewart Schill
Written by Scott Fellows, Jed Spingarn, Ron Holsey, Mark Fellows, Lazar Saric, Dave Schiff, Keith Wagner
Produced by Debra Spidell, Joanne Toll, Lazar Saric
Executive Producer: Scott Fellows, Marjorie Cohn
Associate Producer: Audra Rodgers
Co-Producer: Jed Spingarn
Music by Dusty Moon, Guy Moon
Cinematography by Carlos Gonzalez, Mike Mickens
Edited by Jeff Wright
Casting by Geralyn Flood
Production Design by Deborah Raymond, Tom Lenz
Art Direction by Dorian Vernacchio, Amy Gavin
Set Decoration by Diane Yates
Costume Design by Elaine Montalvo
Starring:
Kendall Schmidt as Kendall Knight
James Maslow as James Diamond
Carlos Pena as Carlos Garcia
Logan Henderson as Logan Mitchell
Ciara Bravo as Katie Knight
Stephen Kramer Glickman as Gustavo Rocque
Tanya Chisholm as Kelly Wainwright
Challen Cates as Mrs. Knight
Erin Sanders as Camille
David Anthony Higgins as Reginald Bitters
Matt Riedy as Arthur Griffin
Katelyn Targer as Jo Taylor
Special Guest Stars: Favio, Jordin Sparks
Being in a pop group definitely has its big time highs and lows. Follow the guys of BTR on their sometimes bumpy (yet entertaining!) road to success, as they prep for their album release, meet and greet with bloggers and celebrities, plan the biggest dance party The Palm Woods has ever witnessed, and even catch a little Hollywood fever along the way!
Fun and enjoyable! The boy band Big Time Rush is back and their second DVD (featuring the second half episodes of season one) focuses on Big Time Rush continuing their music career, learning the ropes of how to behave with media and also finding out how the business works. But all may be lost when the guys lose their recording contract!
In 2009, “Big Time Rush”, a Nickelodeon TV series about four friends: Kendall Knight (played by Kendall Schmidt), James Diamon (played by James Maslow), Carlos Garcia (played by Carlos Pena Jr.) and Logan Mitchell (played by Logan Henderson) who become the popular boy band Big Time Rush.
The guys love to have fun but before they can become music stars, they need to be trained courtesy of their manager Gustavo Rocque (played by Stephen Kramer Glickman) of Rocque Records and Kelly Wainright (played by Tanya Chisholm).
Meanwhile, to make sure that they don’t get into too much trouble, Kendall’s mother Jennifer and his younger and very bright sister Katie try to watch over the band, while they stay in the Palmwitz (a living area for other music and acting talents trying to make it big in Hollywood), even if the hotel manager, Reginald Bitters (played by David Anthony Higgins) can’t stand them.
“Big Time Rush” was created by Scott Fellows (creator and executive producer of “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide”) who was inspired by the ’60s show “The Monkees”. In order to make the music portion work with this TV series, Nickelodeon partnered with Columbia/Epic Label Group and became the third series to incorporate music into the series like “iCarly” and “Victorious”.
Nationwide casting for the series began in 2007 and of the 1,500 teens and young adults that auditioned, four were selected to be part of the boy band. The show had their one-hour special preview in Nov. 2009 and drew an audience of 3.6 million viewers. The series began in Jan. 18, 2010 and received a total of 7.1 million total viewers (average around 3 million viewers) and became Nickelodeon’s highest rated live-action series debut and remains a popular series for the cable network.
As the series is on its second season, Nickelodeon has released the second volume of the first season (six episodes plus their TV movie) of “Big Time Rush” on DVD.
“Big Time Rush: Season One, Volume Two” features the following episodes (spoilerless summaries):
DISC 1:
- EPISODE 13: Big Time Blogger – The guys are trained to behave when they are interviewed by a well-known music blogger.
- EPISODE 14: Big Time Terror – The guys think that the hotel they are staying out may be haunted.
- EPISODE 15: Big Time Dance – The big dance is coming up and the guys need to find dates.
- EPISODE 16: Big Time Sparks – The guys wish that they can meet a celebrity in Hollywood and their dream comes true when they meet Jordin Sparks.
DISC 2:
- EPISODE 17: Big Time Fever – When members of the group have “Hollywood Fever”, Gustavo tries to find a way to revert them back to their normal lives.
- EPISODE 18: Big Time Video – When some of the young actresses are unable to book parts, their career in Hollywood may be over until they book an audition. Feeling sad for them, the guys feel they can hire them for a part in their first music video.
- EPISODE 19-20: Big Time Concert – In this TV movie, Big Time Rush and crew prepare for their first concert but once they are about to get ready for it, the music label cancels their music contract. Now the guys must go back to Minnesota and return back to their original lives. Meanwhile, Gustavo and Kelly tries to find a way to save the guys careers.
VIDEO, AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Big Time Rush: Season One, Volume Two” is presented in full screen, Dolby Digital (English Stereo). The series is shot via Digital and the picture quality is very good on DVD. Because these are 25-minute episodes, and each disc holds about 5-6 episodes, I didn’t notice any major artifacting or digital noise. But for the most part, fans should be pleased with the video and audio.
There are no subtitles but closed captions are included.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Big Time Rush: Season One, Volume Two” comes with the following special features:
- “House of Anubis” Pilot Episode – (11:51) The pilot episode for Nickelodeon’s new teen show “House of Anubis”.
- Throwing Cam – (:51) Behind-the-scenes footage with the guys throwing a film camera.
- Ride to Mansion – (1:11) Behind-the-scenes footage with the guys at the mansion.
- Stairs – (1:18) Behind-the-scenes footage with the guys showcasing their mime skills.
- Lorenzo Lamas – (1:05) Behind-the-scenes footage with the guys of Big Time Rush and Lorenzo Lamas.
The first time I heard of “Big Time Rush”, it was my little six-year-old nephew just watching videos on the Nickelodeon website and he knew the lyrics of each of the Big Time Rush songs completely. My son who is a big “iCarly” and “Victorious” fan would get into debates with his cousin of which show was better.
But I did catch the pilot as it was included on a “iCarly” DVD I reviewed and I could see where Scott Fellows meant that he wanted to created a series like “The Monkees”, back when I was younger, we had shows like “Kids, Inc.”, including an all-boy band Saturday morning series known as “The Guys Next Door” and “Menudo”.
Since I’ve gotten older, I have watched similar shows in the US as well as a variety of different countries and for the most part, these shows have a pretty significant following. I will admit that the production value of “Big Time Rush” is a lot better than the teen music shows I grew up with back then and the music is pretty catchy and cool as well. And I have to admit, if there was a series that was more true to the style of the original “The Monkees” series, “Big Time Rush” captures that look and feel. Of course, the stories are more teen driven in “Big Time Rush” compared to “The Monkees”. Also, it’s cool that the episodes have a few cameos from celebrities as well.
Now, if I was to catch these shows today, of course, I would view these older shows as teenage comedy as fun, campy and the same can be said about “Big Time Rush”.
But these shows are created for the younger demographic and as I have seen my little nephew memorize the lyrics to their songs and just watch him sitting down and jamming to Big Time Rush, it’s indicative of other youngsters or teens as part of those three million viewers who love the show.
With this second volume, I actually enjoyed the episodes this time around. Felt the guys gel’d quite well and are more comfortable with each other onscreen. Also, what I enjoyed about the series is the series “family” driven storylines. Family as a group, family as those who are part of the band, the crew, the direct family, their friends, etc. The series featured a lot of that, especially with these episodes and leads to the TV movie “Big Time Concert” in which the guys lose out of their record deal and as a family, together, everyone works together in order to bring everyone back to where they belong.
Bare in mind, the series is rated PG and despite it being a Nickelodeon show, it’s a series targeted more to the older children and young teens. Because these guys are teenagers, a lot of their time is spent having fun and wanting a girlfriend. While you do have a strict parent trying to make sure these guys don’t get into trouble.
As for the DVD, unlike the first volume which came with 12 episodes, you get six and a TV movie. Â Although I do feel it’s much better to have complete series releases, I suppose that it’s much more economical to split the season up and offer two volumes that are cheaper for parents and teens to purchase. PQ and AQ is good and there are a few special features included on this DVD.
One of those special features includes the pilot episode of “House of Anubis”, a teen mystery drama co-produced by American/British/Belgium production groups and is an adaptation of the Dutch/German show “Heit Heit Anubis” and is the first series from Nickelodeon made overseas and Nickelodeon’s first original drama since “Caitlin’s Way”.
Overall, Big Time Rush: Season One, Volume Two” is a pretty enjoyable teen series and fans of the guys or the show will definitely enjoy this latest volume!