Tracey Takes On - The Complete Second Season
The Cindy Sherman of comedy takes on all manner of subjects in the second season of her Emmy Award winning series. It begins, of course, with "Sex." In two of the better bits, puffy-lipped TV star Linda Granger tries to resist the charms of a hunky cable guy and boozy make-up artist Ruby Romaine--"like the lettuce"--prepares a porn star for his big scene. Later in "Fantasy," Romaine has a close encounter with a funky alien, while in "Las Vegas," Gardner mounts a disastrous comeback on "the strip of dreams." Other highlights include a sad look back at the childhood of airline steward Trevor Ayliss (with John Mahoney as his father) and caregiver Kay Clark's adventures in crime (with John Spencer as a cop). Other topics include mothers, secrets, 1976, food, movies, money, race relations, supernatural, politics, and music. Truth be told, not all of the characters are created equal. It's no wonder Ullman keeps returning to the colorful Granger and Romaine. Ethnically ambiguous donut shop owner Mrs. Noh Nang Ning and NYC cab driver Chic come perilously close to stereotype—which may be the point--but Her Royal Highness is a whole lot funnier. As with season one,Takes On"takes on" an impressive array of TV stars, like Michael McKean and Timothy Busfield ("Food"), John Stamos ("Movies"), and Spencer'sWest Wingcolleague Bradley Whitford ("Vegas"). It also boasts a bevy of (mostly) big screen names, like Ron Perlman ("Secrets") and John Favreau ("Crime"), while recurring cast members include Julie Kavner, George Segal, and "the folically gifted" Seymour Cassel. In addition, Olivia Newton-John cameos in a dingo-filled flashback revolving around Australian stuntwoman Rayleen Gibson ("Childhood").--Kathleen C. Fennessy