"At Hoover, football is like a religion, and the players on our high school team are like celebrities." - Alex Binder, Hoover High Senior
Two-A-Days: Hoover High: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jude Clement
The residents of Hoover, Alabama take high school football very seriously. How seriously? Whenever there's a game, local business close so that employees can attend. So seriously that the Hoover High Buccaneers are put up in a hotel before their first game of the season. A home game. Then again, the Bucs are not your average high school team. They enter the 2005 season ranked number two in the nation, riding the wave of a twenty-three game winning streak. They were state champs four out of the five past seasons.
Can the Bucs add another trophy to their case? Only with hard work. The title of this MTV reality series refers to the number of practice sessions held each day - one at 6:30 AM and one after school. The training can be grueling, especially under head coach Rush Propst and defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt.
For the players, more is at stake than a trophy. Roué Alex Binder - a term that surely most of Hoover's varsity cheerleaders will have to look up - needs to have a good season so that that he can earn a scholarship. Otherwise, he won't be able to afford college. Motor-mouth Dwam "Repete" Smith faces a similar situation. His family even moved so that he could play for the Bucs. Team hottie Max Lerner feels pressured because of the lingering after effects of a recent shoulder surgery. Quarterback Ross Wilson has a legacy to fulfill. His older brother led Hoover to several championship wins and is now QB for University of Alabama.
Each episode culminates in a do-or-die game. But not all of the drama is on the field. Who will Kristin, a varsity cheerleader, go to Homecoming with if she dumps Alex? It seems that Alex is rumored to have been stepping out on Kristin. And they've been together for such a long time - almost eight months! Kristin turns to her fellow cheerleaders for advice, but they're not exactly...bright. One has difficulty spelling "revenge" and "sweet" while making a banner for a pep rally. Yes, the varsity cheerleaders seem to have spent too much money on breast augmentation when brain augmentation might have been a better investment.
While the weekly games are suspenseful, the off-the-field drama is less successful. It often feels as spontaneous as one of Coach Propst's immaculately planned plays. This isn't to say that it's fake - it could just be the way the series is edited. With only nine episodes, there isn't much time for subtly or nuance. There also isn't much time for some of the secondary players, like clarinetist Bryan who becomes a self-professed band geek during the off season.
High school students and recent graduates might look at Two-A-Days with a certain amount of recognition and nostalgia. Everyone else will be thrilled that their high school days are far behind them. The series isn't a total success creatively - on and off field plotlines need to be better integrated - but its stellar ratings guaranteed another season. If some of the kinks can be worked out, Two-A-Days could become an even bigger hit.
The nine episodes that make up the first season are divided onto two discs while a third disc holds all of this set's extras. Each disc features one of the Buccaneers - Ross on disc one, Alex on disc two, and Repete on disc three. The discs are housed in three slim, clear keepcases. The back covers include episode names, numbers, and brief synopses. An exception is disc three which showcases a picture of Kristin. The double-sided coversheets show through to the insides of the cases but the interiors are plain. The keepcases are housed in a cardboard sleeve.
The menus are simple to navigate. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or pick an individual one. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes are divided into chapters. This is helpful in that it allows viewers to skip the "previously on" promos and the opening credits.
