Boss: Season Two

The second (and final) season of Starz's series starring Kelsey Grammer as hard-driving Chicago mayor Tom Kane takes up where the first left off, continuing to follow Kane's Machiavellian maneuvers to outfox political foes and scandal-hungry reporters while also struggling to keep a degenerative brain disorder hidden from everyone but a trusted few. Episodes are structured around various continuing threads, including Kane's deteriorating physical condition (marked by tremors and increasingly frequent hallucinations); the ramifications of an assassination attempt in which a bullet strikes his wife, Meredith (Connie Nielsen), rather than Kane; a straight-arrow newspaper editor's crusade to bring the mayor down; the battle over a huge redevelopment project; a hard-fought gubernatorial campaign; and the threat that the city might go bankrupt. But there are also plenty of secondary plotlines centered on ambitious aides and assorted domestic troubles, including Kane's estrangement from his daughter, Emma (Hannah Ware). Boss has a strong melodramatic air, heightened by Grammer's bombastic performance, often making it feel like little more than an overwrought soap opera in a political setting. Still, the cast is solid, and the Windy City locations offer a nice change from the anonymous backgrounds found in most American television series. Compiling all 10 episodes from 2012, extras include episode audio commentaries, and a behind-the-scenes featurette. Despite the fact that the show ends somewhat abruptly—with cliffhanger elements—this is a strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)