One surprising aspect of the second season is that while the show is still definitely a comedy, it does work in some drama as well. But it’s safe to say that season 2 broadened its plotlines a bit more, which isn’t a bad thing when it comes to variety. And there are still amusing satires on everyday life that are exaggerated to extremes, like the boss forcing you to stay late (“Day of the Flecko”), having to fill out tons of paperwork just to be seen by a doctor (“Tickled Pinky”), public transportation and traffic (“Commuted Sentence”), bad hair days (“Hair Licked”), computer errors (“Boob Tubed”), and “deals” that really don’t save you any money at all (“Snowballs”). He suffers plumbing troubles in “Pipe Dreams”, is fed up with being short in “Short Story”, has to get glasses in “Eyes Capades”, risks being deported in “Kiss Me, I’m Foreign”, and holds a garage sale to raise enough money to pay the pizza bill in “Junk Junkies”. Of course, Rocko is still very much the main star. There are also some fine ensemble pieces, like the sublime “Gutter Balls” (bowling comedy at its finest), “Rocko’s Modern Christmas” (Rocko tries to host a Christmas party when some elves move in across the street), and “I Have No Son!” (more on that below). These two don’t even feature Rocko at all. Even the Bigheads get a couple plots to themselves, such as “She’s the Toad” (where Bev writes a company speech for Ed, who’s gone through a nervous breakdown), and “Frog’s Best Friend” (where Bev adopts a dangerous dog, Earl, who doesn’t get along with Ed). Heffer also gets the spotlight in episodes like “Uniform Behavior”, with Heffer reluctantly getting a night job as a security guard but lets the power go to his head (and which eventually turns into a great Shining parody). For example, two plots involve Filburt: “The Lounge Singer”, which involves Filburt living out his dream of being a Frank Sinatra-style crooner, and “Born to Spawn”, where Filburt gets the sudden urge to make a ceremonial trek to a remote breeding island on his 21st birthday. Something I like about the second season is that it explores characters other than Rocko. Living next door to Rocko are a pair of toads, the Bigheads: Ed, who’s perpetually grouchy and wants Rocko to move, and Bev, who is also fairly grumpy but is more neighborly and keeps Ed in line. He’s simultaneously aided and hampered by his friends: Heffer, a happy-go-lucky, corpulent, gluttonous cow, and Filburt, a timid, glasses-wearing, superstitious, allergy-suffering turtle. In case you came in late, the title character is a wallaby who seems to constantly run into bad luck. Given that the first was already strong, that’s pretty impressive. Rocko’s Modern Life‘s second season is an improvement over the first.
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