Walker: Season Two Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Walker: Season Two Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 31, 2024

Jared Padalecki was half of the one-two punch that was Supernatural's Winchester Bros. Along with Jensen Ackles's grim-n-gruff fan-favorite Dean, Padalecki's soft-hearted Sam traversed the countryside hunting, battling and staking everything from vamps to angels to other creatures of lore, all of which was more compelling than the reboot of Walker. Nothing against the former Sammy W, but he's decidedly miscast as the CW's Cordell Walker, the iconic Texas Ranger Chuck Norris immortalized in the '90s over the course of nine seasons and more than two-hundred episodes. Norris wasn't as natural an actor as Padalecki, but he nailed stoicism and hard-kicking toughness with ease. The new Walker is... tamer, warmer, more cuddly and certainly less worthy of the hundreds of Chuck Norris jokes the elder statesman of asskickery embodied. It's hardly Padalecki's fault. He does fine work with what he's handed. The series would actually be a notch better if it were named something entirely different, rather than drawing comparisons to its predecessor. But marketing is as marketing does. Episodic lawman-ing could certainly be worse.

Season Two picks up three months after the dramatic conclusion to Season One, with Texas Ranger Cordell Walker (Padalecki) at last reintegrated into his role in family life on the ranch. However, just as life seems to be getting back to normal, the Hatfields to the Walkers’ McCoys return to the vacant Ranch next door, exhuming memories of a trauma shared between the families from Walker’s childhood: the inscrutable matriarch, Gale Davidson (Paula Marshall); Walker’s childhood love and Travis County’s newest DA, Denise Davidson (Amara Zaragoza); and Denise’s husband with a shady past and a short fuse, Dan Miller (Dave Annable). The series also stars Mason Thames as young Walker, Lindsey Morgan as Walker's partner Micki, Molly Hagan as his mother Abeline, Keegan Allen as his brother Assistant DA Liam Walker, Violet Brinson as his daughter Stella, Kale Culley as his son Auggie, Coby Bell as his former partner, Supernatural alum Mitch Pileggi as his father, Odette Annable as his old friend and barkeep, and Ashley Reyes as his new partner from Dallas.

While not all the series' criticism should be directed at Padalecki, his baby-faced charms, aw-shucks mannerisms and at-times oddly whiny emoting does little for the Walker mythos, much less Norris's rugged appeal and no-nonsense, kick-punch-repeat charisma. It pairs marginally well with the character as reimagined by showrunner Anna Fricke, but it lacks grit and strength, emphasizing Walker's family man roots while pairing his tale with struggles that are a bit too messy for messy's sake. Not all TV heroes need complications ad nauseum, nor does every gunslinger require the most pressing reasons to draw down. (Especially in Texas.) Here, though, so much time is invested in making Walker relatable that the writers forget to make him fun. Or enviable. The kinda guy you'd hope to be on your best day if trapped in an alley with a gang of thugs. The supporting cast isn't much help in that regard either, hewing much too close to the typical CW bench-sitters that litter every other modestly budgeted crime procedural and episodic neo-western. Very little leaps off the screen, and less has personality or, better still, the sort of moxie you can't quite put your finger on but can roundhouse kick the hell out of a baddie. Again, Norris wasn't what you think of when the word Emmy comes to mind, nor was the original Walker, Texas Ranger anything other than a predictable '90s cornball action romp. But it mattered, dammit. Somehow. Wait... did it? Or was I just fourteen and going along for the ride?

Whatever the case, the new Walker isn't going to earn a whole lot beyond further seasons on the CW. It's fine. The writing's fine, the action's fine (sparse as it is), the acting's fine, the storylines are fine, the moral compassing is fine, the drama is, well, fine enough. Perhaps a shorter episode count -- ten rather than eighteen to twenty -- would give the writers' room more focus; force the team to pack more impact into each episode. As is, though, the plotting is languid and the pacing is as slow as a tumblin' tumbleweed. The martial artistry (the former series' mainstay) lags and lacks too, with Padalecki and company giving their all on a few sequences but mainly relying on gunplay, stuntwork, quick cuts and modern editing to cover the seams. With more dramatic and action-oriented power, it all might go or get somewhere. Instead it moseys along without a care in the world, even while it pantomimes care, danger, stakes, heart and humor to inconsistent ends. I can't overstate: Walker isn't a bad show. Simply an average one. Great for a rainy day when there's nothing else to watch, but a waste of time if your queue is piling up with must-watch shows you don't want spoiled on your social media feeds.

Walker: Season Two Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Walker lumbers along with the digital sheen of most CW shows, and you can pretty much take it or leave it. It's not exactly the stuff of TV cinematography legend. But Paramount's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation is nevertheless a technical beaut, with plenty of nicely saturated colors, punchy primaries, lifelike skin tones, and consistently well contrasted black levels. Delineation is quite good, despite the expected increase in digital noise that creeps into the darkest scenes, and detail is crisp and refined, with fairly exacting textures and clean edges. Banding, blocking and other anomalies are also MIA and I didn't catch sight of any significant distractions. Better still, the Blu-ray release of Season Two jetisons Season One's BD-R 50 discs (which don't get along very well with every Blu-ray player) in favor of traditional BD-50s, which will be a bonus for those who found the previous season a high definition no-go. Walker is about as rudimentary a series gets in terms of aesthetics and visual style, but again, Paramount's video presentation doesn't miss a step.

Walker: Season Two Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Walker is a surprisingly talky series, with far more one-on-one conversations and battles of wills than fist fights or other action-oriented sequences. Gunplay and martial arts are often reserved for an opening splash of violence and a concluding climax near the end of an episode, leaving the bulk of the show's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sonics with little to do. Dialogue is at least intelligible, perfectly prioritized and neatly centered throughout the season's twenty episodes, and dynamics remain decent. LFE output is excellent... when it rears its head. Otherwise low-end elements are sparse and the mix is rather lightweight as a result. The rear speakers offers plenty of directional effects, though they tend to be of the environmental ambience variety. Still, when the action does kick in, the soundfield becomes immersive, pans are slick, and gunfire and body blows hit hard. It amounts to an inconsistent experience but one that, for all intents and purposes, is true to the series' sound design.

Walker: Season Two Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (Discs 1-4, HD, 8 minutes) - Some may find it irritating, some may enjoy the organization, but the set's deleted scenes are spread across all four discs, accessible from the "Episodes" selection menu and attached to each scene or scenes' corresponding episode. Deleted bits are included for "They Started It" on Disc 1, "Douglas Fir" on Disc 2, "Boundaries" and "One Good Thing" on Disc 3, and "A Matter of Miles" and "Something's Missing" on Disc 4.

• Gag Reel (Disc 4, HD, 9 minutes) - At almost ten minutes, it's a whole lotta gag reel.

Walker: Season Two Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Blu-ray release of Walker: Season Two is obviously for fans; those already invested in the Walker clan drama and the trials and tribulations of Texas law when you're a family man with a heart of gold. The series is a bit weak-sauce for my tastes, and heavy on the CW's most melodramatic tropes, but it's a crowd pleaser, and one that's here to stay. You may find something to love. Paramount's 4-disc Blu-ray edition is a decidedly tempting one -- particularly at such a low price point ($9.99 at the time this review is posting) -- thanks to a strong video presentation and solid DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. More extras would've been appreciated but what we get is fairly par for the course.