The Flying Nun, like so many sitcoms past and present, followed a forumla. It didn't deviate from this formula much at all, and while the situations would change, the end result was pretty much always that the titular character would somehow save the day using her odd ability. With that in mind, allow me to gratuitously borrow from my own review of the first season, because with this second season, we're really just getting more of the same.

In this truly odd little comedy that ran for three seasons from 1967 through 1970, Oscar winner Sally Field (who will always be Frog from Smokey And The Bandit…. no matter what!) plays a nun named Sister Bertrille who discovers one day that due to the fact she weights in at only eighty-seven pounds, when the wind hits her at just the right angle she can fly. Huh? Yep. That's right. This show is exactly what it sounds like – the wacky adventures of an actual flying nun.

Holed up in a convent somewhere in Puerto Rico, this Bride of Christ spends her days helping the people who live in the surrounding town and hanging out with her fellow nuns, Sister Jacqueline (Marge Redmond), Sister Sixto (Shelley Morrison), and Sister Ana (Linda Dangcil) while trying not to get into trouble with the Mother Superior, Lydia Plaseato (Madeline Sherwood). In addition to this, Sister Bertrille spends a lot of time hanging out with the wealthy and dashing Carlos Ramirez (Alejandro Rey) who was raised by the nuns when his parents died and left him an orphan but who know runs a nightclub.

You can see how repetition might set in during the second season. While the show is certainly not short on charm, the original premise that seemed so cheerful in the first season is starting to become a little tired at this point. What makes the show worth a look despite that fact is Sally Field herself, who is just as cute (and, as twisted as it sounds, kind of hot!) as humanly possible in the lead role. She's got that smile that just looks completely sincere and she really does light up the screen at times. Even in the musical numbers (where she did her own singing) which pepper the set, she's quite good, much better than the content itself at times.

That being said, there are a few notable episodes in the set that are just wacky enough to stand out from the more generic ones. The first episode, The Song Of Bertrille, gives us some insight into Bertrille's past when some old friends of hers who are now in a band show up and put on a very sixties performance! The second episode, The Crooked Convent, adds some interesting moral dillemas to the usual goofiness when the sisters compromise their beliefs and get involved with a crooked police officer, despite the fact that their hearts really were in the right place all along. In Two Bad Eggs a tourist sees Bertrille flying around the convent and doing her thing and makes the assumptiong that, seeing as a flying nun would be too ridiculous to believe, she must be an alien. In A Star Is Reborn, Bertrille's faith plays more of an important role than usual as she helps an old movie star who in turn comes to God. The highlight of the season, without a doubt, is The Kleptomonkeyac in which a monkey who finds his way into the convent causes trouble by stealing things from the sisters, none of whom are sure who is behind the thefts. Combining the novely of a monkey with the novelty of a flying nun is nothing short of brilliant.

The reality of it all, however, is that despite some really good episodes, most of the material here is pretty average. There's definitely a camp value factor that can't be discounted and as a sixties time capsule the show is in a sense quite invaluable, but in terms of entertainment value, it's hard to sit through more than one or two episodes back to back. The show is very much a product of its time, from the fashions to the music to the supporting characters to the dialogue, it all definitely feels like a late sixties creation so some might take away a fair bit of nostalgia from the series. Some of the interplay between Carlos and Bertrille is also quite smart, with some clever dialogue and underlying tensions that play a little better than a few of the other scenes.

The complete second season of The Flying Nun is made up of the following twenty-six episodes in the following order, spread out across four DVDs packaged in slimpaks and housed in a cardboard case:

Song of Bertrille
The Crooked Convent
The Rabbi and the Nun
The Return of Father Lundigan
The Convent Is Condemned
The Organ Transplant
Two Bad Eggs
All Alone by the Convent Phone
It's an Ill Windfall
Slightly Hot Parking Meters
To Fly or Not to Fly
How to Be a Spanish Grandmother
The Landlord Cometh
Sister Socko in San Tanco
A Star Is Reborn
The Great Casino Robbery (Part One)
The Great Casino Robbery (Part Two)
The Boyfriend
The Kleptomonkeyac
The Moo Is Blue
The Breakaway Monk
Happy Birthday Dear Gaspar
Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters
The Convent Gets the Business
Cousins by the Dozen
The Lottery

Video:

Each episode is shown in this set the same way that it was shown on broadcast television way back when – in glorious 1.33.1 fullframe. Overall quality of the image is pretty strong, but some of the colors look to have faded a bit and there is some mild print damage evident throughout here and there. Flesh tones look pretty clean and natural though, and the black levels remain pretty stable and solid throughout. Edge enhancement, while present, is hardly overpowering and there weren't any issues with mpeg compression that I could see.