For those not already familiar with the series, Reboot takes place inside the computer world, more specifically, in Mainframe. Mainframe has a few different types of inhabitants. Most of the population is made up of binomes and numbers, but there are a few humanoid looking characters called sprites, and then there are a pair of viruses named Megabyte and Hexadecimal. The general thrust of the show has Megabyte or Hexadecimal trying to gain some kind of control over Mainframe, or even possibly access outside of Mainframe to The Net or The Super Computer. Standing between them and their goal are sprites like Dot Matrix and her little brother, Enzo. Also on their side is a Guardian from The Net named Bob. Bob, along with his mechanical tool named Glitch, not only has to work at stopping the evil duo from finishing their plans, but whenever the User decides to play a game, he has to rush in and attempt to stop the User from winning, else the area of Mainframe that is covered by the imported Game Cube (funnily enough, it's even purple, do you think Nintendo executives used to watch this show?) gets nullified and all of the inhabitants who found themselves in the cube when it landed are turned into slug-like nulls.
These first two seasons takes the CG series from its early episodes where it does a fair job of establishing both the characters and the odd world that is Mainframe, and brings it to a rather dramatic battle between Mainframe and the invading Net.
Season One of the show does a lot to establish each character's role in the show, as well as introduce quite a few games that feel very similar to popular ones out at the time. Before that season is over though, Magabyte almost gets a major foothold in the rest of Mainframe when Dot attempts to free one of his imprisoned sectors and loses the inhabitant's personal identification codes. When Megabyte gets a hold of them, he works on decrypting their files so that he can have ultimate control over his subjects. This two-part episode causes Dot to lose faith in her abilities and Bob has to try and rebuild her confidence in order to stop Megabyte's plan.
In the second season, things really heat up. While the season starts off with what appears to be just another one-off episode, it quickly turns into what is essentially a five-part series of events that starts with a game sprite, AndrAIa, leaving her game to be with Enzo in Mainframe, to Hexadecimal inadvertently releasing a creature that not only tries to consume her, but eventually takes over Megabyte, who then merges with Hex to create a new virus called Gigabyte. Even when that trouble is averted, the cause of the problems gets away. What results is one of my favorite episodes from the show called "Trust No One."
In this episode, two CGI agents, Fax Modem and Data Nully, are called in to help investigate a series of disappearances (which are caused by the escaped creature). The characters, and pretty much the entire episode, is a spoof of The X-Files. The season's finale leaves Mainframe in a bad place and sets up a most unusual third season. Unfortunately, this particular box set ends there. Unlike the first two seasons though, you can find most, if not all, of Season Three and Four's episodes on previously released DVDs. I know there is a Complete Series version hitting the shelves in the next few months, but if you are one of the fans that bought up the previous DVD releases for the final two seasons, then this boxed set is a good way to complete that collection ahead of time.
Special features on Reboot: Seasons 1 & 2 are pretty sparse. The only extra the set has going for it is an interesting commentary spanning the first few episodes featuring Producer Christopher Brough, Designer/Storyboard Artist Blair Peters and Animator Zeke Norton. They tell a lot of interesting stories, including the very lengthy process it took to even get on the air.
To be honest, Reboot: Seasons 1 & 2 is all about nostalgia. I don't know that many younger viewers, or even those who didn't watch the show when it was first on, will be too interested in this release. The CG is pretty bad by today's standards, the jokes are fairly dated (both jokes about technology and pop culture), but for those that remember it in its heyday, Reboot: Seasons 1 & 2 is what you've been looking for ... unless you can hold off and wait for the complete series, of course.
