I thorughly enjoyed the first wave of Director's Series releases and picked up the second box set on a fairly expensive whim (measuring around, oh, sixty-five bucks on the Retail Whim Scale). So far, I've made my way through most of the Mark Romanek disc and about half of the Jonathan Glazer disc. I don't have cable and, in almost all cases, have never seen the videos in the set, so most of this was brand new to me. So far, I have yet to find either of these guys as impressive as Chris Cunningham or Michael Gondry. Slick, visually impressive, but so far not nearly as weird or whimsical as I might hope.
Take Romanek for example. The man is technically competant as all hell and his videos look fantastic: cinematography, lighting, set design, you name it. Howver, most of 'em aren't really setting my world on fire, particularly the lame-ass NuMetal videos. That said, there are some fantastic exceptions: "99 Problems" (probably my favorite video on the disc), "Closer" ("Perfect Drug" is amusing, but the Edward Gorey imagery doesn't really translate; meanwhile, "Closer" is suitably menacing), "Devil's Haircut", "Hurt", and "Can't Stop". I've still got 1/3 or so of the disc to go, so I'm sure a couple more favorites will appear. I'm also looking forward to checking out the commentary tracks.
The Glazer disc is the most like Cunningham's from the first set - things are a bit creepier and there are all of eight videos total. That said, I kept wishing Cunningham was directing these instead; I liked the UNKLE video for "Rabbit In Your Headlights", but I kept wanting it to go from mildly disconcerting to really disturbing. I really liked the "Karmacoma" video, however, and even though I'm apparently the last person on earth to have seen the Jamiroquai "Virtual Insanity" video, I was suitably impressed with the visual effect he pulled off.
That said, I'm still enjoying the set quite a bit; even the videos I enjoyed least are interesting in one way or another, and the level of craftsmanship has been nothing less than top-notch. Also, I'm looking forward to checking out the extras, such as the extensive commentary tracks on the Romanek disc. Also, I picked up the set based mostly on the artists appearing on the Corbijn and Sednaoui sets, so I'm positive that the best is yet to come.
FnordChan